Logano set to become youngest driver in NASCAR with 600 starts

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Joey Logano's first NASCAR Cup Series start — before he would drive for heavyweight owners such as Joe Gibbs and Roger Penske — came in New Hampshire for a short-lived team called Hall of Fame Racing.

Set to make his 600th career start, the youngest driver in NASCAR history to reach that milestone, the 35-year-old Logano has constructed a Hall of Fame career.

Take a look at the resume: three career NASCAR championships, a Daytona 500 victory, the youngest driver to win a Cup race, 37 career victories, and seemingly tethered to the No. 22 Ford for Team Penske for as long as he can race.

"At first glance, I said, 'Well, it's just starts,'" Logano said. "But then when you start thinking about it, to be able to be around in a sport as an athlete competing at a top level for 16-plus years, and hitting 600 starts, it's pretty incredible to have a career that long."

Logano will be 35 years, 1 month, 26 days old when he hits No. 600 on Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway. He'll top seven-time NASCAR champion and Hall of Famer Richard Petty by six months. Consider, only three previous drivers among the 33 others in NASCAR history were in their 30s when they hit 600 starts.

Logano has also topped the massive expectations set for him when he entered the sport as a teenager hyped as NASCAR's next great driver. He entered NASCAR with the nickname "Sliced Bread," as in, the best thing since, and navigated a slow start to his career to blossom into one of the best over the last 13 years at Team Penske.

He's now married with three kids — his Instagram bio notes he's a "3X NASCAR Champion" and "3X father" — and is considered a team leader at Penske and Ford.

"I grew up in front of everybody. All of us change over the years as you grow up," Logano said. "Life comes at you and you evolve and keep going with it. Everybody, when you were 18 years old to 35 years old are some of the biggest changes in your life happen in that period of time. Getting married, having kids — that's the biggest change you can ever have in your life, I think — but I did all of this in front of everybody."

Logano qualified for his first career Cup start on Sept. 14, 2008, at New Hampshire on car owner points, because rain washed out qualifying. He started 40th and was penalized only 39 laps into the race for taking the jack with him as he exited pit road. He finished three laps down in 32nd place in the No. 96 Toyota for Hall of Fame Racing, essentially on loan from Joe Gibbs Racing to get some experience. The two teams even agreed to move JGR's Home Depot sponsorship to Hall of Fame's car for the 18-year-old Logano's first race.

"I didn't think it was a big deal making my first start," Logano said that first day. "I was ready to go as soon as we started."

He wasn't necessarily ready for the big time.

Logano was pegged with enormous expectations to replace Hall of Famer and three-time champion Tony Stewart in 2009 for Gibbs.

Just a teenager, the enormity of the ride combined with Gibbs' impatience made for a brief run at JGR. Logano did win his first race — also at New Hampshire, in 2009 — but won only one more time before Gibbs cut him loose after the 2012 season.

The timing worked out for Logano.

Penske needed a driver and 2012 NASCAR champion Brad Keselowski urged his boss to sign the 23-year-old Logano, convinced a change of scenery could do wonders for his career.

Logano made the most of his Penske lifeline and is now the only active three-time champion in NASCAR and one of only 10 drivers in history to win three or more titles.

He spent the week headed into Dover — where he flipped eight times on the concrete track during a scary 2009 incident in a second-tier race — hobnobbing with the sports world's brightest stars at the ESPYs and he got to yuk it up with guest host Jelly Roll on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

Petty is the only driver to win his 600th career start and he would make 1,184 overall in Cup, one of many NASCAR records he holds. Logano might not catch The King in total starts — but the driver who has never missed a race over his full-time career is in no rush to slow down.

"I would be an idiot to think you can be competing at the top level into your 50s," Logano said. "What athlete has ever done that? Something changes at some point, but, right now, I still feel as fresh as ever. I feel as sharp as ever. I'm driven as much as ever. I still care. I still get emotional about things, so that shows me I care a lot. With those factors still there when the end is, I don't know yet. I don't know."

The Tys have it as final four is set for the In-season Challenge

NASCAR is down to its version of the final four.

The midseason tournament that pays $1 million to the winner pits Ty Dillon vs. John Hunter Nemechek and Tyler Reddick vs. Ty Gibbs in the head-to-head challenge at Dover.

"Did John Hunter change his name yet," Reddick quipped.

Nemechek has a career-best six top-10s and is 20th in the standings in his second full season at Legacy Motor Club. Nemechek — who drives for Jimmie Johnson, who won a record 11 times at Dover — enjoyed trash-talking Dillon this week from, of all places, the carpool lane.

Their young children go to the same school, and the families have become friendly.

"The running joke between us is that they are boyfriend-girlfriend and they're going to get married one day, the way that they walk around the racetrack," Nemechek said.

Hey, maybe $1 million could help pay for the big day.

NASCAR seeded 32 drivers for the first In-season Challenge, a five-race, bracket-style tournament that mirrors the NCAA basketball tournaments.

"I think it's really cool from a millennial perspective, from a younger generation, it's neat to be able to bring something in the sport that hasn't been done before," the 28-year-old Nemechek said. "It kind of gives you something to race for even if you're not racing for the win."

Legacy has yet to win a race, or even contend in many, since Johnson signed on at the end of 2022 and eventually became majority owner. Nemechek said Johnson has balanced many roles, that includes the occasional race, and was committed to making Legacy a championship team.

"We joke around about his legacy 2.0 being a team owner and hopefully we can go in and win 83 races and seven championships for him," Nemechek said.

Odds and ends

Denny Hamlin is the betting favorite to win at Dover, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Hamlin has two career wins at Dover, including last season. He's trying to win the first July race at Dover since the track's first one in 1969.