Mark Martin called Joey Logano “the next best thing to sliced bread.” The 28 year old Logano is the youngest champion to win the Monster Energy Cup title. No one had their eyes on Logano to win the Cup title this year. Everyone was focused on last year’s champion Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, and the M & M man Kyle Busch, better known as the “Big Three” of NASCAR.
Busch wasn’t a factor on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, as he was never able to get his car out of pit road in a timely matter due to blunders caused by his team, especially on tire changes. Harvick was leading during the daylight hours, but fell back when nighttime fell over Florida. Truex Jr. looked like he was headed to back to back titles, but not so fast my friends!
Logano, driving a Ford, stated earlier in the week that he himself was the favorite. He was in fourth place with 15 laps left after a restart, reeled in the defending champion, and passed him with twelve laps to go and put his name on the trophy to claiming his first NASCAR title. This was the first title for Ford since 2004.
Now comes the hard part for Mr. Logano as the defending champion for the 2019 racing season, because there has not been a repeat champion since Jimmie Johnson won his fifth consecutive title in 2010.
