How Move from Joe Gibbs Racing to Team Penske Has Made Joey Logano a Contender

Joey Logano has to be the most relaxed man at Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend.

That's because his spot in the Eliminator 8 Round of the 2014 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup already has been secured by virtue of his win at Kansas Speedway in the opening race of the Chase Contender Round.

He's the only one of the remaining 12 drivers left in the Chase who is absolutely certain of advancing to the next round, which will begin after this Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte and the following Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway.

So, just how did Logano go from nearly being booted out of a Cup ride toward the end of the 2012 season—when Joe Gibbs Racing team president J.D. Gibbs admitted JGR was considering demoting him to the Nationwide Series to make room for Matt Kenseth—to Cup title contender in less than two years?

The simple answer is that he left JGR for a new ride at Team Penske—but like most things in racing, it's more complicated than that.

But it's still not that difficult to figure out. It's mostly about that elusive factor in sports called chemistry.

Logano possessed the driving talent all along. He just needed to find a team that believed in him and a crew chief with whom he could really click—and he found it all at Team Penske with current crew chief Todd Gordon.

Asked by reporters following Logano's latest win what his thoughts were about Logano's development in particular and the entire No. 22 Team Penske Ford group in general, owner Roger Penske said, "Well, the first word I'd use is amazing."

Then Penske went on to describe how the organization decided on Gordon to be Logano's crew chief because of the success he had displayed in the Nationwide Series, where, as Brad Keselowski's crew chief in 2011, the two won five races together. By no mere coincidence, that's where most of Logano's success had been prior to his switch from JGR to Team Penske.

While driving for JGR from 2008 through the 2012 season, Logano won only two of 147 Cup starts—but racked up 18 wins in 110 Nationwide starts. With his fifth win of this season, tying him with teammate Keselowski for the series high, Logano now has a total of six wins in 66 Cup starts over the last two seasons with Team Penske, including this season's five in his last 24 races.

Fox Sports broadcaster Adam Alexander wrote of Logano on FoxSports.com that "the chemistry between he and Brad, and between he and crew chief Todd Gordon, is better than anything he ever had at Joe Gibbs Racing. And he's driving with more confidence than he ever did at JGR."

Then there is the simple matter of maturity with Logano, who is only 24 despite the fact that this is his sixth season as a full-time driver in Sprint Cup. What person isn't more mature and ready to experience and positively respond to the inevitable ups and downs of life in general—not to mention on a race track during the course of a single race or a season—at the age of 24 versus the age of 18 or in any year in between?

Logano arguably would not be where he is today, possibly on the verge of his first Sprint Cup championship, if he had not first gone through the trials and tribulations that marked much of his four seasons as a full-time Cup driver at a very young age for JGR.

"To me, Joey was a great driver. I have to thank [JGR team president] J.D. Gibbs and [JGR owner] Joe [Gibbs] for giving him the time, kind of getting it ready for us," Penske said in the post-race interview after Logano's Kansas win. "I probably have to send him [Gibbs] a check."

Chuck Burton/Associated Press

Penske also echoed what many others have previously. Keselowski, the 2012 Cup champion, was instrumental in recruiting Logano to the organization, both in selling Logano on it and in selling Penske on Logano. 

"Brad was one of the key people who said, 'Hey, this is a guy we've got to have,' and he talked to Joey," Penske said.

Since the two drivers became teammates last season, Team Penske's first with Ford as its manufacturer, the chemistry and willingness to work together in all phases between Logano and Keselowski has arguably been greater than between any other two drivers in the Sprint Cup garage.

Finally, here also is another factor to be considered, as pointed out by Jared Turner of FoxSports.com, who wrote: "Anyone remember whose seat Joey filled at JGR? Tony Stewart. Those are awfully big shoes to fill, and a lot of pressure for a young guy. Logano came into an entirely different situation at Penske, taking over a No. 22 (car) that didn't exactly set the woods on fire with Kurt Busch, AJ Allmendinger or Sam Hornish Jr."

So, in breaking it down, there is no great mystery as to why Logano is now doing what has been predicted for him by so many since he broke into the sport at such a young age. It was only a matter of time—urged on by a change of scenery and circumstances that have all merged together to make Logano's future possibilities suddenly seem almost limitless again.

Unless otherwise noted, all information was obtained firsthand by the writer.

Joe Menzer has written six books, including two about NASCAR, and now writes about it and other sports for Bleacher Report as well as covering NASCAR as a writer and editor for FOXSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.