Kyle Petty once had to drive his race team’s transporter in 1984 after his grandfather fired numerous crew members and two others left, and Joey Logano can now pitch in at Team Penske if he’s ever needed for the same duty.
Logano acquired his commercial driver license, more commonly known as CDL, Friday morning before arriving at Charlotte Motor Speedway and it wasn’t necessarily a slam dunk for the Ford driver.
“It’s not the easiest thing in the world,” said Logano, who had to take his test at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Statesville, N.C., about 40 miles from the 1.5-mile speedway. “I was nervous. I told the guy doing the test with me I said, ‘Listen, I drive in high-pressure situations every single weekend. You’re making me nervous.’ He’s over there and ‘every time I make a turn, you’re writing something down.’ I said, ‘You’re wigging me out.’”
Logano grew up around his father’s trucking company and drove the trucks, just not legally. Earlier this year, he attended a truck driving school and admitted the “90-degree backing up, like a loading dock-type situation” was difficult.
“That’s a real bear to me,” Logano said. “I’ve driven forward a lot. I can grab gears with the best of them. It’s the backing up part that will get me.”
Logano decided during the off-season that he wanted to get his CDL and “I just kept putting it off.”
“It was a bit of a process the last few weeks of going to school and learning and driving around on the road,” Logano said. “I had a lot of fun. It’s not the easiest thing in the world.”
Now, the two-time NASCAR champion has his CDL, and he can legally drive a truck larger than a pickup.
“I want to be the first one (driver) in a long time to drive their truck to the race track,” Logano said. “That would be kind of cool to do.”
Ty Gibbs celebrates his pole for this year’s Coca-Cola 600.
Gibbs: Charlotte Motor Speedway Is ‘Sealer Heaven’
At age 21, Ty Gibbs may recover quicker from running two races in two days than someone a decade older than him, but age has nothing to do with his opinion of Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“This place is sealer heaven,” said Gibbs, who will be on the pole for this year’s Coca-Cola 600. “I’ve never seen so much sealer on a race track. Every five feet there’s some type of sealer mark and line. It’s so rough. I felt like I needed a mouthpiece in my car … it was beating me up and down. I’ve run dirt tracks that are smoother than this place.
“I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s just this place has its own character and its own technique, and you never feel great here. (Turns) three and four are really rough.”
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.
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