October 5th, 2009 
T.C. I’ve taken a little grief from the readers regarding my post from last week about Joey Logano needing a short memory after wrecking big at Dover. Some of you thought I was reading too much into his post wreck comments (to be honest, Journo thought I was too), and that you thought he would be fine. And now that Logano has raced, and won, I’ve had a few more folks call me out over the post.
I think it’s funny that I’m catching some flack over the post, because I never said Logano wasn’t going to get it done. I never even said I thought he was afraid, or that it was going to affect him. All I said was that it worried me that he admitted some fear, because fear will paralyze a driver. And I also said that he he was going to need a short memory and be able to move past it.
And guess what?
He did just that.
On Saturday in Kansas, Logano made a dramatic closing laps pass to get by his teammate Kyle Busch and score the Nationwide Series win. He didn’t fare as well on Sunday, finishing 28th in the Cup race, but he didn’t seem to show any ill effects from the tumble he took the week before. I even heard that he told reporters that the Dover crash made him more confident in the cars he is climbing into every week.
Moving forward, I think it’s big for Logano’s confidence that he was able to climb back into his car and prevail. He showed that he still has that fearless mindset that teams look for in young drivers, and the ability to bounce back from a little adversity. Chalk this one up as another learning experience for Logano in his rookie season.
Kudos to you Joey Logano.
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I’m not surprised that Joey Logano didn’t show any ill effects from his Dover accident. He already displays a maturity that many veteran drivers lack.
I think Logano’s the real deal, and he’s going to have a long and successful career in Cup. Sure, he’s got skills behind the wheel, but so do a lot of guys. His intelligence and, most importantly, his temperament, are what set him apart. He stays focused, he analyzes what he’s experiencing, and he communicates effectively with his team. Joey makes mistakes, and he’ll make a lot more of them, but he seems to learn quickly from them. He doesn’t get upset (at least outwardly) when things don’t go his way, and avoids the type of desperate moves that can turn a mediocre day into a disastrous one.
TC-Both of your posts were pretty much spot on. JL did speak his mind right after the Dover wreck, as you reported, and he did need to get back on that horse asap. Successfully I might add, albeit in the NW car.
Not to make light of JL crash, but IMHO the thing that sets JL’s wreck apart from some others (Rusty violent flipping @ Daytona or Nadeau’s, Adam Petty, Irwin sudden blunt stoppage or Earnhardt Jr, fiery Corvette crash), is the relatively slower speed and tumbling nature of JL’s wreck. To tumble is not such a bad thing, as long as the cage holds and the chassis comes to rest allowing escape from potential fire. Plus, JL did not get hurt (thankfully), as climbing back in with cracked stuff changes the mindset a wee bit.
You need people who think the stock market is going down so that it can go up. You need people who question whether a pro athlete can get it done so that he can get it done.
T.C., you’re part of the process. You were the one standing in the middle of the road pointing out both directions. You didn’t tell anyone which way to go, but you knew what was down both paths. People assume because you knew the darker path, you were predicting it. Not so.