okay. He said the podium was for me,
he couldn't see over it. Um, you know
, something so cool about Mario Andretti being up here
for me um, when I was a kid,
67 years old, I got a picture signed from
Mario Andretti said to Joey, always chase your dreams
and had that in my, my room for so
long and he's already gone. But how about this
for a dream? Living out the dream now,
which is just absolutely incredible. Um, but tonight
, you know, I want to celebrate our industry
just as much as what we've done um, this
year, the next gen car. It was such
a challenge for, for everybody, right, huge
opportunity, but a lot of change, a lot
of growing pains that went along with it. Um
, and it took, you know, a new
way of thinking, right? Not just the next
gen car, but the next gen way of thinking
the practices, the, the way we officiate at
the racetrack. Um, the way Nascar was able
to rise to the occasion with us to be able
to put on some good races. The fans,
right? The fans were able to be patient with
us knowing that there's gonna be some challenges along with
it. But I think overall we all can sit
here tonight and say 2022 was a huge success.
Um, and a lot of that, like I
said, was to Nascar, but also I gotta
thank the driver advisory council, especially Jeff Burton was
a huge, huge piece, I think to the
success of this season. Um, I want to
thank our network partners, you know, Fox NBC
Sirius XM for helping us connect with the fans,
right? We we got this great racing, we
got great content, we're able to put that out
, there is huge. Um, and something I
realized in 2018 we won the championship was how big
our team really was. Um you know, when
I was able to to go around and go to
shells, headquarter go to ford's headquarters, you start
to realize how many people this impact. Uh,
there's a lot more christmas gifts under the tree is
when I realized. And uh, so we have
plenty of people to thank here tonight. It starts
with the leadership. Roger roger Penske, Kathy Penske
, you guys took a risk on me uh,
10 years ago now and here we are, two
championships later um, as a driver that, that
you know, didn't have many options out there and
you guys, uh, you know, took that
risk committed to me along with Shell and Pennzoil for
this long. It really means a lot. Um
, congratulations on winning not only the Cup series championship
, but the indycar championship in the same year,
it's never happened before guys, that's a huge deal
for Team Penske. So, congratulations on that.
Roger likes always talk about how important human capital is
. That's how he likes to talk about. I
like to say it's hard to fly like an eagle
when you're working with a bunch of Turkeys and obviously
there's a bunch of eagles inside Team Penske. Uh
, and, and I'll start kind of naming some
of the mafia for you walt Czarnecki. Uh,
your trust, your friendship are phone calls that we
have weekly means so much. It's your birthday,
happy birthday walt. Uh, and obviously some other
great leaders within our company, but banker, tim
, Cindric mike, nelson Travis, Geisler, Jonathan
Gibson. Your leadership within our company, uh,
is second to none. Uh, and it's always
the Penske way, right? That's what we always
like to say and doing things at an elite level
. Uh, the 300 plus employees at the shop
building these race cars. Obviously a big challenge with
the next gen car and learning a lot of things
. So thank you to that, the 60,000 Penske
Corp employees around the world. Uh, there's a
lot of support coming down the line here for Penske
. We've got at least 100 members of the team
here tonight. They're out here somewhere, having a
big time. Here we go, I hear you
, I hear you, uh, My teammates,
uh, Ryan Austin and Harrison. Uh, you
guys, uh, you know, the teamwork,
they were able to bring together, we keep talking
about this next year car, but, uh,
how were lost dogs out there, sometimes, not
knowing what direction to go next and how we're all
able to work together to build ultimately championship season for
all of us. So thank you for your partnership
there. Um, 22 team. 22 and 22
we did it boys. We did it. That's
uh so special um, to be able to do
this for the first year with this car we stuck
together. There wasn't, you know, all highlights
, right? We look at the highlights up here
tonight. Uh, but the lowlights is really what
, what makes a team uh and there was moments
of that obviously throughout this year and um, but
what I thought was great about this team is that
rose to the occasion when the playoffs came around when
the pressure was on, they were there. They
truly loved the pressure. I put the pressure on
them by saying we're the favorites because I know they're
better that way. So, um, I gotta
thank them. Uh I think my, my spotter
and best friend, Coleman Presley, uh you know
, you've always been a great sounding board for me
, not only on the racetrack but in life and
he tells me the truth, even when it hurts
. It's it's very good. So thank you for
that. Um, thank you paul Wolf. I
I said he's the mvp of the team. He
uh he leads the race team is such a great
way um, in a way that he takes all
the information and he's he's not above anybody. He's
always taken in the info from anybody on the team
to make the best decision. You pushed me harder
than than I've ever been pushed before. I knew
how bad you wanted it when the playoffs started just
by seeing your attitude and I love that and I
can't wait to do this again with you. So
congratulations to paul and and the whole team. Um
and obviously, you know, there's a team at
home and I think everyone here tonight with your spouses
and uh realize that it's not easy um to go
racing every single weekend uh, and leave your your
your spouse or your kids. Uh It's hard,
it's hard for everyone at home. Uh, raising
kids sometimes on your own. A few days a
week isn't easy. So I have a M.
V. P. At home as well. And
I think some of you know her as my hot
ass wife, look how beautiful she is. I
don't know how I did. I must have a
great personality because I don't know how I look at
me, I don't know how I did that.
Um, but she, you've been such a rock
at home raising our kids. Um It's challenging,
right? It's so hard every single day and you
still such great morals uh in myself, but also
our kids. Um, but it's just a great
wife that I can lean on any time. So
thank you. I love you. Thank you.
Um to my, to my mom and dad uh
we were watching some home videos over thanksgiving and I
saw my mom caring for us. I saw my
dad trying to run a business at the same time
. Let me live my life and live my dream
out as being a race car, driver, driver
and, and the juggle of all that. The
jungle is real guys. It's not easy to do
. Um, and to be able to, to
let me live, my dream means means so much
to my in laws. Ray Michelle there babysitting the
kids right now. So there's uh, they got
their hands full. So thank you for that.
I wanna thank my team at JlR. You know
, we're pretty small, tight knit group. Um
, but to be able to keep the details together
, make sure we win off the race track,
just as big as we win on the racetrack means
a lot negotiates bringing the ponies, bringing the horsepower
. Uh, thank you and I know sometimes it
may not be the easiest one to work with,
but that constant improvement, incredible durability that you brought
to the table, definitely showing up the most in
the playoffs. So thank you for that. Um
, obviously got some great partners in the room here
tonight. Uh, ford. I'll start with with
ford for sure. Uh, we've won championships in
a fusion. We've won it now in a mustang
. Um, so thank you so much. I
can't wait to see the new mustang in person.
I know that's gonna be awesome. So thank you
to all employees around the world. Um, speaking
of global brand Shell and Pennzoil. Uh, 10
years, we've been together on this race car.
Everyone knows when they see that yellow car. It
means Shell and pencils on the car um, means
that I'm driving it and it's a Penske car and
I think that brain identity is something that means so
much. You've been a technical partner on top of
that. The fluids in our race car are made
especially for our car by Pennzoil. So that means
so much. Thank you for that. Uh,
coca cola has been with me from the beginning,
15 years. I've been part of the coca cola
racing family. Um, you know, obviously that
, uh, what they stand for and what they
do, uh, for, for our sport means
a lot Autotrader triple A. Um, you guys
have been on the race car for quite some time
as well. Thank you for your support uh,
and onto the wife, right, why do we
do what we do? We have this amazing platform
that God has given us to come up here and
talk to you guys. And uh, Joey Logano
Foundation is really the, why? Right, my
wife always said, do you want trophies or people
around you? And I say both and there's a
way to fill up that cup with people and one
of the favorite things that we do is a jail
kids crew. Uh, partnership and we were able
to bring kids to the racetrack. They have had
life changing experiences and a lot of the drivers here
have seen that throughout the year and you guys take
your time to, to sign their autographs and say
hello and everybody in this room has some really big
hearts and I appreciate what you guys do for,
for that, so, so important. And you
know, I'll leave you guys with this and,
and to all the young racers out there coming from
a guy that's made plenty of mistakes. Uh,
and a lot of them are still out there.
They're on youtube. If you want to see him
, my son is starting to learn how to youtube
. So I'm really careful about that, but I
have no regrets when it comes to the mistakes that
I've made because it's made me who I am.
Uh, and the person I am today. So
I challenge everybody to take risks. Make the big
moves, you know, stand up for what's right
because it's really not about winning and losing. It's
about winning and growing. Um, so I challenge
everyone to, to take those risks, Make those
mistakes and I hope everyone has a merry christmas,
I'll see you at the clash. Thank you