(Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
On Sundays, you’ll find Joey Logano driving a Ford Mustang for Team Penske among the best racecar drivers in the world. But, on Saturdays, you often see Logano in a suit and tie with a microphone in hand.
On FOX networks, drivers join the television booth to provide analysis for Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series races. Beginning in 2016, Logano began calling select Xfinity races alongside Adam Alexander, the series’ play-by-play voice.
Since then, Logano’s role has expanded. Through 10 Xfinity races, Logano has called seven alongside Alexander and other drivers like Ryan Blaney and Daniel Suarez. He also appears on NASCAR RaceHub, airing weeknights on FS1.
“I enjoy it,” Logano said in a media session on Saturday. “I think it’s nice to be able to go up there and watch the race and also kind of give your two cents from someone that just came off the racetrack an hour before. So, you have a pretty good reference of what’s going on.”
Since drivers already have busy schedules away from the track, FOX makes it easy for analysts to prepare for races.
“They actually send you a ton of notes,” he said. “FOX does a great job at all the stats and storylines that are going on. I read through that stuff — and they feed me enough.”
Most weekends in 2022, Xfinity has raced Saturday afternoons after Cup practice and qualifying. The schedule contains more on-track activity than last season but much less compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic.
With a condensed weekend schedule, Logano enjoys broadcasting to fill his time at the track without flying back home.
“There’s not as much going on [during] the weekends now that practice is shorter,” Logano said. It fills up some time and I have some fun doing it. It’s something I would like to do someday when I retire, but I go a long way before that.”
For Saturday’s A-GAME 200 at Dover Motor Speedway, Logano stood alongside Brad Keselowski, his former Penske teammate, to call the race.
“Brad and I get along just fine,” Logano said. “It’s easy when you work with people you know really well. You can play off each other that chemistry is already kind of there.”
Logano will continue to call races for the network up until Cup and Xfinity coverage shifts to NBC and USA Network next month. He said he wants to give back to the sport by calling races — not just winning them.
“I don’t believe you are a Hall of Famer if you just win races and leave,” Logano said. “Everyone has their own ways of defining what that is. But, I think if you found a way to make the sport better than it was, and when you got here for the next generation, that’s deserving. TV is one way to do that.
“To me, that’s what a Hall of Famer is, and a goal of mine is to be in the Hall of Fame.”
