DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – They dubbed him "Sliced Bread" because he was, you know, supposed to be the greatest thing since …
They predicted he'd be "one of the greatest that ever raced in NASCAR." He was 15 at the time Mark Martin said that. Teams waged a recruiting war for him, like he was a five-star college football recruit. Everyone counted down to his 18th birthday when he could finally run in the Sprint Cup Series and, by expectation, dominate the Sprint Cup Series. The marketing and promotional teams went with all of it. And then some.
A kid's going to follow along with all of this, of course. The legends say I'm going to be a legend? Who doesn't want to be LeBron?Joey Logano was put on a path to be LeBron, seamlessly moving from high school kid to professional star. The only problem was Joey Logano wasn't LeBron.
He was still young, still a kid, still a bit goofy and worse, it just doesn't always come as easy as everyone predicts. This isn't a team sport in the truest sense. There's never anywhere to hide. There are grown men, fighting for their careers, looking to run you into oblivion, if not bump you into a wall.
Logano won just twice in his first four full years on the Sprint Cup level and suddenly at 22, he was essentially getting fired.
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