Joey Logano celebrates third Cup Series title in Charlotte awards ceremony
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — On a cool Friday evening in uptown Charlotte, the NASCAR industry celebrated its heroes, industry inspirations and champions at the Charlotte Convention Center for the first time in the sport’s modern era.
Race teams, drivers and fans gathered to watch these 2024 victors receive their trophies and to see the sport honor those whose careers impacted NASCAR not only this season but for years and even decades.
Cup Series champion Joey Logano began the afternoon celebrating his third title with the iconic Goodyear Gold Car given to each year’s champion and then later being feted by the sport at the tuxedo-and-gown banquet that will be televised on The CW Network on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.
The 34-year-old’s three titles in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford are now the most among all active drivers, and he is one of only 10 competitors in the history of the sport to have ever earned a trio of championship trophies.
Logano thanked his team and team owner Roger Penske, and the father of three gave a special nod to his wife Brittany, who he praised for taking care of their young family and home — allowing him to maintain championship focus. He thanked his family, who was also in the audience, “remembering when I was a kid and got a go-kart for Christmas and now I’m sitting here a three-time Cup champion, it’s just truly incredible.”
“To me, we did get a lot of opportunities, and life’s really all about what you do with the opportunities, you don’t know when they are going to come your way, but are you ready to take advantage when they do,” continued Logano, who received a full-room standing ovation when introduced by NASCAR President Steve Phelps.
Logano, whose four wins in 2024 gave him 36 total, was noticeably sentimental, reflecting on his career and season’s accomplishments.
“If you take the opportunity that God’s given us to talk to people, to inspire others to live a life of generosity, that’s when these scenarios of just driving in circles aren’t just driving in circles anymore,” Logano said, noting the sport’s huge push to help Hurricane Helene victims in Western North Carolina.
“That, to me, is something I’m most proud of in this industry and being part of that,” added Logano, who has personally helped raise money and deliver supplies to the affected regions.
“I’m proud of winning. I’m proud to be part of this team, but what I’m probably most proud of is the heart of this sport.”
“From my perspective, Joey Logano was a winner when he came to our team in 2013,” Penske said in his remarks on stage, adding, “We’re so proud of all our teams. Racing is a common thread through our businesses. It’s teamwork. It’s pressure. It’s integrity. It’s transparency. And this has built the Penske brand. And we’re thrilled to be here.”
Beyond the Logano-Penske dominance, it was a night of emphasizing highlights across all NASCAR series — those in supporting roles in the pits and beyond.
The Xfinity Series and its first-time champion, popular veteran JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier, along with Craftsman Truck Series first-time champion Ty Majeski and his ThorSport Racing team, were celebrated.
Allgaier’s team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. was visibly excited to honor his longtime driver.
“I’m normally not this kind of person, but I knew we were going to win it. I’m normally the kind of person who thinks about the odds and wonders how we might lose a race or what are the obstacles in front of us,” Earnhardt said. “But for some reason, I just felt like the universe owed Justin, and we were going to collect when we got to Phoenix.”
“Man did he get up on the wheel, all those restarts, those were classic, classic moments and if you just watched that seven-car work all night long you could see how bad Justin wanted it,” Earnhardt continued. “He carried the whole company on his back that night. Just proud of him and so thankful to be able to see Justin celebrate this tonight.”
The sport also celebrated Earnhardt’s good friend, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr, the 2017 Cup Series champion, who retired from full-time competition at the end of the 2024 season and also marked the distinction earned by a former Team Penske champion as well in Brad Keselowski, who claimed his first victory (at Darlington Raceway) as a driver-owner of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.
Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, the 2020 series champion, was named the sport’s Most Popular Driver for the seventh consecutive season.
“First and foremost, thank you to the fans,” said Elliott, 28, who won at Texas Motor Speedway this season. “When I look at this award, regardless if I win it or not … I’ve always viewed it as an opportunity to honor and appreciate the legacy my family has set up for me.”
Former Craftsman Truck Series and Xfinity Series champion Greg Biffle was recognized as the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) Myers Brothers Award winner. Biffle, an avid pilot, flew rescue missions and dropped supplies to the residents in Western North Carolina following the devastating damage from Hurricane Helene in October.
“I thought, if I didn’t go, who’s going to go,” said Biffle, who said he received 12,000 messages for help and flew supplies into the area for 14 consecutive days after the storm hit.
“I didn’t do anything any different than anyone in this room would have,” a humble Biffle added.
In other awards presented on the night, David Wilson, the longtime president of Toyota Racing Development (TRD) was presented the Bill France Award of Excellence for his contributions to the sport. Wilson is retiring after leading the Toyota racing effort in NASCAR for 30 years — a tenure that included Toyota’s first Cup Series championship in 2015 and two more in 2017 and 2019.
Legacy Motor Club driver Erik Jones was named the Comcast Community Champion Award winner for his work in promoting cancer screenings, raising money for breast cancer patients and longtime literacy advocacy, reading books to school children as he travels around the country racing.
The NASCAR Foundation formally announced Judy Simmons, of Axton, Virginia as the 2024 winner of the prestigious Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award. Simmons received a $100,000 donation from The NASCAR Foundation to her God’s Pit Crew non-profit organization, which provides disaster relief help to families.
The evening, hosted by Jamie Little, Adam Alexander and Kim Coon, concluded shortly after 8 p.m. ET with the hosts reminding the crowd and fans that NASCAR racing resumes with the NASCAR Clash exhibition at the venerable Bowman Gray Stadium on Feb. 2 (8 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The Daytona 500 opens the points season Feb. 16 at Daytona International Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Carson Hocevar inherited a ride that finished the 2023 season 33rd in NASCAR Cup Series, so the expectations as he entered his first big-league campaign were measured. A Victory Lane visit would probably be a long shot, but steady improvement and building a foundation with his Spire Motorsports No. 77 Chevrolet team were realistic targets. One other goal stood out.
“For us to be Rookie of the Year, that was the thing like, ‘OK, well, we can win this, right?’ ” Hocevar said before the Cup Series finale at Phoenix Raceway. “Everything else would be a bonus.”
Hocevar secured Sunoco Rookie of the Year recognition in his first Cup Series season, joining fellow first-year drivers Jesse Love in the Xfinity Series and Layne Riggs from the Craftsman Truck Series as 2024 honorees. Hocevar’s total was good enough for a 21st-place finish in the Cup Series driver standings, outdistancing the two other full-time rookies on the circuit — Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry (27th in final points) and Spire teammate Zane Smith (30th).
Hocevar’s final points position was the best for a Spire driver since co-owners Jeff Dickerson and T.J. Puchyr began fielding Cup Series entries in 2019.
“I feel like teams spend a lot of money to gain two or three spots, right?” Hocevar said. “So to be the highest finishing Spire car ever for their tenure — I think their highest ever is 26th — that’s what I’m probably most proud of is 21st is really good, I thought. Twentieth was about where I really wanted to be. To be really close there is really important. But Rookie of the Year is obviously the only thing you can’t win (later), and I missed out on it my truck year and obviously didn’t run Xfinity, so ideally it’s the last time I can really do it unless I somehow end up back in Xfinity. But yeah, happy to at least have a Rookie of the Year something in my NASCAR tenure.”
Hocevar’s first season showed glimmers of potential, improvement that has been backlit by Spire’s rapid and recent growth. Two of his six top-10 finishes came during the Cup Series Playoffs — a career-best third at Watkins Glen, plus a ninth-place effort at Homestead-Miami where the 21-year-old stood out as a non-playoff driver in a stacked postseason field.
The upswing was offset by his under-caution swipe at fellow driver Harrison Burton at Nashville, a move that drew a $50,000 fine from NASCAR officials and criticism from Cup Series veterans, plus some late-season bumper ruffling at Martinsville. Any youthful aggression was balanced by his consistency elsewhere — he tied for 17th among full-time Cup drivers in average finish (18.3) and absorbed just two DNFs.
“To do that was big for us to have the consistency of it,” Hocevar said. “I think a lot of people would have guessed that I would be in really big highs and lows, and I felt like we’ve been kind of the most consistent of our rookie group. So that’s been fun to do, but we’ve had some really good runs last half of the year, too.”
The other two rookie award recipients managed to reach Victory Lane in their respective series, with Love clinching an Xfinity Series Playoffs berth by notching a breakthrough win in April at Talladega Superspeedway. Love finished eighth in the Xfinity standings, just missing out on a Championship 4 slot. The 19-year-old will be back for Year 2 with the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevy group in 2025, with Whelen Engineering returning as a primary backer.
“I don’t think you ever want to be fully satisfied if you’re not the champion,” said Love, the 2023 ARCA Menards Series champion. “But at the same time, for me, it was one of those deals where I didn’t expect the world, because I know how I am as a rookie is not super-splashy. Again, I think way too much to kind of fly by the seat of my pants. So once I figured out how to drive the cars and figure out what my balance needs to be and figure out how to communicate better, obviously it got a lot better. So that’s kind of my biggest thing was it was pretty much right on track with how I wanted the year to go. So next year is where I feel I put the pressure on myself and figure out how good I’m going to be.”
Riggs, 22, rallied from an early points deficit and came up just short of making the 10-driver playoff field in his first Craftsman Truck Series season, but he made up for the miss by winning the first two playoff races — Milwaukee and Bristol. He created an unintentional highlight after his first victory, separating his shoulder as he pumped his fist atop his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford. He took extra care in avoiding injury with his Bristol celebration.
Riggs arrived Friday morning in Charlotte for media interviews with his right arm in a sling, the result of surgery eight days earlier. He said he would begin physical therapy next week and anticipates a full recovery for the start of the season.
“To get our first win there, it kind of made everybody put their eyes on it and realize what was going on,” Riggs said. “I think I made TMZ, I think a couple other places were like, ‘NASCAR driver dislocates shoulder during celebration.’ They didn’t say truck driver, they didn’t say anything, so it got a lot of publicity, got a lot of press. I think my name got heard and seen by more people than it would’ve if it didn’t happen, but definitely wasn’t on purpose. But definitely something memorable, and it’s not going to be a tradition, that’s for sure.”
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