Everything You Need To Know About NASCAR Driver Joey Logano Before 'Race For The Championship'

The NASCAR Cup Series is a thrilling time for fans, as they get to watch their favorite drivers compete for one of the ultimate accolades in motorsports. The 2022 season is especially exciting — because now, those fans will get to see what it was like for the NASCAR drivers both on and off the track in the unscripted USA Network series "Race For The Championship."

"Race For The Championship," which premieres on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, documents the drivers' lives and shows how they balance their personal interests with their desire to succeed on the track. Rivalries and friendships alike are explored, as well as what it's really like to compete in stock car racing.

One of the drivers featured on the show is Joey Logano. Here's what to know about him.

Logano, 32, drives the #22 Ford Mustang for Penske Racing. Currently in his 14th season, Logano has been making a splash in the sport since he received the Sunoco Rookie Of The Year Award in 2009. He has over 50 NASCAR wins, including the 2015 Daytona 500, and he won the Cup Championship itself in 2018, according to Robert Irvine Magazine. He's actually only one of four drivers to win more than 25 races before the age of 30 (those other drivers are legends Richard Petty and Jeff Gordon, as well as Logano's current competitor Kyle Busch), and he's one of just six drivers to win a Daytona 500, NASCAR Cup Series Championship, and Rookie of the Year, per his website.

"I’m very lucky to find a passion at a young age. I love cars. Loved to play with Hot Wheels. Santa Claus brought me a go-kart this one year and that was it. I would drive my go-kart every single day. I wouldn’t skip a beat. I’d get home from school, and I jump in my go-kart. I would bomb around the yard and in the neighbor’s yards and hit their mailboxes. I was a neighborhood terror. My parents recognize that I loved it. I tried other sports and I didn’t enjoy it as much. I found something that I really liked. I really liked pushing cars to an edge and pushing myself and getting the adrenaline that goes along with that," he told Robert Irvine.

He's certainly a polarizing figure in the NASCAR community, though. Logano is known to be friendly and cheerful off the track, but while competing he's infamous for his aggressive tactics, leading to plenty of rivalries with his fellow drivers as well a scary crash last year in Daytona.

"There’s 40 drivers out there and only one wins. That means there’s 39 pissed off race car drivers. If you’re really close to winning and didn’t win, yeah, you’re going to get angry. It is just life, and understanding their perspective is the bigger thing. You’ve got to put yourself in their shoes. I didn’t do a good job with this early in my career, but I feel I am better at this now. This and understanding what you would do in their scenario. I think the biggest thing is trying to understand both sides of the story and talk through it and come to some kind of conclusion because you don’t want to go out there and start wrecking race cars one after another," he told Robert Irvine of handling rivalries.

Logano currently lives in Middletown, Connecticut, with his wife, Brittany Baca. While the two married in 2014, they've been together for much longer than that: The pair are high school sweethearts who met while both working at an ice skating rink. In fact, Logano told "The Washington Times" Baca was his first kiss! The couple now has three children: two sons, Hudson and James, and a daughter, Emilia, born earlier this year. 

Stock car racing isn't his only passion. Logano loves to restore classic cars, is big into four-wheeling, and even has a side business: He operates a facility in North Carolina called Clutch Studios that does production and commercial shoots. Charity work is also a major passion of his: The Joey Logano Foundation is focused on helping children and young adults in need, according to his website. But at the end of the day, racing is where his heart lies, and he's determined to find success this season.

To see how Joey Logano does this season and learn more about his personal life, tune into "Race For The Championship," premiering on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.