Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano played hockey in his youth

Joey_Logano_frontNASCAR driver Joey Logano won the Daytona 500 yesterday. At 24 years of age, he became the second-youngest driver to win that race. But half a lifetime ago, Logano was at a crossroads. He excelled at racing, but also played hockey. Just as Jeff Skinner selected hockey over figure skating and Tom Glavine opted for baseball instead of hockey, a young Joey Logano also had to make a choice.

Obviously, Logano made the right choice, as he has won several racing championships.

“To me it was a no-brainer, because I was better at racing than I was at hockey so I just went with it,” Logano told USA Hockey in 2008. “I’m very competitive, so whatever I’m better at that’s what I’m going to do.”

In 2009, trading card company Press Pass made a card of a young Logano decked out in goalie gear. Here he is shown as a youngster, playing goalie in the The Cooler Hockey house league in Alpharetta, Georgia.

Joey_Logano_backThe back shows an 18-year old Logano watching his own hockey card float over his shoulder. The text below reads:

Joey Logano – Goalie

By age 12, Joey was already showing tremendous skills as both a racer and as a hockey player. But it was time to make a choice, and it became obvious that hockey’s loss would be racing’s gain.

Perhaps Press Pass mentions that Logano was a goalie because NASCAR fans wouldn’t know otherwise? Anyway, like most cards today, there are numerous parallel versions of this card that use different-colored foil around his name. This one is the blue version, but there are also red, gold, gold serial-numbered to 100 and the standard silver versions.

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Author: Sal Barry

Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk

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