NASCAR champ Joey Logano reflects on near 'career-ending' moment

Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano has opened up on a mistake he made that he thought might end his career.

Talking on the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast last month, the Team Penske star discussed an incident from his teenage years when he was getting close to a deal with Roush Racing.

The then-green youngster was taking part in a normally routine pit stop practice session with Roush in a newly-built car, and managed to goof so hard that he knocked the radiator out of the car.

Logano didn't even have his drivers' license at that point, but was convinced that the mistake would wreck his chances of racing as a pro. Three Cup Series titles later, it's fair to say he was wrong about that.

NASCAR HEADLINES: Denny Hamlin suffers Cup Series demotion as multiple stars penalized at Atlanta

Logano: That's the end of my career

“They just got done building this new car, and I would drive the car… I didn’t have my driver’s license, so someone would always drive me down there. So, I get in this brand new car, a brand new pit stop car. Everyone’s really excited about it. And I go to drive into this pit stall, and I push the clutch in, and I didn’t have driving shoes on.”

"So my foot kind of falls off the clutch pedal and gets wedged behind the brake pedal, and then the clutch on the top of the other foot, and it gets stuck in there, and I panicked…

“And I go straight through the pit stall, and there’s like a bunch of tires in front of it. I just go way up over the tires into the fence as the fence goes. Knocked the radiator right out of this car. Crush it.”

“‘That’s the end of my career. I’m done.’… All the guys are looking at this car like, ‘What did you do? Just got done building this thing'.”

READ MORE: NASCAR Results Today: Elliott shines in Atlanta as Keselowski suffers last-lap heartbreak

Related

NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR commissioner hits back at 23XI Racing lawsuit

• Today 15:00

NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR insider has 'no confidence' in Chase Elliott despite Atlanta win

• Today 13:15