NASCAR Star's secrets to winning off the track

Taking his racing skillset to the local Ford dealer. NASCAR star Joey Logano recently made headlines for purchasing an ownership stake in Huntersville Ford in North Carolina. It’s Logano’s home dealership, and he has wasted no time getting the ins and outs of running a successful dealership. Logano is a multi-time Cup Series champion and one of the sport’s most consistent playoff performers, known for his aggressive driving style, precise race strategy, and ability to deliver in high-pressure championship moments. Logano joined the Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast with Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi to discuss life off the track, what else he would like to accomplish in the sport, and how driving at 200mph can also be helpful to leading with success

All right. Welcome to a new episode of Opening Bid Unfiltered. I'm Yao F's executive editor, Brian Sazi, and, uh, I'm just jacked up for this episode. Normally, you always hear me talking about stocks and leadership and all this other stuff. I, I just wanna talk sports. We have Joey Logano here. Uh, I'm a big fan of number 22. He is here on the podcast with me. Joey, good to see you, man. Thanks for doing this. Uh, that backdrop of yours is, um, one, awesome, 2, well earned.

Trophies are always good. You always wanna keep trophies in the background anywhere you're at. Uh, just in my office here, but, uh, yeah, it looks good.

It's good to see. See, I can't put any trophies behind me because I mean, I earn any trophies outside of being like star employee of the month, uh, and it wasn't like a big trophy like yours. So, um, that's all I got foryou.We can, what, what is a

win,

um.There's a lot I wanna talk to you about, but one, you know, we're coming here, um, this came about because I saw news of you investing in a, in a car dealership. Um, what made you do that? You're still a young guy, you're out there driving, you're, you're having a good season. Um, why a car dealership?

Well, I think, uh, multiple reasons. Um, you know, strategically it makes a lot of sense, um, you know, for me and where I am in my life at this point, right? I've been racing, uh, you know, in the Cup Series for 17+ years. I've been racing a Ford for 14 of them, 15 of them, something like that. Uh, so I have a, a great relationship with them. Um.And the local Ford dealership here in North Carolina to us is Huntersville Ford. Uh, so I've had, I've built a relationship with, with the, with their team, with the Kraus Automotive Group. Uh, I've learned a lot from Roger Pensky as I drive for Team Pensky. I learned a lot. So I've been, I've been learning over the years and taking in as much as I possibly could, and the opportunity sits there right now as someone that can impact, uh, that business, um, in unique ways, right? Like I can.I'm not there running the, the day to day business, right? I can't, right? I'm still driving a race car, but I can help connect the dots on a lot of different things. And also with the Ford racing program versus, you know, Ford, uh, selling cars on, on Monday, right? And, and we always say when on Sunday, sell on Monday, right? I.It's kind of bringing that to a whole new level, and it's helped open my eyes a lot on, you know, the business of the Ford Motor Company and how things work, especially on the dealership side, uh, how things work. And it's, um, it's been eye-opening, it's been great, uh, and the timing of things is, it just felt right, and, and the fit and the people, all that just feels right right

now. Does, does that saying still hold true if you go out there and you win, I, are, are cars flying out the door on Monday, is that still, does that still hold?

I don't think it hurts. I mean, don't. It doesn't hurt. I think if you look at what the Ford Motor Company is built off of, it's built off of racing, right? And it's built off of winning even more than racing, uh, and all the way back to, you know, Henry Ford and, and sweepstakes, uh, 120 whatever years ago it was now, uh, when, when he was able to, to win that race and that gave him the funding to start the Model T and everything kind of growing from there to what we see today, we,We've, Ford has never lost touch of their heritage and their roots, and how important it is to race vehicles because of what you learn on the racetrack that can be translated into their vehicles and vice versa, right? And then, and it goes right to, you know, here in, in Charlotte, there's the Ford R&D Center andYou know, the, the stimulation and all those things, the same people that are working on the race cars are working on the, the street vehicle prototypes and those type of things. So it's all happening within one. And that's pretty impressive when you see that, be able to cross, you know, cross-pollinate if you will, from both sides of those, you know, legs of the business.

What is it like? I mean, don't you own a Model T?

I do. I do.

What isit like going from a NASCAR to a Model T? I mean, you mentioned Model T. I'm like, all right, I'll go there. Let's do it.

I mean, honestly, what I love about the Model T, obviously it's what, you know, probably the biggest pillar of what started the Ford Motor Company, but I love seeing how far.The vehicles come, right? Like at one point in time that was a pretty advanced vehicle, right? I'm sure better than a horse and buggy, and that's I think that was up yesterday, so you can imagine that was amazing.If you put anybody in one of those cars today, they look at you, give 3 hats and say, you want me to drive that. And they would say you, you can't, um, because the vehicle has gotten so much better, the expectation is so much better. I don't know if back then, I, I, I wish I knew that, but I'm sure they didn't know how much better that car can be. They probably thought this is pretty good. How much better can we really, and it's a good reminder today of, yes, our cars are very advanced now.But how much further can it go when you fast forward 100 years. My, mine is 103 years old now. If you fast forward 103 years from now, how much better can the vehicle still get? It still has room, right? You're never to the end, and I guess it's a good reminder to me when I drive that around that,

and, and you're reminding me right now why.I hate robotaxis, and the thought of robotaxis, Joey, like I need to drive, I wanna drive something, dude, but that look, that's where we might be like 25 years from now, we're just getting shuttled around and things with no steering wheels. I mean, it sucks.

Yeah, and, and there's probably a placement for that somewhere, right? And then there's, there's still going to be the car enthusiast, right? Like, you and I, right, that love the thrill of driving a vehicle, um, whether it's just on the open road with the top down, or it's, you know, at a racetrack, pushing it to its very edge, um, there's still always going to be that, that desire inside the human. I, I, I believe, right? And, and you're talking to someone that absolutely loves cars, right? ButI don't think that the styling and the performance and all those type of things that we all love about cars is just gonna go away. Um, there may be some different things to sprinkle in there, sure, but I think we're still gonna like,Screws very fresh, badass cars. That's something that's important tous.

I'm still trying to figure out the car, one of the cars I recently got. I mean, the computer, the computers, I mean, I have to tell you this. I mean, I can only imagine what it is like preparing for a race day, but I'm still trying to figure out how to use the computer in the car that I have now. Um, it's a lot more than just plugging in my phone and hoping CarPlay works.

Well, yeah, and that has changed a lot. I mean, you think about, you know.Back in the 60s, 70s, uh, even into the 80s, right? You're still tuning on a carburetor, right? You wanna put a supercharger on it, no big deal, right? You would tune it and, and you knew what to do. Now you gotta plug it in, right? You gotta, to see what's wrong. You go through a whole diagnostic page and a $1000 bill later. Yeah, yeah, it's like a whole thing, right? Um.So the, the game has changed. There's no doubt. The vehicle has gotten much better, right? But the game on how you work on it, you know, even like the, the need that I've realized with the dealership already is, is trying to find tech is really important, right? People like that can work on these cars at a, at a high level is ultra important to have and hard to find. You know,

I'm glad you mentioned that because last time I talked to uh Ford CEO Jim Farley, we were in.Detroit, he was having like his job fair event, and he was saying, Brian, look, he's like, I have this demand to get cars fixed, but I can't get the workers like into these garages to fix these cars. How do you, how do you get the next generation of technicians in here to fix increasingly complicated things?

Well, I think II think the world will, will adapt, uh, as, as needed, right? And I think probably as kids, you know, get to the age as they're graduating high school and they're thinking about their future, what to do, they're gonna think, OK, what is the most lucrative and what is going to the most long-term AI resistant job, right? It's like you gotta stop, right? And, and is going to college the best move, or is it going to a tech school to, to be, you know,Uh, one of those, you know, type jobs that are very much needed and probably gonna pay a lot because it's needed so much. Uh, and it's already gone that way, you know, I, I, I talked to young adults all the time andYou know, they're talking about their futures and what direction to go, and it's pretty clear that it's changing compared to what it used to be when everyone had to go to school, uh, to be, to get a job. I, I see it changing quickly right in front of us.

I am, you know, I'm a little weird in the sense that I like going to the auto dealer. I like see