Giggling, battle-tested Logano basks in Daytona 500 glory

He still laughs and jokes and rolls his eyes like a teenager, but Joey Logano nowadays races like a battle-hardened veteran.

And at the ripe old age of 24, Logano really is something of both, which was apparent both on the track when he won Sunday's Daytona 500 and afterward in his post-race interviews. It was far and away the biggest victory of Logano's career and the kind of performance that reinforced the fact that he has truly come of age as a driver.

Logano drove the race of his career -- the kind of race that might someday define his career -- at Daytona International Speedway in winning on a restrictor-plate track for the first time in 26 races.

Under chamber of commerce Central Florida skies, Logano held off the furious charges from reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin, two drivers he has feuded with in the past. And, oh yeah, he also fended off Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who collectively have 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships and seven Daytona 500 victories.

And what did he do afterward?

He giggled.

That's right, giggled.

When Logano walked into the Daytona infield media center, he giggled and asked, "Has anyone heard who won the Daytona 500? ... Yeah!!!"

Logano took the race lead from Johnson with nine laps to go and appeared headed to an easy victory until a caution flew with three laps left, setting up a green-white-checkered flag finish.

Asked what he thought when he saw the yellow, Logano's eyes got wide.

"Oh, crap!" said Logano. "That's what I said."

But then he did something that perhaps in years past he might not have.

"Once you get over the fact that you're about to throw up, you start figuring out how to win the race," said Logano, who promptly set out to hook up with his favorite drafting partner to get a push that would keep him ahead of the cars ganging up on him from behind.

"I knew Clint Bowyer behind me was the best pusher I had all day," said Logano. "He was very aggressive, pushed me hard. My car was able to handle it at any point throughout the corners and straightaways. A few times we got crossed up, but it worked. I knew I wanted Clint behind me. We were able to execute the plan basically after that. Stared in the mirror, tried to bring her home."

And that was that. Logano held the lead and was comfortably ahead on the final lap when a caution flew for a crash behind him. That yellow sealed the victory for him.

While Logano may still occasionally talk like a teenager, he's earned the respect of some of the same drivers who used to belittle him when he started driving full time in the Sprint Cup Series at age 18.

Hamlin, one of Logano's former teammates and in recent years his fiercest rival, had nothing but praise for Logano after the race.

"I think he matured and did his homework," Hamlin said of Logano. "He's really become one of the elite drivers in our sport. Every single weekend you know you're going to have to beat the 22. That's something we didn't say about Joey just three years ago."

Team owner Roger Penske, who has worked with some of the best drivers in the world, was also impressed with Logano's performance under pressure.

"When you have Earnhardt, Johnson, Gordon, all the guys behind him, was able to play fair, but yet knew what he had to do, it was amazing," said Penske. "... Believe me, with three Hendrick cars behind you, your odds aren't very good. We were able to steal one from them today."

And then, the kid again.

Asked what winning the historical impact of winning the Daytona 500 was, Logano smiled that big, wide-eyed grin of his.

"A lot of cool things," he said. "There's a really cool trophy out there that they put everyone's names on it. A lot of history there. It's neat to have your name associated with that. I was in the FOX Hollywood (Hotel) over there before they went on air. They had a picture of our car doing a burnout. It said, 'Joey Logano, Daytona 500 champion.' That was neat. I took a picture of it. There's a lot of cool things that come along with it; I'm not even sure what they are yet."