Joey Logano Calls NASCAR Cup Championship “Bittersweet” Following Coy Gibbs’ Death

It is often overlooked that two-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano began his NASCAR career with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008. That explains Logano’s emotions after hearing of the Saturday night death of Coy Gibbs, the 49-year-old son of football and NASCAR legend Joe Gibbs.

Logano, a fresh, new motorsports face at the time, ran the full Cup schedule for JGR between 2009-2012 and most of the Xfinity Series schedules between 2008-2012. The first two of his 31 Cup victories came at Loudon, N.H. in 2009 and at Pocono, Pa. in 2012. He won 18 Xfinity races in five seasons, including a series-leading nine in 2012.

He and Coy met in 2008, when Logano joined JGR. Despite being undersized for the Pac-10 and overlooked by most recruiters, Coy had been an outstanding four-year linebacker at Stanford University in 1991-1994. He raced briefly in his father’s lower series and coached alongside him with the Washington (then) Redskins. In 2007, after four mediocre seasons in Washington, Joe and Coy returned to the family’s NASCAR organization.

Logano left JGR to join Team Penske in 2013. His overpowering victory on Sunday afternoon at Phoenix Raceway delivered his second Cup title and the third for owner Roger Penske. Throughout the day, Logano frequently thought of the Gibbs family.

“I found out before the race and I still honestly don’t know the details of anything,” he said during his post-race media obligations. “It’s such an interesting spot as you sit there preparing to run a championship race and you hear somebody that has been in your life, known for a while (has died). I still don’t know the details, but it’s sad. I don't have words to explain how that is.”

Only hours before his death, Coy had watched his 20-year-old son, Ty, win the championship-deciding Xfinity Series 200-miler. It was Ty’s seventh victory this season, the 11th of his 51-start career, and the 193rd all-time for his grandfather’s team. The Xfinity title was his first and the fourth for JGR, after Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez, and Daniel Hemric.

“I feel for Ty more than anything,” said Logano, the father of two young sons and an infant daughter. “When you take all the championship racing stuff out, it doesn’t matter at the end of the day. It’s great that we’re up here and we won a championship, but it doesn’t matter when something happens to your family.

“It’s a sad day for the whole sport. For me, it’s a bittersweet type of thing because here we are winning a championship (but) one of the people who’s a leader in our sport and someone I’ve known for a while is gone. I don't really know how to explain that and how hard that is. Obviously, our prayers and thoughts go to the Gibbs family and everyone over at JGR.

“When you think they’ve had a rough run at it, I couldn’t imagine how Joe feels right now. (Another son, 49-year-old J.D., died in 2019 of a neurological illness). I don’t really know what else to say. It’s hard; I couldn’t imagine; I don't know what it’s like to go from a high (winning the Xfinity title) to a low like that.

“For Ty to lose his dad, that’s just hard.”