Joey Logano has been talented beyond his years behind the wheel of a car since he was a little kid. As it turns out, for a while he was actually a bit too talented beyond his years, and it came back to bite him.
Speaking as a guest on the Racin’ With the Boys podcast, Logano told the story of his father forging a birth certificate for him when he was 10 years old so he could race against kids two years his senior.
“My father had a garbage company up in Connecticut. That’s where I started racing, that’s where I’m from. He sold his garbage company and just focused on going racing with me for the next like, 10 years. We had a freakin’ blast,” Logano said.
“We were so focused on it, it was all we did. I was home schooled. Really all I did was race. That was it. So I was progressing pretty quickly, because of the amount of time I was doing it.”
Logano’s dad wanted to keep pushing his son towards greatness by putting him up against better competition, but with a 10 year old, your desire to push for greatness can only go so far.
“It got to the point like, my father believed that you’re only as good as your competition, so as soon as I started winning at something, it was time to move up,” Logano said. “Eventually, you’re bumped up against your age, because you can’t move up until you get to a certain age. I wanted to race these cars, they’re called Legends cars, and there were some tracks that would let me race, but the majority would not.”
“So when I turned 10, I turned 12 one year.”
Logano explained that they had a connection at whatever office kept track of these records, and decided to take a shot at moving him up a few years so he could keep racing against better competition.
“We had a guy on the inside that ran the series, and he was like, ‘Yeah send a new birth certificate in, and we’ll just dump it in your file.’ So we doctor it up and send it up there. It worked for quite a few races. We ran like seven or eight races.”
But as quickly as the plan came together, it fell apart in spectacular fashion.
“I remember it like it was yesterday. We drove up to Charlotte, we got all of our stuff ready to go racing they go, ‘Yeah, you’re not racing today.’ We say, ‘What do you mean?’ They’re like, ‘You’re only 10.’ ‘What do you mean?’ Then they come out, and there’s two birth certificates. He didn’t take the old one out of the file, so they had the new one and the old one.”
As with any strikingly simple plan, it was brilliant right until the moment that it wasn’t. Getting caught with two birth certificates on file is about as red-handed as you could imagine.
Thankfully, it all worked out for Logano. He remained one of the best racers of his age group all the way up until he was ready to join the Cup Series, and now stands as a three-time champion and is actively pursuing a fourth title to add to his trophy case.
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