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Team Penske, NASCAR Hall of Fame open 60th anniversary exhibit

Nathan Solomon

Chris Lawyer | NASCAR Digital Media

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- In 60 years of competition, Team Penske has built a history that spans nearly every national series imaginable. Beginning Thursday, a portion of that history is enshrined inside NASCAR's hallowed grounds. Penske and the NASCAR Hall of Fame have partnered to present a new temporary exhibit inside the Uptown Charlotte building, beneath Glory Road in the museum's Great Hall. Six different vehicles spanning four different series are featured, including Joey Logano’s 2024 Phoenix Raceway car -- the one that helped lead him to his third Cup Series championship. And that is not the Middletown, Connecticut, native's only car in the Hall. His 2022 championship ride is featured at the beginning of the Glory Road exhibit, making him the only driver with two cars featured inside the Hall of Fame. "It really is special," Logano told reporters Thursday, standing in front of his No. 22 car that won his most recent title. "Kind of a pinch-yourself moment, feels surreal, because I still see myself as normal Joe, right. It's good to drive race cars, and I've been so blessed to work for an incredible team that's allowed me to have some success in this sport and have a car in the Hall of Fame. I mean, I never guessed that. "I think in my career before Team Penske and what it was looking like, and what it was going to be, to where it is today, it just goes to prove that it depends a lot on who's around you and the team that's there, and I wish I can tell everyone how to do that. I really think I just got lucky." In addition to Logano's No. 22 Ford, team artifacts on display include: For Penske Vice Chairman Walt Czarnecki, the choices for the exhibit were relatively obvious. "It represented virtually all the disciplines that we've been involved in over the years," Czarnecki said. "We wanted to demonstrate, as I said, the breadth of our involvement in motorsports, not only in North America ... I don't think there's any other team that has had that experience at that participation level, but overseas as well." The only series not represented in the display, Czarnecki said, was Australian Supercars; a throwback scheme ran on the No. 22 Ford earlier this season at Phoenix, reviving IndyCar teammate Scott McLaughlin's 2019 Bathurst 1000 win. [caption id="attachment_512244" align="aligncenter" width="1300"]Chris Lawyer | NASCAR Digital Media[/caption] When asked about his favorite artifact, Logano hated to pick just one. He went with Wallace's 1996 Ford Thunderbird and joked that he'd be too tall to fit in any non-stock car. But with videos playing in the background to commemorate Logano's most recent championships, he admitted they brought back memories -- more so than the winning cars themselves. "The videos, to me, matter the most," Logano explained. "And watching that back, maybe even better than any of it, is hearing it from the people on the team because you don't truly know how they felt. I remember how I felt, how special it was, but to see how special it was to everyone else on the team and hearing it from their perspective – those interviews to me mean a lot. I'm going to ask them to send me that video because I want to have it for years down the road, but I mean, championships is what it's all about. "I'm fully convinced there's not another way in life that you can experience the moment of winning a sports championship. As a competitor, there's nothing like it, right? Getting married, having kids, all amazing milestones in life, but they're in different categories. Those are equally amazing, but a different category than winning at a sport, and it all happens like that, right? You don't know you got it until it happens, and the emotions hit you all at one time. It's pretty surreal at those moments. It's pure celebration, joy, screaming and yelling – no words to describe it. I've been very fortunate to experience that three times."