Welcome to another edition of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast Recap—a rundown of key lessons from top operators, founders, and execs shaping the future of auto retail.
Today’s guest is Joey Logano, NASCAR Driver and Co-Owner of Huntersville Ford.
Joey breaks down his transition from the NASCAR track to the dealership floor, revealing how he applies a "Sunday report card" mentality to retail operations.
Coming into a dealership as an outsider means seeing things the people inside can no longer see.
Joey closed on the Huntersville Ford deal just before Christmas and spent his first months absorbing the business with fresh eyes. What struck him wasn't any single department but the sheer complexity of how many businesses exist inside one dealership.
"I said a minute ago how complex the business is, how many little businesses there are within the one car dealership."
As he sees it, that complexity is exactly what makes it worth doing.
The right mentor changes everything, especially in a business you're entering for the first time.
Joey credits Roger Penske, his boss at Team Penske, as the most important person in helping him get the deal done and understand what he was walking into. He also points to Zack Krause, his operating partner in the dealership, as a key guide through the early stages.
"I'm able to just call with any questions. ‘Hey, take a look at this. Tell me if I'm way off on this one. How can we work together?’"
Having someone with decades of automotive experience willing to take that call, he says, is not something every first-time owner gets.
An athlete's relationships are one of the most underrated assets they bring to a business.
Joey is clear that his value at Huntersville Ford is not in running daily operations. It is in the access he has built over a career in motorsports and the doors that opens for the dealership.
"As a race car driver, you have relationships like any athlete, they can kind of call any CEO and they're going to answer. And that's a great advantage to have in business."
His operating partner, Stacy Cowan, handles the day-to-day. Joey's job is to be the relationship driver and think outside the box.
Motorsports runs on process, professionalism, and accountability every single week.
Joey sees a direct connection between what makes a race team elite and what makes a dealership elite. In NASCAR, the report card comes every Sunday in front of millions of people. That standard, he believes, can be applied to how a dealership serves customers.
"We have to be the most professional because we're representing huge partners that are spending millions of dollars on our race car. We need to not just get a car to the track. We have to bring the best car to the track."
His goal is to import that culture into Huntersville Ford over time rather than force it overnight.
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Athletes transitioning to business have to figure out what winning even looks like in a new arena.
In NASCAR, you know the moment you've won. The flag drops, and it hits you all at once. In business, Joey says, that moment rarely comes that cleanly, because progress is slower and harder to feel in real time.
"In sports you don't know you got it until it happens, and it happens really really fast. In the business world it's a slow process. What is that big win moment? Maybe it's when you sell your business and cash in."
Learning to find motivation without that instant rush, he says, is one of the bigger adjustments for any athlete moving into business.
Saying no to opportunities matters as much as saying yes.
Joey is selective about what he takes on. His car wash, production studio, and mixed-use development in Huntersville each made sense for specific reasons at specific times. But he turns things down regularly.
"There are things that come across my table and I'm like, I would love to, and I think there's an amazing opportunity. I just can't. I don't have the time."
The discipline to protect your time, he says, is what keeps the things you do say yes to from suffering.
Earning respect in a competitive environment requires honesty about what you did and why.
When asked about rivalries on track, specifically his history with younger drivers, Joey's answer applies as much to business as it does to racing. The approach is the same whether you're dealing with a competitor or a colleague.
"The first thing you need to do is be open and honest. If you screwed up, [say] ‘Hey, I screwed up,’ and if you meant to do it, [then it’s] ‘Hey, I meant to do it, and you're going to live with the consequences."
Patterns become visible over time, he says, and people adjust how they treat you based on what they see.
The image of a dealership matters as much as what it sells.
The first thing Joey wants to get right at Huntersville Ford is not a sales process or a fixed ops workflow. It is how customers feel when they walk in and whether they trust what they are being told.
"If I'm going to put my name on something, I want people to walk into there and say, 'Man, I got a great experience. I feel like I was treated fairly. It was professional.’ I want to know I'm not getting BS-ed."
He sees that as the foundation everything else gets built on.
Performance vehicles are both a product and a positioning tool.
Huntersville Ford has built a reputation in the Charlotte area as a performance-focused store, selling Shelbys, RTRs, and modified vehicles. Joey sees that as a natural fit with his brand and something worth doubling down on.
"If Joey Logano, the race car driver is involved, we better have some high performance vehicles sitting there as well."
Some of those vehicles may not carry the best margins on their own, but they bring in the kind of customer the dealership wants to build a relationship with.
Success in business is harder to define than success on a racetrack, and that might be the point.
When asked what success ultimately looks like across all his ventures, Joey does not reach for a number or a milestone. He reaches for something harder to measure.
"I want to be a person that is taking advantage of every opportunity that's come my way. I want to be somebody that's made other people stronger and better for being around them and happier. That's success to me."
That’s where his head is as he builds the next chapter.
