CONCORD, N.C: In an emotional conversation about the military and the Just Hands Foundation, Joey Logano expresses his respect and awe for those involved.
Recently, Pennzoil unveiled a new video featuring Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang for Team Penske in the NASCAR Cup Series, and Torsten Gross, a C6 quadriplegic and founder of the Just Hands Foundation, in honor of National Mobility Awareness Month.
Logano explained “This is a really neat program that Pennzoil is partnering up with Torsten and his foundation and really just giving everyone the ability to drive their vehicle when their mobility isn’t quite the same as everybody here.”
With a unique system bolted into the cars so that the driver can drive with just their hands, Logano would get the chance to drive the stock Dark Horse Mustang. However, the Penske driver would “drive” the car with his feet tied to the door so he wouldn’t be able to press the brakes or gas and would have to rely on the hand system that they had installed.
“The throttle, you turn it. The brakes, you push it in and then you strap your hand in on the other end of the steering wheel and off you go, Logano shared.
“It’s definitely a really neat experience.to learn how to do it because your initial reaction is to hit the brakes with your feet, or the gas, but he tied my feet up to the door so I couldn’t even use my feet.”
Competitively Logano said it could be possible, but it would take a lot of upper body strength. “You aren’t ever putting your other hand back on the wheel. You can’t. To be able to drive for a long period of time, I think it would be hard. I don’t think it’s impossible. I just think it would be really, really hard to do that.”
Earlier this month, Joey Logano also had a chance to take a ride in an F-16 when he visited Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina while attending a Mission 600 event.
While talking to military members and their families and hearing their stories and experiences with the military, Logano admits that he doesn’t know how the service members and their families manage this type of life. “I can’t put it into perspective. I wish everyone got to go and do some of these things because you would appreciate your country even more than you already do. It is absolutely incredible to see the commitment, the discipline that these men and women have to put it all on the line for strangers, and when they go to combat, even if they come back OK, they’ve gone through a lot.”
No greater words have been said than what Joey Logano would go on to say about the military families.
“And their families that are at home for that long period of time, I’m sure there are some military families in this room that understand some of this a lot more than me, but I don’t like leaving my family for two days at a time. I couldn’t imagine months or years at a time. That’s the craziest thing I ever heard.”
No one can truly understand the commitment that not only the service member puts in but also the commitment of their family members. The pride, work, commitment and worry that is a daily reminder of the life a family member of a military service member lives cannot be felt as deeply as someone in those shoes.
“Imagine if someone was trying to shoot me right now, says Logano. “That’s a whole different game, or whatever the mission may be, and you have to make those really, really hard decisions – hard decisions – not whether we should pit and put two tires on or stay out. That’s a very small decision in comparison to what these people are doing.”
This Memorial Day weekend is when we honor those who have served and made the ultimate sacrifice for each one of us.
“I really do appreciate it and my perspective changed years ago because of these things but I think we do a good job here at Charlotte with the speedway and Coca-Cola together trying to not only honor our military because they deserve it, but help our country understand a little bit more of what they go through and helps reminds us that every Memorial Day Weekend.”
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