MARTINSVILLE, Va.—The emotional toll on a family that loses everything is devastating.
For the Craig Family, who lost 11 of their kin after Hurricane Helene demolished ancestral homes in the Flat Creek area outside of Asheville, N.C., the pain has been indescribable.
Last Sunday, six of the remaining members escaped the ongoing challenges in “Craigtown,” the area where the family established roots in the early 1900’s, to attend the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway as guests of NASCAR champion Joey Logano.
“We met Joey through his relief effort for the hurricane,” Bryan Craig said while attending the drivers’ meeting before the race. “He brought generators, chain saws, just a lot of things to our community—and the Fairview community that was devastated by the hurricane.
“There has been so much love and support, but for Joey to drive up in his own personal truck to bring supplies before he raced at Charlotte (Oct. 13) was phenomenal.”
Craig lost his mother and father when “the slide” wiped out their community the last week of September and killed an aunt and uncle and other immediate family members. He couldn’t even reach the area where his parents were until days later after roads were obliterated and cell service disappeared.
“My family home is gone,” Craig said. “My childhood home is gone. There’s nothing left of it. The mudslide took it all away. Eleven family members, 13 people total. I don’t ever think I’ll be able to wrap my mind around what happened. There was so much devastation.
“The small stream, before the slide came, you could jump across it in most places. It became so massive, wiping out trees and boulders and rocks. All of it.”
The NASCAR community’s ongoing support of the Western Carolina region has been well documented. Through the Joey Logano Foundation, the 34-year-old racer’s philanthropic endeavors have included team/house-building exercises with Habitat for Humanity to alleviating food insecurity by delivering meals to the underserved.
Most recently, Logano’s focus turned to handing out checks and supplies to survivors recovering in communities dotting the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. When Logano heard about the Craig Family, he couldn’t help but get involved.
“In the mudslide, they lost many family members; everything they owned they watched go down the hill,” Logano said. “It was more than three miles away where they found their family members.
“It’s really, really sad. I can’t find the words to describe what I saw there. A lot of times you go to these areas and it’s maybe not as bad as what the news said. This time it was worse. I’m glad I went up there, but it’s also so cool to see so many people wanting to help. That’s the biggest thing I saw up there. Every church was full of essentials—which was great.
“But there’s a lot more help that’s going to be needed on a big scale moving forward as they get done with the cleanup and rescue side of it.”
At Martinsville, Logano carried the “Partners Powering Hurricane Recovery” livery on the No. 22 Ford—a collaborative effort between JLF, Team Penske and Shell USA to bring continued awareness to those affected by Hurricane Helene.
“When I went and visited, one of the biggest things people said was don’t forget about us, don’t stop talking about us, keep the attention on us,” Logano said. “With Thanksgiving right around the corner, the season ending and the holidays coming, people move on and kind of forget what happened and the destruction to the affected families. It doesn’t go away as quickly as a lot of us move on.
“We want to make sure that we highlight them. We’re matching up to $100,000 donated to hurricane relief efforts up there. We work a lot with foster care communities—which is really where our foundation is focusing. But it’s really cool to see Shell, Team Penske and a lot of our partners collaborating on this.”
Prior to last Sunday, Logano had already committed $250,000 to the relief fund. And while he’s not letting up, this week his attention turns to winning a third NASCAR Cup title at Phoenix Raceway.
The 34-year-old racer will make his sixth Championship 4 appearance this weekend. In 2022, Logano claimed his third Phoenix victory from the pole en route to his second Cup title. Although some racers would choose to remain in full beast mode for the season finale, Logano finds giving back provides perspective.
“When you think about what we do for a living, it’s pretty dumb,” Logano said. “We drive in circles as fast as we can. Are we really making a difference? No. But if we can use the platform that God has given us here in NASCAR to speak to so many people and try to inspire others to live a life of generosity together, then my job becomes pretty impactful.
“That’s really the ‘why’ for myself, my wife and the whole 22 team and Team Penske and the partners that are involved in this one.”
Most of the Craig family had never attended a NASCAR race before. Just the opportunity to watch Logano in his element was an eye-opener. After working for weeks around home to restore some semblance of normalcy, the family welcomed the chance to get away.
“It’s never going to be the same,” Craig said. “It’s going to take a while. We’re trying to tell people, don’t forget about us in two months, six months for now. We’re going to need all the help we can get.
“But there has been a lot of neighbor-helping-neighbor. There are a lot of great people in this country and in this state that reached out to help. And it has helped us tremendously.
“My mother’s favorite driver was Dale Earnhardt. But we’re all Joey Logano fans now.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
