Automotive News Daily Drive Feb 8, 2026

Feb. 8, 2026 | Bonus Episode: More from NASCAR Champ Joey Logano

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Car

Ford Maverick

The Ford Maverick is a small truck that is easy to drive and affordable. It's designed for people who want a practical vehicle without spending too much money.

Term

OEMs

OEM means Original Equipment Manufacturer. It's a term used for companies that make cars and car parts that are sold under their own name.

Car

Ford Mustang

The Ford Mustang is a popular sports car that many people love for its speed and cool design. It's often seen in car races and is a symbol of American muscle cars.

LIVE

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Hey, it's Daily Drive executive producer Jake Neer. Thanks for joining me for this bonus episode

of the show. Earlier this week, automotive news forward reporter Michael Martinez spoke with Joey

Legano, the three-time NASCAR champion, about his partnership with and ownership stake in

Huntersville Ford, a dealership in North Carolina. They talked about why Legano is maybe preparing

for life after racing, what he sees as the biggest challenge facing dealers in 2026,

and whether he plans to build his own auto retail empire. If you missed the first part of that

conversation, you can go back and check out Wednesday's episode. Highly recommend you do that.

Here's the rest of our own Michael Martinez's conversation with Joey Legano of Huntersville

Ford. You're into a lot of different things and you're curious about, you know, stuff beyond

the racetrack. I'm wondering if you could speak to that a bit. Where does that come from and what

drives you to do something like get into this business now? Well, I know at some point, unfortunately,

my driving career will come to an end. And the weird thing for an athlete is that happens that

usually about the prime is an executive of some sort, right? It's usually about the same age,

right? Around 40-ish, you know, plus or minus a few years. It's usually when a young professional

becomes, you know, kind of the top of their game. And as an athlete, that's kind of when you start

seeing the decline, right? So it's kind of, it's funny how that works. But I don't plan on being

that age and saying, I'm done and I'm gonna just go do nothing the rest of my life. Like,

that's not who I am. I hate that. I love growth. I'm fascinated with growth and just looking for

the next thing, right? How do I keep growing the next thing? I love learning new stuff and

especially things that I'm passionate about. So this is a natural fit, right? From that way,

that perspective, I think I just enjoy that type of stuff. I feel like it can bring so much to the

table and it'd be a waste not to use it. From your perspective, again, recognizing that you're

still sort of immersing yourself in the business, what do you see as maybe the biggest challenge

moving forward? Maybe not for you personally, but maybe for dealers in general, automotive retail

in 2026 and beyond. Are there any particular challenges, you know, you and Stacey are gonna

need to overcome here? Well, there's a complex question. What level do you want to start at?

You know, I think if you look at a micro way of, okay, what with our personal dealership,

you know, what's this year look like? Well, there's a, you know, a bit of a rebrand that's

gonna happen, right? It's kind of how do I, how do, from a branding perspective, apply

myself, but also keeping with what Huntersville Ford is known to do,

right? How do we make that piece of it better, more of a micro way of, like, from the marketing

standpoint? But I think if you look at the big picture and you look at the economy in general,

right, where is it going, right? What's, what's, good guess. I don't know who's to know. It changes

daily these days. So, yeah, I think really what you got to rely on is just good product and good

customer care. And if you think if we can, you know, take care of the customer side of it,

that's, that's our job. I believe is making sure that the customers are happy that they are treated

fairly, that we do good work and to their cars, their vehicles are running the way they're supposed

to. That's what we can handle, right? And, and we got to rely on Ford to make good decisions

with vehicles that are coming down the line. So, I think, you know, those are the two things that,

that, you know, we can control. And that's what we need to worry about, where the economy's going

and all that. We, I don't have the magic buttons to adjust that one, right? You can't control it.

So, you only worry about the things you can control. And to me, we only can control as a

dealership is, you know, quality service to the customers. That's the number one thing.

I love asking different GMs and dealer principles this question, because I think it

gives insight into their personality a bit. If you could call up Jim Farley and, you know,

wave a magic wand and have him add one product to the Ford lineup that you guys could start selling

tomorrow, what would it be and why? Yeah, I'd say, you know, a diverse portfolio is important

when it comes to bad ass cars. I am trucks. I think Ford's got everyone covered, right? Like,

everybody knows that when it comes to trucks and fast cars, Ford's got it covered. When it comes to

SUVs, I think they're fantastic. An affordable vehicle, smaller, right? And there is a few,

right? I mean, the Maverick's a great truck to start with, you know, but I think maybe having

a couple options in that range would probably be good, you know, just to have a more of a diverse

portfolio of vehicles. But I still think if you compare it to other OEMs, Ford probably has the

most diverse portfolio of vehicles, compared to others. Coming up more from automotive news,

Ford reporter Michael Martinez's conversation with NASCAR champion Joey Logano.

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Well, I know this might be a hard one to answer, but just curious about your

future. Are you content with this partnership at one store? Do you eventually hope to build your own

auto retail empire with multiple stores, or how do you think about that?

One step at a time. Again, I'm fascinated with growth, and I could see myself really enjoying

this business. I could see myself wanting to grow, but I also understand that I want to

walk before I run, and this is a great way to dip my toes into the water a little bit,

learn as much as I can. I got great partners with the Krause Automotive Group.

I don't know what I want to call Stacey. I know he's the manager. I kind of call

him my coach at times. I don't really know what I'm supposed to call him,

but I got a great helper there, helping me along. Partner, okay, that's probably the best thing to

say. At the moment, I'm content with what's going on, but you never know. Down the road,

there may be other opportunities to do more. The goal would be to all grow together. That would

be the ultimate goal. If things are working well, if it's not broke, don't fix it, but we can just

keep growing, and that would be great. But at this moment, we got to tackle the first giant

in front of us and then see where we're at after that. That's really most of the questions I wanted

to ask. I'm wondering if there's anything else you want to say about the business, about the

Krauses, about Stacey, or anything else you want me to know. I think it's mainly been enjoyable

for me, and I've really taken that as something really exciting to see the other side of the car

world. I feel like I've seen it as a customer. I've seen it as a race car driver, but I've never

seen it from the retail side before. That's been pretty fun to get to learn. But even more

importantly, the relationships that I've built over the last year are some really good people.

I think that's been probably the things that you take with you at the end of the day that

mattered the most. The relationships you build and being able to help each other and to again

grow together, that's been something that's been pretty special. Whether it's, like you said,

working with my partner Stacey, you know, even getting to know Zach and Vernon better and working

from, you know, seeing how their business is, it's obviously pretty big. So learning how that

all side of it works and how they operate has been very interesting to me as well. So it's been

fun to kind of learn that. They do it top notch. They're very detailed, which is great, right?

Because I'm coming from that, right? When I drive for Team Penske. So as you can imagine,

Roger is like everything is a certain way. And the Krause Automotive Group is very,

very similar to everything is done a certain way. Everyone acts a certain way. Their expectations

are super, super high. That's why the partnership I feel like is going to work because we all agree

that we want to be the best, right? Is that we're not there to collect a paycheck and walk away.

We're there to be the best. That might be the competitive fire in me. But the goal is to win.

To be the best there is out there. Be the best dealerships we can be. So

that's with the same attitudes and perspectives on what we want. That's how I know this will

be a winning relationship. You mentioned earlier, but I was just thinking you really are sort of

taking that, you know, win on Sunday, sell on Monday phrase literally, right? Like that's the goal.

One step deeper. Yeah. And then I guess just a last one quickly. And I apologize. I don't know how

advertising contracts and things work of that nature, but with the racing season coming up,

are we going to see a hundreds of Ford cap or jacket? Are you able to throw something on

the track or around the track? I technically cannot do that on the track. Obviously,

there's Ford branding all over our race cars. We raise some Mustang. So we do that. They'll

be definitely branding at the dealership, especially obviously Joey Logano branding and

some stuff that way. But as far as on the car at the moment, there is no plans of that. But I think

everyone will know as such, you have to see your interview. That's going to be the big moment,

right? Everyone's going to know that we're a part of it. And there'd definitely be some

social backing and some other marketing collateral that will also tell the story.

Thanks for listening to this bonus episode of Daily Drive. Come back on Monday for a brand new full episode of the show.