Joey Logano grew up playing with his Hot Wheels cars. Thursday, he proved he still likes to watch them go for a spin — only this time was a bit more significant.
The 2018 NASCAR Cup champion took part in a record-setting run, as one Hot Wheels car — a purple Ford Mustang adorned with Logano’s No. 22 car number — covered a distance record 1,941 feet on a massive indoor track inside Logano’s own personal race shop in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Let’s put that mark — as acknowledged by the Guinness World Records, which had a representative on site — into context: At 1,941 feet, that’s almost a half-mile in distance.
But perhaps Logano put it in the best context for racing fans with the following tweet:
For the record, at .533 miles, Bristol Motor Speedway is actually 2,814.24 feet around. Even NASCAR’s shortest track, Martinsville Speedway, is 2,777.28 feet.
Still, Logano’s excitement at being part of the world record is understandable, snapping the old mark set last year in Russia of 1,838.305 feet. The event was part of the announcement of a special Hot Wheels diecast car commemorating Logano’s 2018 Cup championship; the car will be available by the middle of next year.
“Talk about a childhood dream come true! I have so many memories playing with my Hot Wheels cars as a kid, and it’s fun to jump back in that space with my son who shares the same passion for his Hot Wheels as I did,” Logano said in a media release. “Hot Wheels basically founded my passion for racing – the first car I ever had was a Hot Wheels car – and now being here, setting this world record with my son and an amazing team of Hot Wheels fans is a great way to announce our new special edition Ford Mustang.”
Since racers and fans like details so much, it took over a year to plan and seven days for the track to be laid out. There were 122 power boosters used that kept the car going from one end of the track to the other, back and forth, before the car made one last spin outside the garage door and landed in a real-life version of the car with Logano behind the wheel.
Logano even did a celebratory burnout in a life-sized version of the car after the record was broken.
He also drew kudos from NASCAR on NBC analyst Kyle Petty, who drove a Hot Wheels sponsored car in the NASCAR Cup Series from 1997-2000 and who was on hand for the festivities:
