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Hailie Deegan, Joey Logano give help - and hams - for the holidays

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Joey Logano outduels Kevin Harvick late at Kansas to win and advance to the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway.

On Wednesday, incoming NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Hailie Deegan teamed with one of NASCAR’s biggest stars to help families in need before the Christmas holiday.

Working in partnership with the Joey Logano Foundation, “Hailie’s Holiday Haul” delivered 350 hams to two North Carolina-based organizations.

Benefiting were the Children’s Hope Alliance of Statesville, North Carolina, which helps children and young adults in several ways, including providing them safe homes through foster care and adoption; and Caterpillar Ministries of Huntersville, North Carolina, which serves the town’s Huntington Green neighborhood, an area where many of its families are challenged by poverty.

The JLF also donated 5,000 face masks to Children’s Hope Alliance as part of a collaboration with the Ford Motor Company Fund.

It plans to eventually distribute 27,000 face coverings in the weeks ahead, as part of a 100 million mask donation from Ford and the Ford Fund to communities and non-profits across the country.

“I think it’s so important to give back to the community, especially if you have great people like Ford behind you who are on the same path and have the same motives,” Deegan said in a Ford Performance release. “I think if you can both work together, you can make some great things happen and put some smiles on people’s faces.

“There are a lot of families that don’t get to experience the holidays fully with the resources they have, so to be able to give them a chance to have the fullest potential of those holidays means a lot.”

Shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday, Deegan helped deliver over 250 turkeys to food banks in the Detroit area.

Joey Logano Hailie Deegan

Photo Credit: Ford Performance

The event continued what’s been an active year for the JLF, which turned its main efforts toward supporting groups that help children in the foster care system.

During this year’s NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, the JLF supported children within or aging out of foster care, as well as children who are homeless, by distributing $22,000 each week to various groups.

It also worked to help those impacted by the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, including establishing a $1 million COVID-19 response and recovery fund in partnership with Elevation Outreach; joining with Elevation Outreach and The NASCAR Foundation to support Convoy of Hope, as it brought food and supplies to people in Darlington, South Carolina and Martinsville, Virginia; and hosting “Heroes Night Out” at Charlotte Motor Speedway for Charlotte-area essential workers and their families.

Logano is humble about his charitable work, recognizing that his platform is much different than others. But he also recognizes its ability to help him do good.

“There’s people that donate their time or are fostering a kid, and they’re not getting paid to do that,” Logano said Wednesday in an interview with NBCSports.com. “They’re not getting any recognition. They’re doing it because they have a heart. They have faith in humanity and want to sincerely help out. That’s their way of doing it.

“My way is a little bit different. My platform that God’s given me with NASCAR is substantially different. I can reach out to others, I can inspire others, and I can make a big impact in that way. That’s the reason why we do it.”

He also hopes to work with 19-year-old Deegan in finding her own philanthropic direction to follow.

“Everyone has a heart for different things,” Logano said. “For me, it’s a lot with kids that have been put in a really bad situation, not of their own doing. It’s just their circumstances. For someone like me that feels like I’ve gotten everything I could ever want from my parents - I have great parents, great role models who taught me a lot of great lessons - to see a kid who does not have that, it’s heartbreaking for me.

“This is where my wife (Brittany) and I really found our way, and we hope Hailie finds whatever that is for her.”

Joey Logano and Hailie Deegan - Group

Photo Credit: Ford Performance