June 21, 2008
Remember all that hype? Remember those who wondered if it was just too much?
Could an 18-year old with no experience at the level he was entering handle the eyes of a NASCAR world intently focused on him without falling on his face?
Well, it’s starting to look like all that hype, all that buildup, maybe it wasn’t even enough.
A week ago 18-year old Middletown native Joey Logano, in his third Nationwide Series start, became the youngest driver in NASCAR history to win in the division, or in any of NASCAR’s three national divisions.
So how does one follow up such a stunning feat? How about battling to the end with one of the Sprint Cup Series’ biggest stars?
Logano, the 2007 Camping World East Series champion who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, followed up his victory last week at Kentucky Speedway by finishing second to Roush Fenway Driver Carl Edwards in the Camping World RV Rental 250 at the 1-mile Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wisc.
It was the fourth career Nationwide Series start for Logano, who finished sixth in his series debut at Dover International Speedway on May 31. After winning the pole in his second event, at Nashville Superspeedway on June 7, Logano crashed and finished 31st.
Logano was the only non-Sprint Cup Series regular in the top-5. Clint Bowyer was third, David Ragan fourth and David Reutimann fifth. Logano, who led 35 laps, finished 1.58 seconds behind Edwards, the 2007 Nationwide Series champion.
“We started off and my car wasn’t where it needed to be,” Logano said. “We were way off. We kept going backwards. We just kept working on it and never gave up. We finally got it where we needed to and we were running down the leaders pretty fast there on the longer haul. And then a caution came out and we got tires, and I was just not good on new tires. It took me five to 10 laps for it to come in. I just lost positions on restarts, and you can’t afford to do that. It’s hard to come back from that. We were just too tight at the end to catch Carl [Edwards]. I don’t think we adjusted to the race track enough. I think the track got a lot tighter. Overall, from where we started today to where we ended was a big plus.”
The hot streak for Logano will come to an uncontrollable stop though. Logano will hang up the helmet for the next three Nationwide Series events. Tony Stewart will be in the car for next week’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Logano isn’t approved to run Daytona International Speedway on July 4 and Stewart will again be in the car at Chicagoland Speedway on July 11.
By Shawn Courchesne
Courant.com