Logano gets taste of victory

[Schwartz Fan]

Logano gets taste of victory
December 1, 2007

NEW YORK - Joey Logano sat among the large crowd gathered for NASCAR's awards luncheon Thursday afternoon and watched in awe as sponsor after sponsor stuffed envelopes containing $100,000 checks into the pockets of repeat Nextel Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

It was but one of the many highlights the 17-year-old Logano, of Middletown, Conn., enjoyed during Champions Week festivities.

Logano earned the right to hobnob with Johnson, Craftsman Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday, and Busch Series champion Carl Edwards by winning the Busch East Series in record fashion. Logano, a development driver who is under contract to Joe Gibbs Racing until he turns 21, this season won six races to become the youngest and winningest rookie champion in Busch East history.

So, what snapshots of his season would leave a lasting impression?

"Well, coming up here, for one, was real cool," Logano said. "There's so much that happened this year, I can look back four or five years down the road and say, 'Wow!' I think that's a good thing in my career. It'll be cool to look back at something like that."

Logano, who had yet to celebrate his 17th birthday, had tongues wagging when he won his first race, a NASCAR West Series event in Phoenix in April. He later won the Busch East opener at Greenville-Pickens (S.C.) Speedway. Logano's season, though, was highlighted by his victory in a Busch East-West event in May at Iowa Speedway, where he outdueled Nextel Cup driver Kevin Harvick, who the night before had won the $1 million Nextel Cup All-Star race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

"I think he did a great job," Harvick said of Logano. "The track was very conducive to side-by-side racing and we were fortunate to have that, but he did a great job and didn't run over anybody."

Logano, who tallied 2,123 points to win the Busch East title ahead of Sean Caisse (1,957) and Peyton Sellers (1,862), wrapped up his season in October with a victory in the Toyota All-Star Showdown, an event billed as the "Daytona 500 of short-track racing" in Irwindale, Calif., where he finished ahead of Sellers.

"We go to win and we don't go to run second," Logano said. "But to win six races this year was remarkable, but thanks go to the whole team because they worked hard all year in the shop and I was able to do the best I can and we were able to come up with a championship."

And so, as he sat there among those who feted Johnson, Logano could not help but wonder what it would be like to be in Johnson's shoes.

"It's always been my dream to be up there and to win a [Cup] championship," Logano said. "You know, I'm taking it one day at a time right now, but it's always been a dream and that's what we're looking for."




Logano gets taste of victory - The Boston Globe

[revvinjim]

I don't know if anybody else watched the Toyota All Stars racing last month, but Logano showed that he has the stuff it takes to be a champion. We will hear a lot about him as his career progresses.