Joey Logano shows patience, maturity in winning again at Kentucky Speedway

By Lee Montgomery - Associate Editor
Thursday, June 18, 2009

Perhaps the 18-year-old Joey Logano would have freaked out over the speeding penalty the 19-year-old Joey Logano got on lap 71 of the Miejer 300 Nationwide Series race at Kentucky Speedway.

Perhaps the Logano of 2008 would have panicked over restarting 15th instead of second. Perhaps the 18-year-old would have been a little too aggressive in trying to charge through the field.

Perhaps last year’s Logano would have ended up in the wall instead of in victory lane – again.

The 19-year-old Logano has come a long way in the year since he won his first race in one of NASCAR’s three national series. He’s a year older, sure, but he’s several years wiser.

He’s dealt with adversity on the race track, perhaps for the first time in his life, and has overcome the struggles in the Sprint Cup Series to show drastic improvement in NASCAR’s top division.

And in the No. 2 series, well, Logano is as good as anyone. He proved that again at Kentucky, becoming the first repeat winner at Bruton Smith’s newest track.

“Joey’s always had the skill,” said Dave Rogers, his Nationwide Series crew chief. “He’s been winning races his whole life. Probably the biggest difference right now is his confidence. He’s got a little bit more stride in his step, he knows exactly what he wants out of these cars after a year. He makes me work really hard to get there, but that’s his job.”

Logano’s quest for perfection led Rogers down a little-used road at Kentucky, down a path where Rogers used a little tire voodoo to improve the handling of the No. 20 Toyota.

Rogers and tire specialist Jamie Turski noticed that a tire with a certain code on their remaining right-fronts was providing a little more grip than the tires with different codes to be used on their right-rears.

So the right-fronts were swapped with the right-rears, helping the handling.

“Maybe it’s all in my head,” said Rogers, who guessed he’d try a similar change about once a year. “It worked.”

Well, the handling issue was solved, but there was another obstacle to overcome. Logano, like 18 other drivers, was nabbed for speeding exiting pit road.

Logano’s violation came under the race’s third caution, and it cost him 13 positions. But did it bother him?

“I wasn’t really worried about it,” Logano shrugged. “I was kind of bummed out and more confused over what happened. We got back there, and I knew we had a really fast car. I just had to be patient. But you have to be aggressive at the same time. You get back there, that’s how you get caught up in wrecks. … I probably gave Dave a heart attack a couple times, but sometimes with those opportunities you have to stick it in there and go for it.”

The last of those opportunities came with 10 laps to go, when Logano made a loser out of his JGR teammate, Kyle Busch.

Busch had led the most laps – 162 – for the seventh consecutive race. But there would be no smashing of trophies in victory lane this time, as Busch’s No. 18 Toyota tightened up in the closing laps.

Crew chief Jason Ratcliff figured the tires got too hot while sitting on the track under a red flag for Mike Bliss’ wreck with 15 laps to go. Busch, though, credited Logano for psyching his team out.

“It always happens that way, we always lose at the end,” said Busch, who has led the most laps in 10 of the 14 races but “only” has four victories. “… Joey is just better than we are at these places. Congratulations to him, he learned obviously how to save his stuff and kind of snooker people in to not adjusting on their race cars.”

Logano may not have snookered his teammate, but he did make a seemingly easy pass heading into Turn 3 with 10 laps remaining.

“You’re sitting there in the red flag and you’re thinking about it and wondering, ‘What can I do to beat Kyle Busch – one of the best in NASCAR?’” Logano said. “You think about it, and the opportunity was just right. I knew I had to have a run and I had to have him slip up a little bit for me to get there. It worked out perfect.”

Perfect is what Logano is at Kentucky, winning two poles and two races in two years. And Smith now has one of his biggest proponents to bring a Sprint Cup race to Kentucky.

“What do you think?” Logano said with a laugh. “If you go to a place where you have a perfect record at, I’m pretty sure you’re going to want to have every type of race you can have.”

Post a Comment

Disclaimer: All comments are subject to filtering for language, and libelous content. Comments are intended to encourage spirited debate and discussion about the subject matter contained within the articles and ARE NOT intended for personal or demeaning attacks directed at other users. We reserve the right to remove any comments deemed inappropriate. Users who violate this policy may be banned from posting comments on the site.

Comment Preview

Nov 8, 2009 at 1:49 AM
You said:

You must login before you can post comments or rate content.

If you don't have an account you can create a free one here.

2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings

Driver Standings after the AMP Energy 500

1 Jimmie Johnson 6248
2 Mark Martin -184
3 Jeff Gordon -192
4 Juan Pablo Montoya -239
5 Tony Stewart -279
6 Kurt Busch -312
7 Greg Biffle -340
8 Ryan Newman -402
9 Kasey Kahne -414
10 Carl Edwards -437
11 Denny Hamlin -448
12 Brian Vickers -556

NASCAR Schedules

abc

Dickies 500

Texas Motor Speedway
03:31 PM, 11/08/2009

Poll PositionView All

Which NASCAR Sprint Cup race winner from the past two seasons is most likely to earn his first victory of 2009 in the next three races?

Promotions

  • Play "WIX Filters' Pick 3" stock car fantasy and win prizes. Season 2 is now in session!

  • Tweet your thoughts about each race and join the conversation with other fans.

  • Drive an authentic NASCAR Sprint Cup car at the NASCAR Racing Experience.

  • Cast your vote for the NASCAR Illustrated 2009 Person of the Year, presented by Old Spice.

  • Make weekly pics for the Chase and be entered to win weekly SPEED Merchandise.

NASCAR Community Join the Community

In the Forums View All

Presented by

Don't have an account yet?

Insiders Guide to NASCAR

Register with SceneDaily.com and get access to the following features:

  • FREE Insider’s Guide to NASCAR (available as a PDF download)
  • Daily NASCAR news updates delivered directly to your e-mail
  • Pre-race and Post-race emails delivered each race week
  • Ability to comment on blog and news articles
  • Information on new website features and upcoming contests
Create my Account

Login

Forgot Password?
Login or Create an Account