Joey Logano wraps up rookie award at Homestead

By Lee Montgomery - Associate Editor

Sunday, November 22, 2009

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Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson wins record-setting fourth consecutive Cup title

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Mark Martin was a big fan of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Joey Logano long before Logano even got a drivers license. Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Logano fulfilled some of the promise Martin talked about by wrapping up the NASCAR Sprint Cup Raybestos Rookie of the Year award in the Ford 400.

Logano finished 24th on Sunday, earning top rookie-of-the-race honors for the 26th time in 36 races. Logano beat Red Bull Racing’s Scott Speed for the rookie award.

“I told you so,” Martin said with a wry smile Sunday night.

When Martin announced plans to cut back his schedule five years ago, he talked up Logano. Then 14, Logano never figured he’d be in a position to win the Cup rookie award so soon.

“No, I don’t look that far ahead,” Logano said. “I think that’s kind of the big deal. I’ve always been a day-by-day person and always worry about the next thing as it comes. I’ve never been the person to look two races ahead; it’s always the next one.

“At the time I thought that was awesome. To be honest that’s something that got me to this point - if it wasn’t for him saying stuff like that to get me a ride like this. It was a real big deal in my career.”

Logano made his debut in one of NASCAR’s national series last year, and ended up winning in the Nationwide Series. When Tony Stewart decided to leave JGR to take over ownership of his own team, Logano was called upon to drive the No. 20 Toyota.

His season started slowly, as he finished better than 14th only once in his first eight races.

“It was tough at times, believe me,” Logano said. “The media wasn’t saying the greatest things, but if anything it’s more motivating. You really want to keep pushing it and become a better race-car driver. I was getting a little self confidence out of the Nationwide car, which was helping me there and [I] just kept pushing it and trying to learn these race cars as much as I can.

“By no means I’m not there yet, but I feel like we made big steps. The second part is figure out how you want them to drive, what part of the corner you want to work on, what do you need to make these things go fast. Hopefully through the offseason here we can test a little bit and get some more seat time in these things and come better next year.”

Logano finished 20th in the Cup standings, winning his first race, at New Hampshire, and posting three top-five and seven top-10 finishes.

“It’s really cool to get the Raybestos Rookie of the Year,” Logano said. “It’s obviously one of our big goals. … We had a real rough start and finished 20th in the points, [which] I guess is OK. In the beginning of the season if you had told me that’s where we were going to finish I’d have been ecstatic about it, but now you always want better.”