Top 35 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers: No. 20 - Joey Logano
Joe Gibbs Racing's Joey Logano won the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup rookie of the year award. // LaDon George, NASCAR Scene
Related stories: Joey Logano wraps up rookie award at Homestead
Joey Logano’s rookie season in the Sprint Cup Series had a few bumps in the road, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver fared relatively well considering his lack of seat time and experience in NASCAR’s top division.
After a rocky start, Logano began showing flashes of the talent that convinced JGR officials to put him in a Cup ride at the age of 18 by posting three ninth-place finishes in four outings.
One of those runs came at Darlington Raceway, a 1.366-mile track considered one of the sport’s toughest and a place where Logano had never competed at any level. Logano went on to nab three top-fives and seven top-10s in 36 starts.
The high point of the rookie’s season came in the June race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he used a savvy pit call by veteran crew chief Greg Zipadelli to snare an unlikely victory in the rain-shortened event. The driver who replaced two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart in JGR’s No. 20 Toyota became the series' youngest winner in history with his victory at 19 years, one month and four days.
Logano, who had made just three Cup starts prior to 2009, finished 20th in the standings and captured Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors over fellow Cup newcomer Scott Speed, and the Middletown, Conn., native earned $5,983,629 in prize money.
During the offseason, SceneDaily is taking a look at the top 35 in 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup driver points. Here’s how Logano’s season unfolded:
By the numbers: Logano notched seven top-10s, including three top-fives, en route to finishing 20th in the standings. He suffered three DNFs while earning an average finishing position of 20.0 and an average starting spot of 20.5. Logano completed 95.3 percent of all laps.
Season highlights: The win at New Hampshire, which came in Logano’s 20th Cup start, was a major boost, along with a fifth-place finish at Charlotte and a third-place finish at Talladega in the fall races at those tracks. Logano also scored five Nationwide Series victories in a part-time schedule for JGR.
Key setbacks: Logano finished inside the top 20 only once in the season’s first eight races and led only 36 laps over the course of the year. His worst finish was a 43rd in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, where a crash ended his day after 79 laps.
Newsworthy moments: Logano endured a violent crash in the fall race at Dover International Speedway after slowing when Bobby Labonte pinched the No. 20 car down on the track and was tagged from behind by Tony Stewart. The contact sent Logano’s Toyota straight into the path of Reed Sorenson, whom he bounced off of before flipping several times and landing on all four wheels. Logano was visibly shaken but uninjured.
In his words: “You really want to keep pushing it and become a better race-car driver. I was getting a little self confidence out of Nationwide car, which was helping me there, and 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. … Hopefully, through the offseason here we can test a little bit and get some more seat time in these things and come [back] better next year.”
