Logano’s hot start in stark contrast to 2009

For the second straight week it was Jimmie Johnson beating Kevin Harvick to the line for the win and Mark Martin finishing behind them in fourth. Joey Logano finished sixth after a fifth last weekend.

While a lot of the focus today is on Jimmie Johnson (Is his dominance good or bad? Can he be stopped?, etc.) I think we should look at the young kid who sits eighth in the standings—Joey Logano.

Logano (in the black shirt) finished 12th in last year's Brickyard 400, dueling with Juan Pablo Montoya as the race ended

Last year, after taking over for Tony Stewart in the No. 20 car, Logano struggled through the first part of the season. NASCAR’s self-instituted testing ban didn’t help the teenager, who often walked into tracks for the first time ever.

This season has been a completely different story for the ’09 Rookie of the Year. He finished 20th at Daytona, but has come on strong the past two races, recording back-to-back top ten finishes. Logano is 8th in points, meaning if the Chase started now, Logano would be in.

If the Chase started now, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman would all be on the outside looking in.

Maybe Logano really is the real deal.

The kid earned the nickname “Sliced Bread” because he was referred to as the next best thing. Who discovered him? Mark Martin. Before the now 51-year-old star tried to retire from his old ride at Roush Racing, Martin noted who he wanted to succeed him in his famed No. 6 car.

“I’ll tell you exactly who I would put in the 6 car in a heartbeat,” Martin said. “Joey Logano.” Logano was unheard of at the time, and with good reason. He was only 15 years at the time Martin made the statement. That didn’t matter to the elder statesman at that time.
“I am high on Joey Logano because I am absolutely, 100-percent positive, without a doubt that he can be one of the greatest that ever raced in NASCAR,” he continued. “I’m positive. There’s no doubt in mind.”

Flash forward to 2010, and the 19-year-old is making a name for himself at the highest level of the sport. Last season he won his first Cup race at New Hampshire, and dominated a few Nationwide Series races too.

After not finishing in the top five after that win in July, he climbed from his car last week in Fontana and said, “That felt like a win.” It was no different this past weekend in Vegas.

Logano stands outside his Busch car last season at Kentucky. Logano won the race the next evening.

“I’m excited about that. To have two great runs like that—it’s exciting coming into the season,” he said. But, he’s a little less optimistic about the next challenge he faces. “Next week will probably be a tough one—Atlanta is one where we struggled a lot last year. If we run good there, that’s going to really say something to me.”

Patience is a virtue, and Logano seems to have some of that too. He might have just learned from the man who dubbed him the successor to one of the most iconic rides in all of NASCAR.

“I tell you, if you keep getting top-10s, you’ll get closer to the top-five, and eventually the wins are going to come. I’m pretty pumped up about how we did here,” the youngest driver in the field said.

Not only is the kid pumped, but he knows that he can have the time of his life driving around with the best in the world. “It’s a lot of fun, like I said last week, to see the front of the lead pack and you can almost get to the lead—it’s a lot of fun.”

It wouldn’t surprise me if we saw some more fun from Joey Logano over the next few weeks. Sure, he’ll have his days of struggling, everyone does. But, for Logano, who was expected to the next best thing since his nickname, he’s finally starting to see some results.

For win number two we made need to look no further than Atlanta. I’m not saying Logano will win at Atlanta, but coming off a weekend in Vegas, I feel it only appropriate to say if I were a betting man, I’d put some money down on Logano to perform well this weekend.