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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Countdown To Daytona - The Rookies
Joey Logano and Scott Speed, the two candidates for the 2009 Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, are as different as different gets...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted January 29, 2009   Harrisburg, NC
Joey Logano has a lone NASCAR Sprint Cup win. (Photo: Getty Images)

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth of 10 stories in SPEEDtv.com’s “Countdown To Daytona” preview of the upcoming 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

Joey Logano and Scott Speed, the two candidates for the 2009 Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, are as different as different gets.

Logano, the baby-faced 18-year-old New Englander who will replace Tony Stewart in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry this season, has the politeness and manners of a young man showing up at his girlfriend’s parent’s house to pick her up for the senior prom.

Red Bull Racing No. 82 pilot and California native Speed, on the other hand, is known for the outrageous. And that covers everything from dying his hair platinum blonde and painting his toenails blue, to losing the ARCA/RE-MAX Series championship in the final race last season after he was parked for deliberately retaliating against and wrecking Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Speed is brash and cocky, and has been his entire career, most of which was in open-wheel cars.

In fact, about the only two things that Logano and Speed have in common is that they are both supremely gifted race-car drivers, as both showed last year. Logano wasn’t even old enough to drive in NASCAR’s top series until his 18th birthday last May. But just three weeks later, he won his first NASCAR Nationwide Series Race at Kentucky Speedway.

Likewise, Speed burst onto the NASCAR scene like a supernova in 2008, winning a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Dover International Speedway, one of the toughest tracks on the circuit, and scoring a stunning third-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway, something rookies aren’t supposed to be able to do.

On paper, Speed, 26, has a considerable edge in experience on Logano, with eight more years of racing under his belt, including a brief stint with Red Bull’s Formula 1 team. But Logano is on the better team, with JGR putting all three of its Toyotas in last year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and many of the No. 20 crewmembers, including crew chief Greg Zipadelli, having two championships under their collective belts when Stewart was in the car.

What neither Speed nor Logano will have this year is the ability to go testing at NASCAR tracks, and that could be a huge hurdle. Still, both men and their respective teams say they are up to the task at hand.

Logano said a key to getting off the ground in NASCAR’s top series is going to be to avoid the hype surrounding him. “I’m kind of focused on what I’ve got to do and I’m doing the best I can,” he said. “I know there are a lot of expectations out there, but at the same time you’ve got to give me a chance and give me some time. There are a lot of different things going into it, but at the same time I’ve got a great team. I know that. The only thing I lack is experience. … But the only way you can do it is to be out on the race track so that’s what I’m doing.”

Crew chief Zipadelli said it’s going to be important to temper the hype until Logano gets more seat time and familiarity with the tracks he’ll race on. “I think his expectations are high, but we have to understand, we have to have realistic expectations to start the year,” said Zipadelli. “I think as the year goes, we move them and progress and we adjust them accordingly and grade ourselves.”

And that means gradual, but consistent, improvement. “Our biggest thing, I think, is if we can steadily increase the way we run against our competition week in and week out, that’s our biggest thing,” said Zipadelli. “I think you’re going to see that kid do better at lap 50 than he did at lap 10 and you’re going to see him do better at lap 100 at some of these race tracks. Every lap he runs he’s going to get better and I think it’s a matter of where we start and how good we are at the end of the day.”

As for Speed, his crew chief, Jimmy Elledge, insists his driver is the real deal. “He’s probably one of the most talented drivers that I’ve ever worked with as far as he doesn’t give himself a lot of credit, he picks up on things really fast and he’s probably one of the most disciplined race car drivers I’ve ever seen in looking at data, looking how he drives cars and looking at his driver inputs,” said Elledge. “It’s pretty impressive for someone who has very limited time in stock cars.”

And here in NASCAR, Speed’s reputation for cockiness may be overstated. “Everyone that has met me so far, I think, realizes how humble I am about my abilities in a stock car,” said Speed. “If you put me in an open-wheel car or an F-1 car, I will tell you that I am better than most. In something like this, it’s something I’m learning and, honestly, I think the reaction that I’ve got from everyone that knows me and guys that I have hung around with — Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, my teammates — these guys all do whatever they can to help me and it’s really that whole environment. Having people want to see you do well is totally different.”

So how will these two vastly different ROTY candidates fare in 2009? The best perspective might come from Speed’s teammate, Brian Vickers, who was with a championship team at Hendrick Motorsports and a start-up team at Red Bull in 2007.

“The thing about a race team — we’re not golfers,” said Vickers. “There are 200 people involved in our team. To always just point the finger at the driver, whether it’s good or bad, it goes both ways. Just because you win a race, doesn’t mean he’s a great driver. Just because you lose one, doesn’t mean he’s a bad one. I think it’s a team effort.”

Tomorrow: Can 2008’s winless drivers get back to victory lane?

NASCAR 39/10: Reviewing the 60th SeasonNASCAR 39/10: Reviewing the 60th Season A unique and comprehensive look at a historic season in the annals of stock car racing. For the first time ever, NASCAR fans will be able to relive the entire 2008 Sprint Cup Season, over the course of a 30-hour anthology. From Preseason Testing in Daytona, to the Postseason Banquet in New York, viewers will relive NASCAR’s 60th season, and one of the most important years in the sport’s history.
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