Joey Logano (Right) walks to victory lane with crew chief Greg Zipadelli (Left) after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series LENOX Industrial Tools 301. (Photo: Getty Images)
If you don’t like what’s happening in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, stick around — it’ll change pretty quickly. Joey Logano found that out Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, when he became the youngest race winner in series history.
A brave and brilliant fuel-mileage gamble by crew chief Greg Zipadelli allowed Logano to stay on track in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 on Sunday, and when a steady New England rain shower began with the rookie’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry running on fumes, the race was shortened from 301 to 273 laps. And that was enough to make a winner of Logano at the ripe old age of 19 years, one month and four days.
And that’s pretty remarkable when you consider how Logano’s season began. In his first seven races this year, Logano finished 30th or worse five times, including a dreadful 43rd in the Daytona 500, capping of two weeks of misery in which he hit everything but the lottery during Speedweeks. His average finish over the first seven races was 30.29, driving for a team that won championships in 2002 and 2005 with Tony Stewart.
So bad were Logano’s first few races that some NASCAR media outlets actually reported that the rookie would be replaced midseason by Martin Truex Jr. That prompted a series of testy denials from team President J.D. Gibbs, who professed, “Joey’s our guy.”
And just as he has behind the wheel, Logano reacted with maturity that belied his young age. “I like this saying: The brighter the spotlight on you, the more bugs it attracts,” he said.
But slowly, as Logano and his crew chief “Zippy” began to build rapport and communication, the results improved. In a nine-race stretch from Phoenix to Infineon Raceway, Logano scored three top-10 finishes and his average finish was 16.56.
And it all paid off Sunday at NHMS, the Connecticut native’s closest thing to a home track in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Logano led the last 10 laps of the race before rain shortened it.
And as David Reutimann discovered earlier this year in the Coca-Cola 600, a rain-shortened first Sprint Cup victory is still a first Sprint Cup victory. “Half of this sport is about putting yourself in position to have a chance to win on Sunday afternoon,” said Zipadelli, a steady veteran who won and lost a few fluke races when Stewart was in the seat of the No. 20 Home Depot car. “And you know, that's what we did today and everything went our way. It's nothing more than that.”
“We know today we were fortunate and we know that there will probably be some tough days out there for us, but absolutely thrilled for Joey and his family, and for us, all of us at Joe Gibbs Racing,” said team owner Joe Gibbs. “We figure we can keep this going, ride this thing for about 20 years.”
And then Gibbs laughed. “But I may not be here for the last 10.”
