Logano now full throttle with Cup future decided

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- Joe Gibbs recently took two of his grandchildren to a place called The Pit, where go-kart racing is all the rage.

As they stood in line waiting for their rides, Gibbs noticed two young men on the track.

Joe Gibbs Racing

2008 Cup stats

Driver	W	T-5	T-10
Tony Stewart	0	8	12
Denny Hamlin	1	7	12
Kyle Busch	8	15	16
Totals	9	30	40

2008 Nationwide stats

Driver	W	T-5	T-10
Tony Stewart	5	6	8
Denny Hamlin	3	5	5
Kyle Busch	5	8	9
Joey Logano	1	3	7
Totals	14	22	29

"Watch that one," he told one of his grandchildren, gesturing at a lanky teenager folded up into one of the small but quick machines. "He's pretty good."

A few minutes later, the go-kart pulled up in front of them and stopped. Out climbed the youngster who had drawn the attention of the man they call Coach, and off came his helmet.

Gibbs smiled at the young man, who returned the favor. Turns out they knew each other pretty well, and will be getting to know each other even better in the years to come.

The young go-kart driver was Joey Logano, who on Monday was officially named the future full-time driver of the No. 20 Toyota fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing in the Sprint Cup Series. Beginning next season, when current driver Tony Stewart moves on to his own new racing endeavors at Stewart-Haas Racing, Logano will move into the hotseat of the car that will continue to be sponsored by Home Depot.

Coach Gibbs acknowledged that young Joey might not know "how to saw or swing a hammer." But he did have some simple advice. With Frank Bifulco, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Home Depot sitting directly to his left, Gibbs turned to Logano at Monday's news conference, laughed and added, "Get started with that, will you?"

High expectations

Logano is ready to get started -- racing at the Cup level, that is. But at only 18 years of age, despite a rich resume, what everyone is aching to know is if he really is ready to go Cup racing.

Does he have the experience to be successful on the track? Is he mature enough to handle all that transpires off it, including the demands of a high-dollar sponsor such as Home Depot?

Those who appear to be in the know say yes to all of the above.

As for the first question, the man who will be his crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, reminded everyone that when he first arrived on the Cup scene with Stewart in 1999, no one was sure what the two of them would be able to accomplish. They won three races that year and 32 over the next 10, while claiming points championships in 2002 and 2005.

He said he expects Logano's first year in Cup to be similar to the one Stewart pulled off in 1999. And he's serious. Zipadelli even mentioned the possibility that Logano could be one of the 12 Cup drivers who qualify for the Chase next season -- as a rookie.

"Tony obviously came in with a lot more racing experience in a lot of different series," Zipadelli said. "But you go back and look at how much Joey has done, and it's kind of amazing that he can have the amount of experience that he has for someone who's only 18.

"I know this is crazy, but there is no reason in my mind why we can't go out and put ourselves in position to win a couple of races next year. ... Whether we can close the deal and all that, well, you know how hard it is in this sport. But obviously we're going to set our goals, and one of them will be to make the Chase. That's what this sport is all about; it's about being consistent. If we can do that week in and week out and make the least amount of mistakes, I think we'll be able to overcome some of the learning curve for Joey and myself and have a successful season."

To which Logano, sitting next to Zipadelli, quickly added: "He's the boss. That sounds like a good plan, so we'll stick with that."

That comment in itself was a sign of the young man being mature beyond his years, but then that comes as no surprise to his father, Tom.

"He's mature for his age, when he wants to be," said Dad, smiling broadly. "He's a happy-go-lucky kid. I'm sure there will be some bumps and bruises along the way, but he's always been able to deal with that.

"Different people mature at different rates. He just stepped to the plate, as he has all his life, ahead of schedule."

Championship DNA

Logano may not have been on this earth long enough or away from the racetrack enough to know all that much about the home-improvement business. But he does have a feel for how the sponsorship stuff works in NASCAR.

So the truth is while he might turn a wrench or even two in the garage area now and again at the racetrack, he's likely to leave the sawing and swinging of hammers to others. And that's just fine with Home Depot.

Joey Logano is the youngest driver in history to win a race in NASCAR's second-tier division. He did it in his third career Nationwide start earlier this year at the age of 18 years and 21 days.

• Logano to drive JGR's No. 20
• Teen makes history with win

Bifulco admitted there was much internal discussion at his company about replacing Stewart, who has been a stalwart centerpiece of marketing and advertising campaigns at Home Depot for nearly a decade now, with Logano, who is nearly two decades younger.

In the end, Logano's appeal was strong enough for the company to not only commit to a big check for next season, but for several years beyond (Gibbs and Bifulco would not disclose the exact number). Bifulco explained why.

"We're in a world now where you have a 72-year-old running for president, and you have 18- and 19-year-old young men and women fighting wars," Bifulco said. "I kind of don't like the notion of Joey as the kid. I think what we see in Joey is a mature young man who has the values, the work ethic and the competence. You look at what Joey has done already behind the wheel of a car, and that certainly gives us comfort going forward that he can deal with the pros."

Bifulco, it was assumed, was talking about the other professional drivers Logano will meet on the track. But he might have been talking about the pros in marketing and advertising whom he insisted will work with Logano to help the young man find a way to sell more saws and hammers at the Home Depot even if he has no idea how to use them.

And again, that comes back to being ready to be successful first on the track. That is the platform from which all else flows.

"When you have an association the way I think we do at Home Depot with Joe Gibbs Racing, you have shared accountabilities and specific responsibilities," Bifulco said. "When Coach and [team president] J.D. [Gibbs, Joe's son] come to us and say they think they have a driver worthy of getting into the No. 20 car, they're the experts. We're not. We're going to defer to their judgment.

"Certainly we had robust discussions about it. But after meeting with Joey and his parents and seeing what he can do and the type of individual and young man he is ... we know Joey has championship-caliber DNA."

From trash to tracks

Tom Logano was in the garbage business in Portland, Conn., and did not aspire to have Joey become a racer.

"He was in a eight-horsepower go-kart at age 4, running around the dumpsters and trailer trucks that I owned up there," the elder Logano said. "We knew he was having fun and doing some things, but I never followed racing. I'm not a racer. I was a baseball coach. Well, I was his T-ball coach and his basketball coach. He hated it; he wanted no part of that. But he loved that go-kart.

"We put him in a quarter-midget and we knew he was above-average. But a lot of kids are above-average. We went down to Georgia and put him in a Legends car at 9 years old and he kept winning. That's when we said, 'Wow, this kid's really special.' "

By then, Tom Logano had sold Logano Trucking, which had dealt with disposal of hazardous construction and demolition debris, and was starting to see that there might be bright lights at the end of the tunnel Joey was racing through ever so rapidly.

At age 12, Logano won the National Pro Legends championship and caught the attention of veteran Cup driver Mark Martin. By 15, he had signed with JGR as a developmental driver -- or rather his father had signed for him. It wasn't until last Monday that Joey actually was old enough to seal an agreement with JGR with his own signature.

By then Logano had already become the youngest driver in history to win a race in NASCAR's second-tier division, now known as the Nationwide Series. He did it in his third career Nationwide start earlier this year at the age of 18 years and 21 days.

That broke the record of Casey Atwood, who did it in 1999 at the age of 18 years, 10 months and 26 days, and was promptly anointed as the next great stock-car driver. Atwood eventually has endured a rocky career during which he has failed to live up to expectations. That is another story, but one that Logano is determined not to repeat.

Despite his youth and his father's insistence that Joey "can be a normal kid" who enjoys some other facets of life such as boating, water-skiing, skating, ice hockey and the occasional video game, Logano insists that he is well aware of all that awaits him. He knows his life is about to become a full-throttle existence, with JGR planning for him to run not only the full Cup schedule next season but possibly even a full Nationwide Series schedule.

"I feel I'm mature," Logano said. "I've been racing my whole life. Being associated with Joe Gibbs Racing the last three years has made me a lot more mature -- talking to the guys and hanging with Zip, doing all the testing that we've done. That has helped me on and off the racetrack. My family also has helped me mature as a teenager.

"So I feel I'm ready for this. There are still times where I can be a kid. But what do I do? I usually go go-kart racing with my friends or something like that."

Tell Coach something he doesn't already know.

• Related: Silly Season 2008 | Logano to replace Stewart in No. 20