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At Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2005, after finishing second in the Cup Series' finale, Mark Martin was asked about the best up-and-coming drivers that he knew of.

Martin didn't hesitate, and was flowery in his praise of a 15-year-old that he'd helped in Legends Car racing, and who Martin said he'd be comfortable racing against in Cup, immediately -- never mind waiting for NASCAR's age limits to be met.

“

Joey has a unique gift for bringing his guys together -- we saw that with some of our guys on the team and that means a lot. It's not so much an age thing. We think he's ready and we think he has a gift for it.

”

-- J.D. GIBBS

That youngster, Joey Logano, makes his debut in the Nationwide Series on Saturday at Dover, one week after he turned 18.

Logano has built a solid foundation that's interlaced with gold bricks every step of the way, beginning in Quarter Midgets, Bandoleros and Legends Cars; moving to Late Models and the Hooters Pro Cup; and finally to the Camping World East and West series.

It's ironic that a video game retailer -- GameStop -- is his sponsor, because Logano's career and his achievements to this point have been quite vividly real.

"To get that first start at Dover, thank God, finally -- it seems like I've been waiting for 18 years," Logano said. "I'm really, really excited to get in that 20 car and see what we can do." (Video)

A lot of eyes will be on Logano, not only due to what he's done, but also because of what Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 20 Toyota have done.

The car won the seson opener at Daytona with Tony Stewart and has won six times this season, with all three of Gibbs' Cup drivers, including four victories in a row. That streak was broken last weekend at Charlotte, ironically by Gibbs driver Kyle Busch, who was wheeling a Braun Racing car, as he often does in the Nationwide Series.

JGR president J.D. Gibbs said last Saturday's announcement was the latest watershed moment for the team's relationship with Logano.

"For us, this is a big day," Gibbs said while celebrating Logano's birthday and announcing his sponsorship with GameStop. "We've been working with Joey, his mom and dad -- thanks for all their support for the past three and a half years.

"We've got to know the family. What's special about Joey is that he has a gift on the racetrack [but] I think what's really neat is the way he interacts with his family, the way they care about each other, love each other and the history that he has, being as young as he is.

"We really can't tell you how excited we are to spend the next, hopefully, 20 or 30 years or a long time together."

Team owner Joe Gibbs, who has spent more time around NASCAR since leaving his other career as coach of the NFL's Washington Redskins, was equally enthused.

"We've been waiting a long time for Joey and I think he's had a total of about 32 tests this year in our cars," Joe Gibbs said. "We tried to keep him in everything we could and I think we all feel the same way that we want to get him in everything we can as fast as we can, but at the same time we want to make sure that we don't put undo pressure on Joey."

Logano coming so highly recommended was one thing, but he's continued to excel, J.D. Gibbs said, making him confident Logano's potential was real.

"I think for us -- we've been in this sport for quite a while, almost 18 years now -- and generally when a guy shows that he has a gift, whether he is starting in Midgets or go-karts, running Late Models or doing some ARCA or Truck races, when you excel in each of those series odds are that you have a great shot at excelling at the next level," Gibbs said. "When our Cup guys really had some time with him, they were bragging on him and said he was ready now -- and that was last year.

"That kind of goes back to what Mark Martin told me several years ago when [Logano] was still 15 and that he could go out there right now and drive these cars. I thought [Martin] was crazy at the time, but Mark has good wisdom because he really wasn't that far off.

"What we're going to try to do is just make sure that off the track, that's where things get hard these days -- a lot of travel, a lot of appearances and a lot of things."

Prelude to the Dream

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J.D. Gibbs said that because he and his father believed in a properly spaced learning curve, there was no hurry to push Logano into Cup racing too quickly and that, barring something spectacular, he would only do his 18 planned Nationwide Series races and some spot ARCA starts this season.

"We know on the track he'll be fine," J.D. Gibbs said. "We're in no hurry to get him out there in the Cup Series. Let's just enjoy this Nationwide thing and take it as long as we can and then off the track make sure we do a good job of making sure that he feels he has fun, which is the key to all this."

"For us it's exciting because the talent and the most important thing for us is that we're not putting undo pressure on Joey, like I said, to run up front each and every week," Joe Gibbs said. "For us, it's whatever the timing is. We're committed, Toyota's committed and I think it's exciting for us to see young people that have great talent, have a tremendous desire, but not only that is a tribute to his family and the fact that we feel like he's the right kind of person.

"That's more important for us and I think this is an exciting time for us. J.D. doesn't know how to pay any attention to his dad, but I notice that Joey does pay attention to his dad."

And he's paid attention to what his new ride has done -- but far from being awed or nervous about it, he's quite the opposite; in fact, he's cool and as confident as would be expected.

"I'm definitely getting in one of the best cars," Logano said. "Hopefully we can keep that going at Dover. I would rather be in a car that's winning races and I know can win races rather than a car that's going to run 25th place.

"Definitely there's more pressure, but it's a lot better running up front. I would rather run up front than have a good finish being 20th."

J.D. Gibbs summed up his organization's confidence in Logano by saying his ability, in the end; and his maturity made a big difference.

"We don't care, as a team if a guy's 18 or 50 -- if you can go, you can go," Gibbs said. "It's not really an age thing for us. I think Kyle [Busch] was even younger when he started years ago.

"I think Denny [Hamlin] could have started if we would have gotten him earlier. I think Tony [Stewart] could have started younger. It's not so much an age thing as it is just do you have the gift or the skill.

"Joey has a unique gift for bringing his guys together -- we saw that with some of our guys on the team and that means a lot. It's not so much an age thing. We think he's ready and we think he has a gift for it."

That story will begin to unfold on Friday when practice and qualifying at Dover are scheduled.

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