Logano's much-anticipated Cup Series debut on hold (cont'd)

The rainstorm interrupted what had started in almost fabled fashion for Logano.

A white hauler -- bereft of any signage except for a black Toyota emblem in the center of the tailgate -- Friday sat as far away from the Sprint Cup garage area as you could get in Richmond's infield, and still have a connection to it.

The most telling aspect of how busy life is at the sport's uppermost level was that this truck, which is the workhorse for Joe Gibbs Racing's R&D testing program, didn't even have a proper set of sliding doors sealing the back -- only a flexible, vinyl-like material cut longitudinally in wide strips keeping out the wind, rain and prying eyes.

It was from this location -- which was a familiar one since the Connecticut youngster's done a ballpark 30 Cup Series tests for JGR over the last two years -- that Logano took the first steps in what might be a short journey to setting the Cup landscape on edge. And Logano, like the average 18-year-old, took it all in stride, as he has at every step of his racing career that started more than a decade ago outside Hartford, Conn.

"I'm just excited really," Logano said after practice. "I was really excited to just get out there and practice and see what it's going to be like. It seemed to go pretty good right off the trailer so the car handled pretty good. We tried some different things and it handled a lot like my Nationwide car as far as the attitude of the car -- it would go a little loose and then a little tight."

Logano said that made it easier to go back and forth for about two hours of practice in the Nationwide vehicle before he got in the Cup car.

"Overall it was pretty good," Logano said, displaying a veteran's analytical insight. "I seem to think that the Cup car seems to suit my driving style better than the Nationwide car. When I'm driving the Nationwide car it seems like there is no horsepower and it is all momentum and you have to hustle those cars a lot to get them going. In the Cup cars it seems like you can drive it into the corner straight, get it turning and focus on your forward drive. I think with the Nationwide car you are arcing it in there and getting back to the gas as soon as you can and using the least amount of brake as you can [so] they drive a lot different that way.

"I seem to like the Cup car more, but probably because it has more horsepower and it is more fun to me. To know that you could come off the trailer and be good, that was a big plus for me mentally."

And it was justification for the veteran Mark Martin, who began singing Logano's praises to anyone who would listen, most notably at the 2005 Homestead-Miami Speedway Cup season finale. Martin said he would be comfortable racing a Cup car against Logano then, when the kid was 15 years old.

On Friday, before he knew Logano wouldn't race this weekend Martin was less than low-key about his role in Logano's success, saying he deserved none of the credit.

"I didn't do it, he did it -- and his dad," Martin said. "His dad deserves maybe more than 50 percent [of the credit]. His dad molded the man that [Joey Logano] is and helped him realize his dreams. The kid has got in there and done it ever since he was 10 years old."

Martin first saw Logano racing Legends cars, when Martin's son, Matt, was also racing in that area, and that the elder Martin had no doubt what he saw in Logano.

"I know what I'm looking at [and] I knew he was better than the rest," Martin said. "Same thing you see -- just amazing. He is fast. He knows what he is doing."

Martin said not to try to make Logano's ability more complex than it really is, whenever his first Cup start comes.

"I think he is better than the other guys, it is that simple," Martin said. "It is just not that complex -- he is better than everyone else in his league."