With change to 96, there's no rain on Logano's parade

LOUDON, N.H. -- As rain rudely assaulted New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Friday, a handful of numeric decals and a bill of sale made all the difference for Sprint Cup newcomer Joey Logano.

About 45 seconds after NASCAR announced that, for the second consecutive Friday, Sprint Cup qualifying was canceled, a writer in the media center hollered at a NASCAR official, "Is Logano in?"

Breath of fresh air

Though just 18, don't expect Joey Logano to lose his head. How can you tell? By listening to him, writes Dave Rodman.

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Logano, 18, will make his Sprint Cup debut Sunday in the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff opener, the Sylvania 300, because Hall of Fame Racing's No. 96 Toyota satisfies the rule book's parameters for a rainout lineup; whereas last weekend at Richmond International Raceway, the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 02 Toyota that was entered for Logano did not.

"It's nice to be in the 96 now and I can at least be in the race," Logano said. "If we would have come back here with the 02 then we would have been going home again. Thank goodness we're not and finally we can get it in here."

Hall of Fame originally entered the veteran Ken Schrader in its car for New Hampshire and JGR entered the 02 for Logano, but on Wednesday, JGR dropped the 02 and HOF put Logano in the 96. Thus Logano, who swept both Camping World East division races here last year including the the June event from the pole, will make his third start at the "Magic Mile" from 40th.

After turning only the 38th-best lap in practice earlier Friday, before the rain came, Logano wasn't sure what to feel after the rainout announcement was made.

"I'm not sure that it's a relief -- it is what it is, you know -- I'm in," Logano said. "I don't think it relieves any pressure from me -- it's what we got. It's kind of good. We'll put everything back in race trim and change a lot of stuff for [Saturday]."

There are two practices scheduled Saturday for Cup cars, the first for 45 minutes with a 65-minute final practice. Logano said he was taking things a step at a time.

"I'm waiting for [the race] to get started," Logano said. "Done with? Not yet. I think I'm looking forward to [Saturday] and we have some things that we're going to try and hopefully get this thing a lot better. That's what I'm really looking forward to right now and after that we'll think about Sunday."

Sunday's event is one of six Cup races this season that are planned for Logano, who will be a 2009 rookie next season when he takes over JGR teammate Tony Stewart's No. 20 Toyota.

This one might be the most complicated, as several JGR crewmen are working on Logano's effort this weekend, including JGR R&D team head Wally Brown, who was scheduled to be his crew chief last weekend. HOF crew chief Steve Boyer still will fill that role when Logano runs the team's cars.

"It was involved," JGR senior vice president of racing operations Jimmy Makar said. "We had to sell this car to [Hall of Fame], obviously under NASCAR rules the car has to belong to the race team."

JGR's Wally Brown will work closely with HOF crew chief Steve Boyer.

As he stood in the 96 car's garage stall, Makar said that when the current chassis are built and certified, they have to be registered to the team that owns them.

On Friday, Logano's ride was exactly as it appeared at Richmond, except it had HOF's 96 on it instead of JGR's 02; and "DLP HDTV" decals were on its "C posts." Despite Hall of Fame desperately working to get back into the top 35 in owner points, which guarantees a weekly starting position, the team's 27 qualifying attempts were enough to get Logano into the field.

At Richmond, Brown said he would be involved in each of Logano's events, primarily during practice, while Boyer would handle the race calls for the Hall of Fame car's events. Virtually all of Logano's numerous Cup tests, at least since the beginning of 2007 when Brown was hired, have been done with the former Roush Fenway Racing engineer.

Familiarity with his racecar aside, one difference Logano immediately found at the tricky New Hampshire oval was that his car was not as close as it was, coming out of the truck at Richmond, where he was ninth in the only practice he ran. Friday, he was 38th and a sizeable six-tenths of a second off fast man Clint Bowyer, the race's defending champion.

"It was long, but we worked on it a lot and got it better -- [but] we still have a lot more work to do," Logano said after practice, noting that this track's proximity to his native Middletown, Conn., about two-and-a-half hours to the southwest, wasn't a total blessing.

"I don't know if it makes it easier or not. I think I had a really good car at Richmond so it probably would have been easier there. Here, we have work to do [but] it's nice to have family support around you and all the family and friends around."

Logano isn't openly passionate, but he appears to know how to focus; and more than a dozen years in racecars have taught him to trust his own instincts. He said he'd sought little advice from his teammates.

"I haven't talked to anyone about [his debut]," Logano said. "It's something you have to deal with and I don't think it's a big deal. To me, I don't think all this stuff is a big deal. It's part of it and I think it's a good thing.

"I don't worry about stuff -- I just worry about my racecar and what makes it go fast and not the off-track pressure about this and that. My nerves are fine, actually -- believe it or not. It's kind of second nature. I was more nervous going into the Nationwide Series than I am the Cup Series, I think, because the Nationwide Series was more unknown to me.

"Here, I feel like I know more what I'm getting myself into. I've tested these cars a lot and I've raced against a lot of these guys in the Nationwide Series. Between that I feel more comfortable coming up here, but we'll have to see."

Logano said he has no definite goal for Sunday, except what he's claimed from the beginning: He's trying to harvest laps and respect.

"I want to go out there and gain as much respect from the guys as we can and make a solid, good finish," Logano said. "I kind of want to see what my car's going to do [Saturday] before I set a goal for the race. If we have a top-10 car then I want to finish in the top 10; but I think the biggest part of this weekend is going to be to gain respect from all those guys because we will race against those guys for a long time."

That's why Mark Martin, who has been singing Logano's praises for years, seemed to bristle at Richmond when he was asked about the legitimacy of Logano making his debut in conjunction with the Chase.

"What is wrong with that?" Martin said at Richmond. "Who [complained]? He'll probably out-run them."