Logano a breath of fresh air although unproven in  Cup (cont'd)

The interesting thing will be what happens at New Hampshire this weekend now that Logano's Sprint Cup debut -- while in no way guaranteed -- is once again online after Joe Gibbs Racing, which true to team president J.D. Gibbs' words on Sunday about wanting to do everything in its power to enable Logano to make his first series start in a car in Home Depot livery, entered just such a vehicle on Tuesday morning.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway could be considered one of Logano's home tracks, since he won his first racing championships while still based in Connecticut. New Hampshire -- and New England -- fans truly latch onto one of their own in a devout manner.

Above all, don't expect him to lose his head, or the beat. A year ago, one of the funniest things ever in a post-race media briefing occurred when Logano and one of his youthful driving counterparts showed up for a post-Busch East race event. While waiting for the coordinator to show up and not realizing the microphones were live, Logano proceeded to entertain everyone pounding away on their computers in the adjacent work room with a rap-music duet, complete with mimicked turntable-scratching accompaniments.

Again, just what you'd expect out of a teenager -- and just priceless when you consider he's someone who'll be contending at this level for a good long time from now.

How can you tell that? You can do it just by listening to him. It's unlikely he'll get himself into a jam.

"I'm a competitive person, but you have to be smart about it," Logano said. "That's what I try to do every race I go into. Yeah, I want to go out there and win every race, but if I have a fifth-place car I'm going to finish fifth. I'm not going to try to get something more than I really have. That's when you get yourself in trouble."

"So I'm going to race everyone smart and I'm going to race everyone clean and that's how we are going to do it. That's the plan when we go out there -- to do the best we can with what we've got and just gain a lot of respect out there for next year."

Logano's JGR Toyotas have indeed been the great equalizers so far, but in no way does that diminish what he brings to the table. And again, the way he respects where he is without backing off an inch.

"Sometimes you're like, 'There's Jeff Gordon, there's Mark Martin' -- all the guys you looked at as a kid growing up," Logano said. "Actually to be on the same racetrack racing with them -- that's a big deal. At least it is for me.

"So I think, yeah, you think about [who you're racing against] sometimes, but at the same time you can't let it bother you. You have to race them the same way you would race anyone else and you have to be smart about it. You still have to race them."

And that may lead to the only surprise Logano has left, which is how long it'll take for his first Cup victory to come.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.