Logano wins first as rain shortens New Hampshire

LOUDON, N.H. -- Another rainstorm. Another first-time winner.

With 28 laps remaining in Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, rain stopped the race and made a winner of rookie Joey Logano, much as it had done for David Reutimann in the Coca-Cola 600 in May.

Sliced Bread -- Logano's nickname, as in the best thing since -- may have been soggy at the finish, but he had enough fuel left in his tank to make it to the end of pit road when NASCAR red-flagged the Sprint Cup race after Lap 273 (watch video).

"I guess I'd rather be lucky than good right now," Logano said as he waited for the decision. "Obviously, we didn't have the car to win, but we've overcame a lot [Sunday] -- tires down and more issues than you can imagine."

Logano became the youngest winner in Cup Series history at 19 years, 1 month, 4 days (watch video), more than a year sooner than Kyle Busch, who went to Victory Lane at Fontana in 2005 at 20 years, 4 months, 2 days.

Stretching his fuel mileage to the limit, Logano stayed on the track and prayed that a large storm that had appeared on the radar would arrive at the 1.058-mile race track before he ran out of gas. After NASCAR threw a yellow flag for rain on Lap 267, Logano still had to complete six circuits under caution before the race was stopped.

Shortly thereafter, NASCAR called the race and declared Logano the winner.

"[Crew chief Greg Zipadelli] said to just stay out, rain's in the area," Logano said. "So we started saving a little bit of fuel ... It's a dream come true, that's for sure."

It was a virtual home victory for Logano, who was raised in Middletown, Conn.

Jeff Gordon, who thought he had won the race with quick work in the pits under green on Lap 235, instead finished second.

"I felt like we had the best car," Gordon said. "The guys got us out first on our last pit stop, but it just got us out ahead of the guys we were racing with."

• Press Pass: Joey Logano | Jeff Gordon | Kurt Busch

He congratulated Logano and said Zipadelli made "a gutsy call" leaving the youngster on track.

"I thought for sure he was going to run out of gas. But we're here on pit road and it's raining hard, so I guess it worked out for him," Gordon said.

Kurt Busch, who won last year's rain-shortened Lenox 301, ran third, followed by Reutimann and Cup points leader Tony Stewart, who saw his advantage shrink to 69 over second-place Gordon.

Ironically, it was Logano's flat tire and a spin on Lap 182 that gave Zipadelli the opportunity to make the winning call. Logano lost a lap during the incident but got it back as the free-pass car after Scott Speed's wreck in Turn 1 on Lap 190. Logano brought his car to pit road for tires and fuel under caution on Lap 193 while the leaders stayed out to retain track position.

"We overcame a lot," Logano said. "We had a left-rear cut down right before we made that last long green-flag run [72 laps before the final caution] and had to overcome that. When that happened, I thought we were done. I thought the day just went bad.

"But we just made the right move at the end. We went for it, and I was just lucky enough to be in the seat."

Logano took the lead when Ryan Newman, trying to stay on track as long as possible with rain threatening, ran out of gas on Lap 264.

Knowing Logano was short on fuel, Gordon tried to run the rookie out of gas during the final six caution laps. Logano would shut off the engine of his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and coast, only to have Gordon pull up beside him to keep pace with the pace car.

"I was just running pace-car speed, and it allowed me to get to the outside of him and make him start his engine and use some fuel, and he didn't like that," Gordon said. "So he moved up so I couldn't get to the outside, so I just went to the inside.

"I didn't want to push him, and I didn't want to back off, because that was our only shot -- for him to run out of fuel."

Stewart, who drove the previous 10 seasons in Gibbs' No. 20 with Zipadelli as his crew chief, had the dominant car in the 2008 race at New Hampshire but was the victim of Busch's good fortune.

"Yeah, I'm happy for Zippy and Joey and all the guys," Stewart said. "Man, you take 'em any way you can get 'em. That's as much a strategy as shocks and springs and everything else. They still had to work to get themselves in that position, so they did a good job."

The race was slowed by 11 caution flags for 47 laps including an eight-car wreck on Lap 175 that took out contenders Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Burton and Brian Vickers.

It appeared that Dale Earnhardt Jr., in third at the time, spun his tires on a restart and Truex, right behind him, slowed and was hit from behind by Kyle Busch, igniting the melee (watch video).

• Note: The battle for the final positions in the 12-driver Chase tightened considerably. Positions 10-14 (Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Juan Montoya, Kasey Kahne and Reutimann, respectively) are covered by a spread of 17 points. Montoya (12th on Sunday) held on to the 12th spot by one point over Kahne, who finished 10th.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.