LAS VEGAS -- Joey Logano's having fun in NASCAR these days and he's delivering results, like a coming-on sixth place finish Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Shelby American.

If he ever gets the experience to match his enjoyment level, look out, he might really go places. And that's the key here, because this kid's career only encompasses 42 races.

“

The last two weeks on the last run we've had the car just about right and able to move forward, so it's cool. I can't tell you how much more fun it is than last year.

”

-- JOEY LOGANO

The fact that Logano is eighth in the championship, compared to 32nd at this time a year ago puts the glee quotient off the chart. Logano just laughed when he really tried to quantify how much he's enjoying this.

"About 20 times the amount as last year," he said. "Last year, at this time I was ready to kill myself and this year I'm definitely having a blast, and that all comes with running good.

"It makes it a lot more fun when you come to a race track instead of dreading going to the next race because 'I don't know if we're going to be good here?' Now I'm pumped up and looking forward to getting back to the race track, so it's fun."

Logano had a lot to be satisfied with after logging only the ninth top-10 finish of his career, but the second-in-a-row after a fifth last weekend at Fontana.

"We did a good job adjusting the race car [Sunday]," Logano said. "We didn't start the race that well. We started sixth and fell back to 17th or so, just spinning-out loose. They did a good job on bringing it back and not over-adjusting.

"Zippy [crew chief Greg Zipadelli] did a good job with improving the car throughout the race. To come back at the end, that's what's cool because you don't want to fall back right at the end of the race. When everyone's going hard you want to keep going.

"The last two weeks on the last run we've had the car just about right and able to move forward, so it's cool. I can't tell you how much more fun it is than last year."

At Las Vegas, the final restart in the season's third race came with 34 laps remaining. The race's seventh caution came just in time to keep Logano, not to mention Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton from going a lap down to leader Jeff Gordon. But in the end, "the youngster" was the only one of that trio to come forward.

Logano restarted 10th and slowly, inexorably came toward the front. To a degree, only the lack of miles kept him from going further. But his consistent lapping at "go time" got a mental calculation going. And actually putting pen to paper brought it into focus.

At 19, in his second full Cup season and with a single win; here's what Logano was running down in the stretch. Five guys: race winner Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth; with an average of 466 Cup starts apiece, nine Cup championships total, an average of 40 Cup wins each and an average age of 38.8. (Continued)