Joey Logano Completes his First Race of the Year!

[DebWilliams-GFN]

By Deb Williams

DOVER, Del. (May 31, 2008) – Joey Logano wasn't happy with his sixth-place finish Saturday in his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut at Dover International Speedway, he's only happy when he wins, but he admitted he was glad his inaugural race was over.

“Yes, 10-4 on that,” Logano replied after the rain-delayed Heluva Good! 200 when asked if he was happy to have the event behind him because of the media hoopla surrounding him the last 10 days. “I'm definitely glad to get this behind me. It's been coming up, for Lord knows how long, and to get it behind me, get all this stuff out of the way and run the 17 other races I have now, focus on that and not all this other stuff, that's cool.”

Still, while many drivers would have been ecstatic with a top-10 finish, Logano said happiness was reserved for winning.

“Every one is here for the same reason, and that's to win races,” Logano explained. “But it was a good points day for the (No.) 20 team, keeping them (where they need to be in the owners standings). It was what we needed today. We needed to finish the race and get a top 10, but me, being tough on myself like I always am, I always want more.”

Logano qualified his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota ninth, but then had to endure a slightly more than three-hour rain delay before the race began. Still, Logano said he wasn't too nervous before the race started.

“I woke up this morning a little nervous, but it seemed like after qualifying I was my normal goofy self for some reason,” he continued. “I didn't have much nerves, even during the rain delay. I just hung out and when it was game time, it was game time, but I never really worried about it two much.”

When the green flag finally waved, Logano ran in the top 10 until he made his first pit stop. While attempting to leave his stall on the narrow pit road, Logano collided with Kasey Kahne's Dodge, denting his car's left-front fender. The 18-year-old driver had to return to pit road for repairs and that left him 28th on the restart.

“I might have screwed up in the pits,” said Logano, who noted that overall it was a good day. “We came in and got pinned in behind the (No.) 9 [Kahne] a little bit. I pulled up and then he put it in reverse and backed over my left-front fender. We had to come back in and pull that out, so that kinda put us behind for the rest of the day, trying to get track position.

“At that point, I was pretty ticked off at myself, but we knew what we had to do. We just had to get by all those cars, get our track position back, have some more good pit stops, and get back in that race.”

The Connecticut native quickly worked his way through the field, cracking the top 10 in 18 laps. Logano remained in the top 10 for the remainder of the race and was running fifth with 30 laps remaining. However, with 14 laps to go, former series champion Greg Biffle passed Logano on the outside to claim fifth.

“They [Cup guys] race you really hard, especially when it came down to game time with 20 to 30 (laps) to go. They pick it up quite a bit,” Logano responded when asked to describe the difference between racing the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers and those he had competed against previously.

“Those guys are cool to race with. They race you really hard and they race you really clean. They're going to give-and-take at the beginning of the race, but when it's time to go, it's all out. So it was a fun time out there.”

Logano said he was looking forward to next weekend's race at Nashville [Tenn.] Speedway, because he'd raced there in other series.

“I've tested there a lot in a Cup car,” he added. “So that should be a good place for us, too.”

Next Saturday's Nashville race is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. EDT start.