Biography
Joey Logano isn't the typical teenager. While most 18-year-olds are looking forward to high school graduation, Logano is looking forward to making his full-time debut in the competitive world of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) racing in 2009. He may not be wearing school colors, but Logano will don the signature orange and white of The Home Depot, one of the most successful sponsors in the sport during the last decade. Logano, led by tenured and successful Crew Chief Greg Zipadelli, will run for rookie of the year honors in the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Logano's road to Joe Gibbs Racing and the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota began when he was just 6 years old and began competing in Quarter-Midgets throughout the Northeast. At the tender age of 7, he captured the 1997 Eastern Grand National Championship in the Junior Stock Car Quarter Midget division. As he continued through the Quarter-Midget ranks, he followed up his first title with Eastern Grand National Championships in 1998 and 1999.
In the middle of 1999, the Logano family moved from Connecticut to an Atlanta suburb where he began racing Bandoleros Bandits and became the National Bandoleros Bandits Champion. Logano also became the youngest driver to compete in a Legends car when he made a start in a Legends car at nine years of age. The following year he captured the Bandoleros division championships at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway in
Concord, N.C.
From there it was onto Legend cars full time, where a 12-year-old Logano set a track record of 14 consecutive wins at Atlanta Motor Speedway, along with winning the Young Lions National championship in 2002. Logano also won the Pro National championship that year, making him the youngest champion in Legends history.
Logano's racing career kicked into high gear in 2005 when he was signed as a development driver by the legendary Joe Gibbs Racing. As part of that development program, Logano started competing in the USAR Hooter's Pro Cup Series. The youngster made his debut in the series just four days after his 15th birthday and earned his first Pro Cup Series victory on June 11 at Mansfield (Ohio) Motorsports Park. In 14 starts in the series that year, Logano tallied one win, six top-five and seven top-10 finishes, leading respected NASCAR veteran Mark Martin to call Logano the "real deal" at just 15 years of age.
The young talent competed in the Pro Cup Series in 2006, scoring another two wins before beginning his NASCAR career in 2007. Logano visited victory lane in his Joe Gibbs Racing debut in the NASCAR Camping World Series West race at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway on April 19. He then won the NASCAR Camping World East Series season-opener on April 28 en route to the NASCAR Camping World Series East Championship as a rookie with five wins, two poles, 10 top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in just 14 starts. Logano won a total of seven races at six different tracks in 2007: twice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and once each at Greenville-Pickens (S.C.) Speedway, Iowa Speedway, Adirondack (N.Y.) International Speedway, Phoenix and at the Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway on Oct. 20.
The 2008 season was a year of NASCAR firsts for Logano. Not only was he part of the four-driver team to capture the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series Owner's Championship in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, but he made his NASCAR Sprint Cup debut at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the No. 96 Home Depot Toyota on Sept. 14.
Having to wait to make his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut until he turned 18 in May, Logano kept busy by competing in a variety of events including the ARCA RE/MAX Series event at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway on May 4. In his first start in the ARCA Series he started from the pole and went on to lead the Carolina 500 five times for a race-high 257 laps on his way to victory lane.
Less than two weeks after turning 18 in May, Logano made his Nationwide Series debut at Dover (Del.) International Speedway and earned his first pole in only his second-career start at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway in June. His third start in the Nationwide Series would be one for the record books. Logano captured the pole at Kentucky Speedway on his way to becoming the youngest winner in Nationwide Series history at 18 years and 21 days on June 14. He would compete in a total of 19 Nationwide Series events - 18 races in the No. 20 and one in the No. 18 Toyotas - earning one win, three poles and 14 top-10 finishes. Logano, along with Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch combined for nine wins, five poles, 16 top-five and 25 top-10 finishes in the No. 20 Toyota in the Nationwide Series. Logano secured the car owner's championship for the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team by a 12-point margin in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a 10th-place finish.
After making his Sprint Cup Series debut in Loudon, N.H., Logano made additional Sprint Cup starts at Kansas Speedway in September and Texas Motor Speedway in November - all in preparation for the 2009 season.
Logano looks ahead to his rookie season in one of the most difficult racing series in the world. With the backing of The Home Depot, the equipment of Joe Gibbs Racing, the leadership of Zipadelli and Logano's proven talent, one can only imagine the possibilities for Logano during the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
