The critics will no doubt look down their nose at the first career Cup win for Joey Logano- who had the thrill of doing his first victory dance in front of his New England “homeys” at New Hampshire. “He was no better than a top 20 car,” “They should have run the last 28 laps on Monday or Tuesday,” “The kid stole the race from Gordon, Stewart and Kurt,” “NASCAR handed a win to their up and coming Golden Boy” and I’m sure there will be other criticisms handed out for Logano like there was for Dale Jr’s win at Michigan last year, Mikey’s 2003 win at Daytona or David Reutimann’s win at Charlotte.
You can say what you want. To be sure, even Logano knows he didn’t even have a top 10 car. On the other hand, no matter what the sport, sometimes the win goes to the lucky, and Sunday, June 28, 2009 was much-ballyhooed rookie’s lucky day.
If you’ll excuse the grammar- ain’t no wins cheap.
For every day like this for Logano, there have been and there will be days where he’ll be running a winning car that will get collected in somebody else’s mess. A tire will go down, a tire changer will botch a pit stop, or any other variety of maladies will undo the best laid and best executed plans of “Team 20″ at Joe Gibbs Racing.
So for what it’s worth, I’d advise letting the young man have his day in the liquid sun. Besides, from everything this observer has seen- this is only the beginning.
Now with that said, the bottom line for this race will not reflect the old school banging
and battling among three of NASCAR’s champions: Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart. Gordon seized on early troubles for Smoke to capture the lead. At every turn, Busch’s “Blue Deuce” was equal to the task, treating fans to the paint trading, side by side battles they’ve been clamoring for.
Kudos to Stewart and Company for taking a back-up car to the front. His run was pretty remarkable and it was fun watching a pair of bad boys make contact when Stewart hooked up with Kyle Busch for a few pleasantries.
Speaking of contact and Busch the younger- fans will no doubt be dishing out the smack over the big re-start wreck caused when Junior spun his tires, Martin Truex Jr. checked up, and Kyle Busch got into the back of Truex- triggering a melee that ruined what was shaping up to be a good day for the “1″ in his native Northeast, and also playing havoc on the fortunes of Kevin Harvick, Casey Mears, Jeff Burton, David Ragan, Brian Vickers, David Reutimann and Jamie Mc Murray. Junior-hating Busch fans will blame it on Junior’s re-start, Shrub-hating Junior fans will blame the “18″ for a perceived impatience. Regardless of how you see it- stuff happens, fans will remain dug in on their opinions and really, it just looked like a racing incident from this point of view.
The day’s results provided another day of needed good runs for racers on the bubble like David Reutimann (he played the rain game to his advantage to take 4th), Kasey Kahne (who took 10th), Juan Pablo Montoya (finishing a respectable 12th) and Mark Martin (whose finish of 14th keeps him in the top 12 for the season standings).
“Atta boys” also go out to other “noobs” like Sam Hornish Jr. (showing again and affinity for flat tracks) for 8th place. Brad Keselowski took a very pleasing 6th place to further suggest he’s worthy of a a full-time ride.
In a perfect world, Joey Logano would have traded paint with a the grizzled veterans of NASCAR on the final lap with a photo finish. Alas, we live in far less than a perfect world. No one has to tell Logano that crew chief extraordanaire Greg Zipadelli is the engineer of this win, and that he is also the beneficiary of stepping into the world of Cup racing within the top flight confines of Joe Gibbs Racing. He is a fortunate son and that’s o.k. There’ll be other days when when Lady Luck- with her capricious nature- will choose to smile on someone else and leave the promising phenom at the altar.
On this day- Logano was lucky- and sometimes it pays to be lucky rather than good. That o.k.- it’s no different than football games won on tipped passes, basketball games won on buzzer heaves, or baseball games called after 5 completed innings due to rain. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, luck is where preparation meets opportunity.
Logano and his team had to race their way back into contention after early misfortune in this race, and the fact they were in a position to benefit from the rain says a great deal about the driver, his crew chief and his team.
That’s racin’.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree “That’s Racin.” How many Daytona 500 winners are there that won because of rain and that’s suppose to be the biggest race of the year.
Well I guess a win is a win but come on the car was lousy. They were a 20th place car at best. It is one thing if someone who is a contender wins by fuel mileage or weather, but this car was not good yesterday. It is frustrating for me to see Gibbs win. It appears that Logano although only 19 is allready more mature and a better guy than his two teamates but I would rather see a car that ran good win. Besides if someone was going to have a win drop in thier lap I would rather see it be Bobby LaBonte and the Yates team. It has been awhile since any of those guys won. That would have been better in my opinion. This one just doesn’t sit well with me. That is my two cents worth. Missed you last week Jim. Good to have you back.