Logano poised for Nationwide debut
Joey Logano is ready to race a Nationwide Series car for the first time next weekend at Dover, when he will drive for Joe Gibbs Racing after celebrating his 18th birthday this Saturday
Logano is a development driver for JGR and one of the most promising talents to come along in recent years.
Last year he won the NASCAR Camping World East Series and his much-anticipated debut in one of the National Series will happen now that he has reached the minimum age to compete at that level.
"I'm really excited to get in the car a Dover," said Logano at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "It's going to be really neat. To get that first start at Dover, thank god, finally - it seems like I've been waiting for 18 years. I'm really, really excited to get in that 20 car and see what I can do."
The 18-year-old from Middletown, Connecticut is regarded as the next big thing and is currently under contract to a team already filled with young talents, Joe Gibbs Racing. His first race comes after a series of tests, which will allow him to hit the ground running at Dover next weekend.
"We've been waiting a long time for Joey and I think he's had a total of 32 tests this year in our cars," said team owner Joe Gibbs.
"We tried to keep him in everything we could and I think we all feel the same way that we want to get him in everything we can as fast as we can, but at the same time we want to make sure that we don't put undue pressure on Joey."
Logano is expected to compete in at least 18 Nationwide Series races and a number of ARCA outings. He won on his ARCA debut at Rockingham earlier during this month, but his current bosses are in no hurry to get him up to Sprint Cup level this year.
"The Cup thing we're in no hurry, we're just going to watch and wait," said JGR president J.D. Gibbs. "Eventually he's going to have a spot in this sport for many years to come in the Cup series. We're not going to rush him to get there. I think we're just going to let him enjoy what he's doing now and kind of grow."
Logano will drive the No. 20 car, which has already been to Victory Lane in the Nationwide Series several times this season after Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin have won at least a race apiece with it.
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