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AMS President Ed Clark holds Joey Logano's hero card from 2001 when the
NASCAR upstart was racing Legends and Bandolero cars at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Sprint Cup Rookie Joey Logano Has Busy Week Following Daytona Speedweek
Joey Logano visited Atlanta on Tuesday to promote the upcoming Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 8. In addition to interviewing with media, Logano karted against press members and Atlanta Motor Speedway president Ed Clark while visiting Andretti Indoor Karting & Games in Roswell.
Although from Connecticut, Logano cut his teeth racing Legends and Bandolero cars at Atlanta Motor Speedway as a youth. Logano still holds the record for the most consecutive feature wins, with 14, during the 2000 and 2001 seasons.
Since his days as a Legends competitor in Atlanta, Logano has been lauded by NASCAR veteran Mark Martin as, “the real deal,” and garnered the nickname “Sliced Bread” from former NASCAR Nationwide Series champion Randy LaJoie. The phenom won his first Nationwide Series race in only his third start, winning from the pole. The win made Logano the youngest winner in NASCAR Nationwide Series history.
Joey Logano shows off his karting prowess in a media visit to
Atlanta to promote the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Up next Joey Logano and the No. 20 GameStop Toyota team will make their second start of the season this weekend in the Stater Brothers 300 at the Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway (ACS). Logano started third and finished sixth in the 2008 "fall" race at Auto Club Speedway.
"I'm looking forward to going out to the Auto Club Speedway because it's a track where I have experience. Daytona was more like 'learning on the job.' I'll know what to expect this weekend and I know the feeling I'm looking for in the racecar. The GameStop Toyota was pretty good there last fall. We qualified up front and were able to stay up there. My teammate won that race so I have all the confidence that we can go out there and do the same thing."
While Daytona is the most prestigious track on the schedule, downforce tracks like ACS are where championships can be won or lost as they comprise a large portion of the Nationwide Series tracks. The testing ban that NASCAR implemented for 2009 makes this an even more critical race to gauge the current state of your downforce program.
"The track itself is really fun to drive. You have a lot of room to move around and find out what line works best for you. It suits my driving style and I felt comfortable there almost immediately. I'm sure I'll like it even better if we can pick up a win on Saturday."
If the 2008 season is any indication, the No. 20 GameStop Toyota team will be a force to be reckoned with on these tracks. The cars fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide Series scored a total of eight wins on tracks between 1.5 - 2 miles in distance during the past season. In the last race at ACS, Logano crossed the finish line in the sixth position, while his teammate took the checkered flag; as a result, expectations are high for this weekend.
Dave Rogers, who led the No. 20 car to nine wins in 2008, is back as Logano's crew chief this weekend.
"It will be great for our team to get Dave Rogers back this weekend. I thought Ron Denton did very well in his place. That just shows how strong this team is at Joe Gibbs Racing. We have talented people in a lot of key positions that we can plug in and not miss a beat. Dave is one of the best crew chiefs in the garage so this will give us some momentum for California."
Logano has been successful in the state of California. He is a former winner of the Toyota All-Star Showdown held at the Toyota Speedway (Calif.) at Irwindale.
Following this weekend's race the No. 20 GameStop Toyota will be back on the track at the Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on March 21.
Last Updated on 02/18/09
By George Campbell or Greg Fish
Email: neracing@neracing.com
