NASCAR phenom Logano to make debut at RIR?

By JILL ERWIN
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
Published: August 13, 2008

Richmond International Raceway is on a short list of tracks to host NASCAR phenom Joey Logano’s Sprint Cup debut.

Several blogs were reporting yesterday that Logano will make his Cup debut at RIR in the Sept. 6 Chevy Rock & Roll 400 in a fourth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

While a JGR spokesman would neither confirm nor deny Logano’s entry here, he said it was definitely a possibility.

“I’m not saying it happen, but right now, I wouldn’t say that sentence, no,“ Bill Janitz said. “There are a lot of options on the table right now, and Richmond is one of them.“

Janitz said the team hopes to have an announcement in the next couple of weeks.

Logano is expected to take over the No. 20 Toyota in 2009 for the departing Tony Stewart, but has no Cup experience. Logano made his Nationwide debut at Dover International Speedway on May 31, one week after his 18th birthday.

He started from the pole in his next two starts, and won from the pole at Kentucky Speedway on June 14. He has six top-10 finishes in his eight career starts.

Logano won the Busch East championship last year as a rookie, clinching at Dover.

Earlier this season, Logano was on a teleconference and responded to a question about the expectations put on him and if he expected to make a Cup start before the end of the year.

“I don’t look that far ahead of me,“ he said. “I’ll let that stuff take care of itself. If we go out there and win races, people are going to realize it, and that’s when we move up. Right now I focus on one day at a time. When Joe and J.D. [Gibbs] say I’m ready, that’s when I’m going to go.“

Stewart is leaving the team to be a co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, a return to Chevrolet. Logano, who was first mentioned by Mark Martin as an heir apparent when he was only 15, is expected to assume the ride.

One stumbling block to putting Logano in the car at Richmond is the race’s status as the cutoff for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. All three of JGR’s drivers are currently in the top 12 in points, but Stewart is seventh and former Chesterfield resident Denny Hamlin is ninth.

JGR officials could decide to hold Logano out to avoid any damage to the Chase hopes of the team’s three full-time Cup drivers. Kyle Busch is leading the points and likely not in danger of falling out of the top 12.