By now most of the NASCAR community, is aware of that Joey Logano will be the driver to replace Tony Stewart in the number 20 car, starting in 2009.
But until he makes his debut in the number 20 car, as I had reported in the Logano in Home depot for 2009 post, Logano’s first sprint cup debut race will actually be in the 2008 season. And that race will be at the Richmond International Speedway.
Yup, the track where earlier this season, Kyle Busch, and Dale Earnhardt Junior tangled together, fighting hard for the win at the closing laps of the race. After kyle and dale junior tangled, Clint Bowyer would go on to the win the race.
Logano will drive in the number 02 Home Depot. As you can see from the photo below, the paint scheme, is a backwards paint scheme. That is to say, that the colors are reversed on the usual home depot look.
When will the Richmond race be on?
The race will be aired on ABC, beginning at 7pm Eastern on September 6, 2008. At 7pm, it will be the NASCAR countdown to green. And scheduled green flag drop is around 7:45 pm eastern time. If you miss this historic event, no worries there are replays!
Replay times for Chevy Rock and Roll 400 at Richmond International Speedway
Monday, September 7, 2008 at 3:30am eastern time on ESPN2
Monday, September 7, 2008 at 10:00am eastern time on ESPN Classic
Thursday, September 11 at 12:00pm eastern time on SPEED
If I receive any more details, I will post it as soon as I can!
After much anticipated hype, today Joey Logano was officially named the replacement driver for Tony Stewart for 2009. Joey will be driving the number 20 car starting in 2009, with Greg Zipadelli as his crew chief.
Home depot depot had been sponsoring the number 20 car for 10 years, with Tony Stewart as its driver. Today, Home depot was thrilled welcome Joey Logano, as the new driver of the number 20 car. Home depot, will be staying on board with the number 20 car, threw 2009 and beyond.
What cup car will joey Logano be racing in 2008?
It has been in the rumor mill for a while. But today it was officially announced by Joe Gibbs racing. The current plan as it stands, is for Joey Logano to make his sprint cup debut at Richmond, the last race before the chase begins. Joey will be driving the number 02 car, in a fourth Joe Gibbs Racing Car.
They also plan to run Joey in 5 races in the number 96 hall of fame racing car. Hall of fame racing get’s its engines and chassis from Joe Gibbs Racing.
Joey Logano is also scheduled to run in an Arca race in the ARCA REMAX 250 at Talladega Superspeedway. The race will be run for 250 miles, on October 3rd, and will televised on speed TV live at 5pm Eastern time. Logano will run this race in order for him to be eligible to cleared by Nascar to run at Daytona in 2009.
Joey Logano Nationwide 2009 Plans
Joe Gibbs racing is also planning to run Joey Logano as close as possible to a full time schedule in the nationwide series in 2009. This will give Joey Logano more seat time, and allow the young phenom to learn even more behind the wheel.
Predictions?
When do you predict that Joey Logano will win his first sprint cup race? And at what track? Leave a comment with your predictions!
This weekend Joey Logano drove the Gamestop/Call of Duty Toyota Camry at the Bristol Motorspeed way, for some good ol short track racing under the lights. Heading into Bristol, Joey’s team would have a few changes made behind the scenes. One them being that Wally Brown, was made the interim crew chief for the number 20 gamestop Toyota.
Here was Wally Brown’s opinions on being in the crew chief for Joey Logano at Bristol.
“While the circumstances are far from ideal, I’m looking forward to Bristol and getting to work with Joey Logano in this weekend’s Nationwide Series race. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Joey throughout the past couple of years on the JGR Sprint Cup test team and I’ve obviously been impressed with his natural talent and ability to give excellent feedback on the handling of his race car. It’s a really unfortunate situation, but we are going to work hard in order to run up front and be in contention to win like this team has all year long.”
Here was what Joey Logano had to say about working with his new crew chief Wall Brown:
“It will be cool working with Wally in a race. I’ve worked with him a lot in the JGR Sprint Cup testing team but never under race conditions. I probably have more time working with Wally, overall, than I have with Dave. It’s a really unfortunate situation, but I think we can still be really competitive this weekend and beyond. We are going to sit down and talk to each other about the car and what we need to do to run well this weekend in Bristol. He knows what I want in a race car and I know his mindset setting up the car. I’ve really worked with him closely since he came over to JGR in 2006, so it will be nice to still have someone around that I’m really comfortable with and can communicate well with.”
Joey’s thoughts on running short tracks
“I look forward to it. There’s no doubt it’s the most physically demanding track we run at. You push so many G’s through the corner that you spend so much time down and to the right in the seat, and you really don’t have much time to think. As soon as you come out of the corner and onto the straightaway, you are back in the corner again before you know it. You have to be on your ‘A’ game every lap at Bristol. But I feel like I’m prepared for a place like Bristol. Even though I don’t look it, I work out at the shop every day and it’s one of those races that the workout regimen will always pay off.”
During Logano’s qualifying attempt for the Food City 250, on the second lap coming off turn 4, the car broke loose, and the crew for the number 20 car had to bring out a backup car for Joey. This would be the first time in the nationwide series that Joey has had to go to a backup car. Since this was an impound race, it meant that, Joey would have to start at the back of the pack, and with a race car that he had not yet had any laps on the track with.
Joey’s Thoughts on his qualifying run:
“I hate it for the guys here, we changed everything right after practice trying to get some more speed out of the car, and just got really loose, I about wrecked on the first lap, and I just tried to get a little bit more out of it on the second lap. I just got loose, I just hate it for the whole gamestop crew, we are trying really hard to get another win under our belts and it’s not what we needed, but we will put that behind us, and we will go out with the backup car and see what we got.”
During the race Logano did a great job, and rebounded from a 38th starting position, to finish in the 16th position. A good day for Logano, considering that he was in a backup car, that had no laps in it, prior to the race. Even with the 16th place finish by Logano, the number 20 car is still holding the lead in the car owner points, by a points margin of 103 over the number 2 car of RCR.
Logano’s comments on the race
“It was a long day, that’s for sure, It’s appropriate that we had the Call of Duty game on the GameStop car tonight, because it certainly was a war out there. We started in the back and worked on our car and started working our way to the front and finally got some decent track position. I’ve got to hand it to all the guys who worked hard back at the shop and here at the track to get our cars ready to race.”
Next week Logano will in racing at Fontana, California, in the Camping world RV service 300. For the east coasters the race will start later than usual, starting at 10pm Eastern time, with the pre-race show on ESPN2 begining at 9:30pm eastern time.
I am constantly trying to add new features to this fan website for Joey Logano, and now I am officially announcing another great update! You can now easily subscribe to this blog, and receive updates. The updates can be received either via email, or by your favorite rss feed reader.
Receiving Joey Logano Updates Via Email
Just Simply fill out your email address below. You will also be able to enter your email address on the sidebar of this website.
There are some more features coming soon, so keep coming back, as its only going to get better!
As I posted in the 2008 Joey Logano Schedule, going by that schedule, Joey Logano was not scheduled to race at the Michigan International Raceway. Tony Stewart was going to be piloting the number 20 Old spice Toyota. While Kyle Busch, was going to be in the number 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota.
However, Joe Gibbs, Asked his driver Kyle Busch, if he could give up his ride, for Joey Logano to gain experience at a 2 mile oval. Kyle Busch, said yes he would let him, therefore this weekend, we had Joey Logano sporting a new car number, new crew chief, new uniform, and alot of new things.
During both Practice sessions, Joey Logano was in the top 10. However, there was alot of work made to the car before the qualifying session. The team was caught off guard, when they first went on the track to Michigan. They experienced both real loose conditions, to real tight conditions. In the end of the qualifying session, Logano was able to out qualify his Joe Gibbs teammate Tony Stewart, and Logano would be starting in the sixth position, for the Carfax 250 at Michigan International Speedway.
After his qualifying run, Logano, thought he still had a little bit left in the car, but was happy with his sixth place starting position.
Video Of Joey Logano Qualifying run at Michigan
Logano would go on to have a pretty decent day at Michigan, he would bring home his Z-line Designs Toyota, in the seventh position. Making this the eight top 10 finish for his nationwide series career. Joey is continuing to show the world, that he has the skills to get it done on the race track.
Next week, Joey Logano will be back in the number 20 Gamestop Toyota. Joey will go short track racing, at the famous Bristol Motorspeedway. The race will be aired on ESPN, starting at 7:30 pm Eastern time, and they will run a total of 250 laps. Which is exactly half the laps that the sprint cup series does. The race will be run under the banner of 2008 food City 250, and will mark the 26th race out of the total 35 races in the nationwide series.
Are you looking forward to seing Joey at Bristol? I personaly can’t wait!
For the second week in a row, Joey Logano got his chance to turn left and right at a road course. Last week, he was racing in Canada. Today, he raced at Watkins Glen, in New York. Today, Joey Logano sported the GameStop/PSP Toyota.
At Watkins glen, they also qualified under the European qualifying format style. During the qualifying session, Logano’s best lap time was a 74.673, which would put in the 20th position, the same number as his car. The winner of the qualifying session would eventually be, Dario Franchitti, in the Fastenal Dodge, who ran a hot lap of 72.696.
During the race, Logano would use his prior race experience, patience, to bring home another top 10 finish, which would be his sixth top 10 finish.
Logano’s comments on the race, “I learned a lot this weekend, and I picked up a whole lot through the whole race,” and he also had to say, “Dave Rogers made an awesome call on our fuel mileage and that got us the finish we ended up with. I’ll take what I learned and be happy with it. I’m glad I’ve got something to go back to next time we race here.”
At one point in the race Logano was not very confident about how he was doing at the Glen. But his crew chief Dave Rogers, encouraged his driver. Logano also said that he is looking forward to running back at ovals, next week.
Next week, the nationwide series will be racing at Michigan International Speedway. The race will be aired on ESPN 2, and will start at 3 pm Eastern time, Saturday, August 16th.
At Montreal, history was made for the nationwide series and also Joey Logano. The race started off with being in the dry, but as soon as the green flag dropped, lightning was seen from afar. Everyone knew rain was coming, and it was just a matter of time before it started raining on the trace track.
Six laps into the race and it started to rain, and nascar decided to call caution on the track, and then on lap 8 they stopped the cars on pit road. It was then that the nascar guys, decide to put on the rain tires, and let the boys race in the rain for the first time in nationwide history! Not only did the drivers put on the rain tires, but most of the nascar nationwide teams also installed windshield wipers on their cars.
Nascar would restart the race again on lap 14, and they would race in the rain. Still though, eventually nascar had to call off the race. The race was eventually called off on lap 48 because of poor visibility, and the rain was falling down very heavy. So heavy, that it created some areas where the track was heavy of water. Like big street puddles of water. Therefore cars would have been hydroplaning if they continued the race under the green flag conditions. As the rain water, would overwhelm the tire. The cars would essentially be skimming over the water, and not much of the tire would be gripping the road. Making for a very unsafe race.
Throughout the day at Montreal, Joey Logano proved that yes he can adapt to road course racing, and even to racing in the rain. He showed alot of talent. Unfortunately for Logano during one of the yellow flag pace laps, he had had trouble. Our hero Joey logano, at the time was in the fifth place, and was going to finish in the top 5 in his very first road course race in nascar. However, due to bad luck, poor visibility, and heavy pouring of rain, he made contact with a car in front of him. Ending his bid for the top 5 finish. He would finish in seventeenth position.
Next week will be another road course, the second road course race for Logano of the year. He will be learning alot at Watkins Glen. The race will be run under the title of Zippo 200.
Qualifying is set to start at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Montreal, running under the title of Napa Auto Parts 200. The circuit is 2.71 miles, and has 14 turns.Qualifying today will also have a unique format.
How the qualifying format at Montreal will work
Cars will go out in groups. Each car is assigned a group, according to their practice speeds. So the faster cars in the practice session, will go together, and the slower cars, will go together. Each group of cars can vary in size, usually 5-6 cars at a time will be on the track qualifying. Each group will have 9 minutes total on the track. The officials will release the cars on to the track, in intervals. Meaning that, the first car will go out, and then the second car will go out x seconds later.
Practice Speeds
During the first practice session for the Montreal race, Logano was the 18th fastest car, at a time of 105.317 seconds, and he ran a total of 18 laps. The final practice session, Logano was the 17th fastest, and clocked in a fastest lap of 105.957 seconds, from a total of 7 laps.
Qualifying Session
Early in the qualifying session, the pit reporter from ESPN, asked Joey Logano about the challenged he has faced getting around the Montreal road course for the first time. Joey responded with, “Its been plenty of challenges that’s for sure. its a alot of breaking points, what curves to hit what not to hit, its tough because I am not a road course driver. We’ll get a hang of it. Hopefully I will learn a few new things.”
Logano will be in the group 6, with Brian Simo, Jason Leffler, Ron Hornaday and Scott Wimmer. This will be a fun group to watch. Out of the 6th Group, Logano was the fastest, and out of the 30 cars that have run so far, Logano is currently the provisional pole sitter with a time of104.652. This is over 1 second and a half faster time, then what Logano ran in practice. There are still 14 cars left to qualify, so it is likely that Logano will end up in the top 10.
In the group 7 drivers, Brad Coleman, is able to overtake Joey Logano. So Logano is currently in 2nd place.
Things are going to heat up with the next to last group going out, group 8. Boris said, hometown hero Jacques Villeneuve, and Ron fellows will be in this group. From the group 8, Jacques Villeneuve is able to take the provisional pole sitter. Jacques gets a big pop from the crowd when he crosses the line. Logano is currently sitting in the sixth position.
The final group, group 9 will consist of four drivers, Another hometown favorite Patrick Carpentier, Scott Pruett, Max Papis, and Marcos Ambrose. At the end of this group, Scott Pruett is able to run the fastest lap of the qualifying session, a hotlap of 102.57 seconds, and Scott Pruett is your pole sitter for the Montreal Napa Auto Parts 200 presented by dodge race!
At the end of the qualifying session Joey Logano, will start in the 10th position.
The race at Montreal will air live on ESPN 2, starting at 3pm Eastern time.
Joey Logano will be driving the number 20 GameStop Toyota at the Kroger 200 at O’Reilly Raceway Park.
The first practice session held at the O’Reilly race way park, Joey Logano was the sixth fastest car, at a time of 23.151, he ran a total of 49 laps in the first practice session.
During the final practice session, Logano was the fastest Toyota, and 2nd overall on the final practice sheet. He ran a total of 48 laps this time, and a best time of 23.017, improving from his earlier practice speed.
When it was time to qualify, Joey Logano was up on the wheel as usual, and qualified in the fifth position!
Joey would bring his Gamestop Toyota home in the eight position. Which marks another solid run for Joey Logano. The winner for the Oreil raceway park, would be Joey Logano’s team mate Kyle Busch. Who dominated the event, and led 197 of the 200 laps run. Only giving up his lead threw the pit stops under the caution.
Guess where Joey will be racing next week? A roadcourse! It will be in montreal, Canadia, the circuit name is called “Circuit Gilles Villeneuve”. The race will be called the Napa Auto Parts 200.
The race will be broadcast live on ESPN 2, starting at 3pm Eastern time. The scheduled length of the race will be 74 laps, which will mean a total of 200.46 miles.
Tonight It is a 250 miles races, 200 laps, and Joey Logano rolls off from the fourth position on the grid.
Nascar threw a competition yellow on lap 20, due to the fact that it had rained. Logano came in fourth, and came out first from pit road. He made a two tire change. Morgan Shepard stayed out on the track, and so on the restart Logano, would start second. On the restart, coming off turn 2, Logano goes by Shepard, and is pulling away.
On lap 50 David Reutimann is able to get by Logano, and now Logano is in second place.
Caution is out on the track for the second time on lap 63, the caution is for the number 47.
As Joey makes his way onto pit road, he is in the second position, behind him, is last year’s winner Reed Sorenson. Joey is complaining of a loose race car, and the crew goes to work on it. Joey comes out in second place. This time though a new leader emerges, and it is Carl Edwards.
They get the third restart on lap 68. On Lap 70 David Reutimann gets by Logano, and now Logano is in third place. And the caution is now out for the third time. Parts of the track has lost its lights. A good portion of the backstretch is dark. Earlier before the race, there was a power outage.
We get the restart back on lap 75.
We get another restart, and now with 85 laps to go.
Crash with 84 laps to go! Alot of good cars are taken out. Mike Bliss, Steven Wallace, Reed Sorenson, Mike Wallace, Scott Wimmer and nascar is red flagging the race.
It looked like the 29 of Scott Wimmer, got hit from behind from the 5 of Landin Cassil.
With 78 laps to go Logano is back in the lead! And he is fighting hard with McMurray to keep the lead.
We have another yellow on the track, as Brad Keselowski and David Reutimann make contact.
Joey Logano is now headed to pit road from the first position. He is getting 4 tires and fuel, with no adjustments. On the restart with 56 laps to go, Logano is in fourth place after the pit stops.
With 47 laps to go, Logano is now in second place, as he passes Jason Leffler for second place. Carl Edwards is the leader.
With 18 laps left on the race, Logano is about 5 to 6 seconds behind the race leader Carl Edwards.
With 10 laps To go Carl Edwards has opened up a 6.1 second lead over Joey Logano.
As the flagman waves, checkered flag, Joey Logano finishes in second place.
Joey Logano’s comments after the race, after being asked by the ESPN pit reporter, “It was good to get back in the car, I wish we could have brought back a win, its two races in a row we ran behind Edwards, I would like to get the car back in victory lane. But Edwards had a great car, very stout, That is great for them!”
After much anticipated hype, today Joey Logano was officially named the replacement driver for Tony Stewart for 2009. Joey will be driving the number 20 car starting in 2009, with Greg Zipadelli as his crew chief.
This weekend Joey Logano drove the Gamestop/Call of Duty Toyota Camry at the Bristol Motorspeed way, for some good ol short track racing under the lights. Heading into Bristol, Joey’s team would have a few changes made behind the scenes. One them being that Wally Brown, was made the interim crew chief for the number 20 gamestop Toyota.
As I posted in the 
For the second week in a row, Joey Logano got his chance to turn left and right at a road course. Last week, he was racing in Canada. Today, he raced at Watkins Glen, in New York. Today, Joey Logano sported the GameStop/PSP Toyota.
At Montreal, history was made for the nationwide series and also Joey Logano. The race started off with being in the dry, but as soon as the green flag dropped, lightning was seen from afar. Everyone knew rain was coming, and it was just a matter of time before it started raining on the trace track.
Nascar would restart the race again on lap 14, and they would race in the rain. Still though, eventually nascar had to call off the race. The race was eventually called off on lap 48 because of poor visibility, and the rain was falling down very heavy. So heavy, that it created some areas where the track was heavy of water. Like big street puddles of water. Therefore cars would have been hydroplaning if they continued the race under the green flag conditions. As the rain water, would overwhelm the tire. The cars would essentially be skimming over the water, and not much of the tire would be gripping the road. Making for a very unsafe race.
