Will history look down upon Joey Logano’s first Sprint Cup victory because it was not only a rain shortened race but a rain shortened AND a fuel mileage win? I certainly hope not. Logano and crew chief Greg Zipadelli put themselves in position for the win and were able to succeed at exactly the same game that Ryan Newman and his team failed so miserably at and that was hoping their fuel would last until the rains came.

Second place finisher Jeff Gordon said, “I’ve won because we made a great call and stayed out and it rained. Kurt’s (Busch) won them…you’ve got to be smart enough as a crew chief to be able to fill it up with fuel, put four tires on it, and play the only strategy that you have at that point, which is, you know, to stay out, and if you’re watching the radar and you see that rain is coming, you just basically they had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and it’s a lot easier to make that call when you’re in that position, and it was a gutsy call. You know, the only thing that wasn’t going to work out was if they ran out under caution because they were going to lose a lot more positions than they would have if they could have come in and topped off.” Third place finisher Kurt Busch, who ironically won under the same exact circumstances in 2008 at Loudon said, “Hey, when you win, it’s a win. And I’ve been on the other side of the fence, so I can’t complain.”
Joe Gibbs, owner of the No. 20 Home Depot has nothing but good things to say about that crew and the sponsor. “I want to say first of all, Home Depot, I’m so happy for them,” he said in the media center after the race. “They are willing to go with a young guy, Joey, backed us all the way, been with us all the way. Really, really proud for those guys. I feel like the team, you know, we talked some today, Zippy and his team last year, we were going to the racetrack knowing that they were going to be in the Chase, having a chance to win the championship. And this year, their mind set that’s been great. They know that Joey is young, fighting their guts out for every spot they can get. They have been a great support for Joey. I thought they fought it hard all year and it was great to see them have a chance to get this.”
Joey Logano was quite humble, “I think it’s just me still lost out there trying to figure out where I needed to be. We overcame a lot. We had a left rear cut down right before we made that last long green flag run and just trying to overcome that. When that happened, I thought we were done. I was like, the day just went bad, just try to finish it off and get as best finish we can and we made the right move at the end.” He also said, “He (Zipadelli) went for it and I was just lucky enough to be in the seat.”
The way I see it Logano made it to victory lane a little early. He has steadily gotten more comfortable in the Sprint Cup cars and the results have shown it. Nothing aggravates me more than people complaining about how a driver ‘doesn’t deserve’ a win because of the weather or because he was able to conserve fuel. It’s a race and he finished ahead of everyone else and if two drivers, with 5 championships between them (Gordon and Kurt Busch) call a win, a win then everyone else needs to simply simmer down and let the youngster enjoy his win. It’ll be interesting to see how Daytona goes this week for that team. Congratulations to the entire team, especially my good friend the gas man, Jeff Clark!!

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