Tim Tuttle offers a glimpse of Cup’s future
Tim Tuttle over at SI.com offers up some interesting thoughts about the future.
<Another rookie also will make news this weekend across the country when Joey Logano, all of 17 years and three months old, will clinch his first NASCAR title when he starts the Busch East Series race Friday at Dover. He’s the first rookie in the series, which began in ‘89, to win the title.
Logano is tracking toward a move to Cup racing by ‘09. He’ll be in Busch next year, a place he’d be now, but he’s not old enough. Logano will be eligible on his 18th birthday, May 24 of next year.
“I know next year I’ll be in a Busch car,” Logano said in a NASCAR teleconference earlier this week. “I’m just not sure when or where yet.”
Logano, originally from Middletown, Conn., but living in North Carolina, has had to be patient his whole career.
“I’ve been through that type of stuff my whole life, going all the way back to Legends cars,” Logano said. “I was nine. I had to wait until I was 12 to race one. Tried a couple of times. Got shot down. I had to wait until I was 16 to run the East series this year.”
Logano won the Busch West Series opener at Phoenix, one of two starts in the West series, which runs in the spring. He has five wins running the full East schedule.
Joe Gibbs Racing signed him as a development driver at age 15. The team wants to expand to four cars in Cup and Logano figures to get the first shot at it, maybe as soon as next year in a few cameo appearances.
“Joey’s five Busch East wins and one West win prove that he’s one of those rare talents in racing,” team President J.D. Gibbs said.