Karah-Leigh
karah@trackbunnyfilms.com

I remember hearing about Joey Logano the first time in 2004 and in 2005 when I went to Joe Gibbs Racing fro the first time, Logano was there, sitting out front with Aric Amirola signing autographs for fans. Everybody talked about how this kid was the next Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, but I had never seen him race.

When he started racing in the Hooter’s Pro Cup Series in the Southern Division, he won at South Georgia Motorsports Park where I go frequently and I was unable to attend it. Why? I forget now, but I know that I was devastated when I found out that he had actually won it.

I saw Logano again the next fall at Joe Gibbs Racing, still signing autographs for fans who were waiting around in long lines for Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin. People walked right by him, not really noticing him just like they do a lot of up and coming drivers when the “star” is nearby.

He tasted a bit of that stardom after he won the 2007 NASCAR Busch East Series Championship and seven races during the season.

This past weekend, Joey Logano stepped into that spotlight that he now shares with his teammates Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, and Denny Hamlin.

Logano turned 18, the legal age that you have to be to race in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The event was celebrated with Cup owner Joe Gibbs and his son, the President of Joe Gibbs Racing, J.D. Gibbs. The three of them cut into a huge #20 Nationwide car cake at a press event in Charlotte.

He will be making his first start in the Nationwide Series this weekend at Dover.

This week Logano is taking over the media. For a kid who hasn’t raced his first official NASCAR Nationwide race, he sure is getting a lot of exposure.

But is that a good thing or bad thing?

Logano is stepping onto the track with so much pressure on him, that the only other person who knows that kind of pressure is Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who has the pressure of leaving up to his father’s legacy.

Logano is stepping into a car with a crew chief and team who has proven capable of winning with various drivers on various tracks. He’s being interviewed by ESPN, featured in Sports Illustrated and posing for photo shoots before even driving a pace lap in the series.

If he goes out there and performs outstandingly, even winning the race, there will be more pressure.
If Logano goes to Dover and finishes in 10th, there’s going to be people who think that is bad, because so much is being built up on the kid.

The press needs to calm down and focus on other things besides putting more pressure on an eighteen-year-old kid to be the next best thing since sliced bread.

Oh wait, that’s already his nickname.