LOUDON, N.H. — A 7-year-old stood in his father’s garage in October 1997 and sent a message to one of the best drivers in NASCAR history.
Already a national quarter midget champion, Joey Logano broke his usual silence by dropping a cocksure prediction about his future in racing.
He promised that someday he would be Jeff Gordon’s worst nightmare.
Sunday was that day.
Logano and his Joe Gibbs Racing team rolled the dice on fuel and weather and hit the jackpot when the rookie was declared the winner of the rain-shortened Sprint Cup Lenox Industrial Tools 301 before 101,000. Gordon, a four-time Cup champion, was second, and Kurt Busch was third.
The race was called after 273 of 301 laps. Logano, a Middletown, Conn., native who turned 19 on May 24, became the youngest winner in the 61-year history of Sprint Cup.
Gordon was one of the first drivers to congratulate Logano. While Logano sat in his car on pit road as rain fell, Gordon offered his congratulations even though NASCAR had yet to call the race.
“That’s pretty neat,” Logano said. “Growing up he was one of my favorite racecar drivers. To have him come in your (window) and congratulate you like that, that was really cool.”
Logano’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Kyle Busch, was the previous youngest winner, finishing first at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., on Sept. 4, 2005 when he was 20 years and 125 days old.
“To get the win today, this is cool,” Logano said. “This is where I watched my first (Sprint) Cup race, it’s where I ran my first Cup race and where I won my first (Cup) race. I couldn’t pick a better place. This is a home turf place for me.”
Ironically, it was Logano’s multitude of struggles during the race that ended up putting him in position to win. Logano had spent much of the day deep in the running order, even falling a lap down twice.
On lap 183, he was hit by Ryan Newman, causing a flat left rear tire that sent him spinning in turn 4. The problems sent him to the pits for repairs, which also allowed his team to refuel the car, topping off his tank while most others on the lead lap last filled up on lap 153.
“When that happened, I thought we were done,” Logano said. “Our day just went bad. We were just trying to finish it off and get the best finish we could. (Crew chief Greg Zipadelli) made the right move at the end. He went for it, and I was just lucky enough to be in the seat.”
He restarted a lap down but got NASCAR’s “lucky dog” free pass back to the tail end of the lead lap when the caution came out again on lap 191.
When a cycle of green flag pit stops began on lap 234, it was Logano who wasn’t pressed for fuel. With every car going to the pits, Logano’s No. 20 car inched up the running order. When Newman, the leader, went in for fuel on lap 264, it put Logano at the front of the field. The caution came out for rain four laps later.
But even then the storybook tale wasn’t complete. Logano had to keep his car running under caution while the rain fell. If he ran out of gas while the field was still pacing under caution the race would have been lost.
For six laps Logano nursed his car around the track, with Gordon behind him, pushing him to keep using fuel under yellow.
“I was trying to get him to use as much fuel under those caution laps as I could,” Gordon said. “I thought for sure he was going to run out based on what (my crew) was telling me and he still made it here to pit road (under the red flag).”
Zipadelli estimated Logano had about four to six laps of fuel left under green flag conditions when the rain started.
“I was saving as much as I could,” Logano said. “I was shutting the motor off, coasting as long as I could. Jeff was obviously going to try to make me fire that thing up and burn as much fuel as I could. (Zipadelli) would tell me what to do and I just kept doing it.”
On lap 273, the cars were directed to pit road. Minutes later NASCAR called the race.
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