By SceneDaily Staff
Thursday, June 05, 2008

After whirlwind of publicity over his NASCAR debut last week at Dover International Speedway, Joey Logano is looking forward to getting into a routine of running Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Nationwide SeriesToyota on a weekly basis.

Logano returns to the car for this weekend’s Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway.

“I’m really excited to get Dover behind me, and I’m really looking forward to the rest of these races,” said Logano, who turned 18 on May 24 and became eligible to drive in NASCAR’s three national series. “I think Nashville will be a strong race for us since [teammate] Kyle [Busch] ran well there in March in the 20 car, and it’s a place that I’ve had a lot of laps at, even though it’s been in a Cup car and not a Nationwide Series car.

“I’m hoping this weekend I can start working on the chemistry between myself, [crew chief] Dave [Rogers] and the rest of the team guys. This weekend will be much quieter, and I’m looking forward to being able to just go out and race.”

Rogers, too, is looking forward to working with Logano. The No. 20 has won six races this season and leads the Nationwide Series owners standings.

“There was a lot of hype about Joey getting into this car,” Rogers said. “But now that the weekend is over, I think the story is how much progress we made as a team. We came off the truck really tight and did not have the right setup for the race when we unloaded.

“Joey did a great job of telling us what he needed. Each time we could give it to him, we went faster on the stopwatch. Throughout the race I thought we got better. I think that was the biggest story of all – how much improvement we made from our first weekend together.

“Everyone wanted a top-five or a miraculous win, but the reality of what we did shows the strength of our race team more than any stat could.”

Could Logano break through with his first win this weekend? Some believe it’s only a matter of time before he wins, and it could come at Nashville.

“It’s a cool race track,” Logani said. “It’s pretty flat compared to the Dover concrete mile we were on last week. I certainly have plenty of laps around there, but it’s all in a Sprint Cup car. I’m really looking forward to getting there in the GameStop Nationwide Series car that will have a little more downforce, which should make it a lot of fun.”

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