Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Is 2014 Joey Logano's breakout year in the Cup series?

Joey Logano, the driver of Team Penske's #22 Ford Fusion, currently has four wins this year, the second-most among all Sprint Cup drivers, behind teammate Brad Keselowski. This is probably the first time Logano has been this consistently successful in NASCAR's top series since he went full-time in 2009.

After winning his first Nationwide Series race at Kentucky in his third series start in June of 2008, Logano replaced Tony Stewart in the #20 Toyota Cup car in 2009 after Stewart left the team one year earlier than planned. Logano won a rain-shortened race at New Hampshire in his rookie season, but after that his performance dipped and he went winless in 2010 and 2011. He returned to victory lane in a Cup car in 2012 at Pocono for his first win in a full race. Logano moved from Gibbs' team to Team Penske in 2013 and won at Michigan. His first two wins this year, at Texas and Richmond, made this his first season with multiple wins on the Cup level. Now he and his teammate are on top of the Chase standings and are the first two drivers locked into the second round. So has Logano finally proven himself in NASCAR's top series? It appears so, but the best may still be yet to come.

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