Source: Nascar
Date: 05/07/2008

A Look Back: 16-year-old Logano Out Sprints Harvick For Career-Defining Victory

When the subject isn’t even old enough to vote, the phrase ‘biggest win of his career’ sounds kind of funny.

Yet, on the sunny May day before an Iowa Speedway record estimated crowd of 24,741, that’s exactly what Joey Logano achieved.

Logano drove away from runner-up NASCAR Sprint Cup Series star Kevin Harvick following a late-race restart to win the Featherlite Coaches 200 by nearly two-and-a-half seconds — a day after Harvick won the Sprint All-Star Challenge and three months after he won the Daytona 500.

“After he won last night, to beat him today is pretty cool," Logano said following the race. "He just won a million bucks ... [to beat him is] as cool as it gets in my book."

Jesus Hernandez finished third, followed by Johnny Borneman and Mike Duncan.

The then 16-year-old Logano had already won two of his first three NASCAR Camping World Series starts.

Then came Iowa.

Harvick flew in from Charlotte Sunday morning and promptly posted the top time in qualifying. He then set the pace for the first 38 laps. Then Logano passed him for the first time. The two spent the rest of the race swapping the lead back and forth, pausing only to pit for tires and fuel at Lap 102 before making their way back through the field. Logano took the lead for the final time following a restart on Lap 194.

"I got a good start," Logano said. "We went down into [Turn] 1 and I said, 'Here we go, checker or wrecker.' I drove it in there, I heard him on and off the gas, I was on and off the gas, we were both sideways ..."

Logano went on to capture the NASCAR Camping World Series East championship and the postseason NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown. He plans to make his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut at Dover International Speedway May 31 — four days after he turns 18. Harvick, himself a former NASCAR Camping World Series West champion, went back to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, where he made the Chase for the Cup for the second time and finished 10th in the final points.

The other big story at Iowa was the West’s resurgence. The NASCAR Camping World Series ran its first combination event at Elko (Minn.) Speedway, where the East grabbed six of the top seven spots. The West drivers returned the favor. Led by defacto West representative Harvick, the series had eight of the top 11 spots.

Eventual West Series champion Mike David had one of his worst finishes of the season in 20th. He wasn’t the only fast car to run into trouble. Top qualifiers Peyton Sellers (fourth), Marc Davis (fifth) and Sean Caisse (sixth) also finished 34th or worse.

Fifty-three cars attempted to qualify for the 42-car field for NASCAR’s first race at Iowa.

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