Joey Logano's Daytona 500 Debut Ends In The Wall; Matt Kenseth Gets Rain Shortened Win

The Daytona 500 debut of 18-year old Middletown native Joey Logano ended in an abbreviated fashion with his team left loading a wrecked car back into the hauler well before the end of the race.

Logano, in his first Sprint Cup Series points event in the No. 20 Home Depot sponsored Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, crashed on lap 80 of the 200-lap Daytona 500.

Logano's day ended with the front end of his car crashed after a hard crash into the inside retaining just before pit road.

"I don't think I should say what I'm feeling inside," Logano said. "I'm not very happy. We were just getting going. We got a few pit stops under our belt and started to come to the front a little bit. We had to make a few adjustments to make the car better. We just didn't get there in time."

Logano ended up in last place of the 43 cars in the field. Matt Kenseth won when the race was called because of rain after 152 laps, 48 short of the scheduled distance. Kevin Harvick was second and A.J. Allmendinger was third.



Logano started 9th in the race but spent most of his time on the track outside of the top-20.

He was running around 27th when initial contact with fellow rookie Scott Speed and subsequent contact from Greg Biffle sent him sliding sideways off the track coming off turn 4 and into the wall at the 2.5-mile speedway.

"It just looked like [Scott Speed] kept getting loose in front of me so I jumped down below him in the middle of the corner just to try to get some air on my car because it was tight and as he kept [slowing down] I ended up next to him on the corner," Logano said. "It was either I was going to dump him or hopefully not do anything at all. [Greg Biffle] just came up and got us. It's a racing deal, but it's a bummer for all the Home Depot crew here. This is not the way we wanted to finish the [Daytona] 500."

Logano, who replaced Tony Stewart in the No. 20 car, was the youngest driver ever to start the event.

It was the end of what was at times a frustrating 10 days in Daytona for Logano. His team struggled much of the week to get a consistent handle on his car.

"I think overall he was alright," team president J.D. Gibbs said. "This place takes a while to figure out. I think doing what he did, the ARCA stuff, the Nationwide stuff, he'll be fine. It was just 'Hey, just finish it.' That's all he was trying to do. A lot of stuff happens here out of your control. He just kind of got tapped.

"It's a lot for anybody here, I don't care if you're 50 or 18. If you're new to it, this place takes a while. He did a good job learning and working with [teammates Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin] to get their input. He'll be fine. We've taken a lot of good cars here before and didn't finish. It's frustrating but that's part of Daytona."

by Shawn Courchesne for the Hartford Courant

Tony Stewart Wins Nationwide Race At Daytona; Joey Logano Far Behind At Finish

Tony Stewart held off a late charge from Kyle Busch to win the Nationwide Series Camping World 300 Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.

It was the first career victory for Stewart in a Hendrick Motorsports car and the second consecutive year he has won the Nationwide Series opener.

"I'm ecstatic about it," Stewart said. "Just an unbelievable run. I never really got to run with a huge pack [in practice on Friday]. I wasn't quite sure exactly what we were going to have. It was a great start to the race and we were able to stay up in the lead pack."

Eighteen year old Middletown native Joey Logano proved a non-factor in his final on track activity before his Daytona 500 debut Sunday, finishing 20th.

Busch got on Stewart's bumper coming off turn 2 on the final lap and stayed on Stewart down the backstretch and through the final two corners. Busch finally backed off coming out of turn 4 and ended up losing a podium finish as Carl Edwards passed him for second and Clint Bowyer got him for third coming to the checkered.

"Kyle got to our bumper right after we got off [turn] 2 and onto the backstretch [on the final lap]," Stewart said. "I thought we were going to be able to pull away from the field further than that. Normally you get two cars hooked up like that, we've seen it at Talladega where two of them get the bumpers locked and drive away from everybody. We didn't get as big a gap as I thought we would. I was hoping that he would turn loose of me before we got down in the corner. And I was surprised that we were able to chase it as far as we did. He never turned loose. We drove halfway up the racetrack with him still glued to my bumper instead of staying on the line and trying to go around me. I wasn't going to lift because I knew if I lifted I was going to get wrecked for sure. I definitely needed all the real estate I had."

Logano started eighth in the race and briefly made an appearance in the top-5. but he spent much of the race at the back end of the top-10.

Contact late in the race sent him back through the pack. He was 22nd on the final restart of the day on lap 114 of the 120 lap event and worked his way up to 15th in the closing laps but ending up crossing the line 20th.

"We were just sitting there on the high side with a few to go, 25 or 30 to go or so and [David Ragan] gets loose and he started coming up so I straightened up for a second and tried to get back the wheel and just never grabbed a hold in time and just got the fence and that knocked in the fender," Logano said. "It is what it is. I learned a lot if nothing else. It's just kind of a shame, we had a better car than that."

by Shawn Courchesne for the Hartford Courant