Loudon win 'tainted' to some, but shot of confidence for Logano

Many believed the kid known as "Sliced Bread" was toast only a few races into this Sprint Cup Series season.

Maybe that's why the grin on Joey Logano's face was even bigger than usual after his milestone win Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Joey Logano says he's 'really looking forward' to Daytona. See what a little confidence can do? (Getty Images)

Logano came into NASCAR's top division with maybe as much hype as anyone since a guy named Earnhardt Jr. nearly a decade ago. But the kid from Connecticut never acted like he was under pressure even as many fans and the media questioned whether he was ready for the top level of the sport.

"I really think that the media was unfair for Joey from nearly the beginning," crew chief Greg Zipadelli said. "There was almost this undercurrent of 'we want you to fail' I sensed from a lot of people. But I knew it would take time and getting to Victory Lane as fast as we did might have surprised some, but I always knew we had the team and the driver to get there."

•  Logano notches first career win

The naysayers are still pointing to Logano's win as tainted given it came with an assist from Mother Nature. But winning a rain-shortened race is nothing for any driver to be ashamed of nor should it carry an asterisk in the record book.

True, there have been an inordinate amount of rain-interrupted victories already this year with Matt Kenseth's Daytona 500 win and David Reutimann's Coca-Cola 600 victory coming before Logano's at Loudon.

But just like a Major League Baseball game is official after five innings, a NASCAR race past the halfway mark is also complete.

Every driver and crew chief had the same opportunity as Logano and Zipadelli to roll the dice and use the pit strategy that proved to be the winning move Sunday.

There is no need to criticize or second-guess the quality of what the No. 20 team accomplished at New Hampshire.

Taking the checkered flag in the Sprint Cup Series these days is a tall order indeed and any driver or team that does so should be commended.

And in Logano's case it could be a shot of confidence that leads to more wins. As the season enters the second half of the schedule, Logano will have the benefit of knowing what to expect at tracks where the series returns.

That will be a huge boost for the young driver, beginning with Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, where his season got off to a bit of a rocky start.

"After what happened to us in February down there, it will be nice to go to Daytona with a clean slate and a little better feel for the track," Logano said. "I'm really looking forward to it."

The grin on his face couldn't have been wider.

Garage chatter

•  Finally some good news on the television front at TNT's telecast Sunday of the Sprint Cup Series' Lenox Industrial Tools 301 from New Hampshire Motor Speedway generated a 4.1 rating, up from last year's 4.0 rating and the first race to show an increase in over three months.

•  A report last week that the Camping World Truck Series is in trouble drew an angry response from NASCAR officials earlier this week. "It's total B.S," said NASCAR vice president of communications Jim Hunter. "The demise of the Truck series is the figment of one person's imagination. [Blogger Mike Mulhern] has a history of fabricating false stories and this is another example of it. We're very aware that [the Camping World Truck Series] is affected the hardest during this economic recession. We're currently looking at options. We've never given up on a series and we're not going to start now."

•  Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison head the list of the first 25 nominees for the new NASCAR Hall of Fame, which will open its doors in May of 2010. The complete list will be released later this week.

•  Martin Truex Jr. still appears headed to Michael Waltrip Racing, but when the move does come it won't be until the start of the 2010 season. A report that Truex would move to MWR by next week's Chicagoland race was denied but the official announcement of the pending switch from Earnhardt Ganassi Racing could come this week at Daytona.

•  Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves won a hotly contested vote for the second quarter Driver of the Year 2009. The Brazilian, who won his third Indy 500 -- from the pole -- this May, narrowly edged NASCAR's Tony Stewart, who is now a co-owner driver, 119-116. It was the closest margin of victory since Stewart lost the overall award in a tiebreaker in 2002. In the voting Castroneves took eight first-place votes and was on every ballot. Stewart garnered eight first-place votes. Mark Martin was third with 42 points. Kyle Busch received one first-place ballot.