Rain helps teenager Logano get first Cup win

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Joey Logano isn't apologizing for getting a lucky win. Especially when it's his first one and it made him the youngest winner in the history of the Sprint Cup series.

NASCAR

"Obviously, it's not the way you want to win your first race, in the rain," Logano said after taking Sunday's shortened Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. "But 20 years down the road, when you look in the record books, no one will know the difference. I'll take them any way I can."

For team owner Joe Gibbs, it was a little vindication for putting a raw, if talented rookie in the car that had been driven the previous 10 seasons by two-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart.

The teenager overcame a crash and a lost lap, then saved just enough fuel to earn his first Cup victory in only his 20th start.

Logano, not even allowed to begin his NASCAR career until he turned 18 in May 2008, added his latest victory to three wins in the second tier Nationwide Series.

He was among a group of drivers who moved to the front of the field after getting out of sequence on fuel stops. He took the lead when Ryan Newman, trying to stay out as long as possible with rain threatening, ran out of gas on lap 264 of a scheduled 301.

Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon moved into second and was steadily cutting into the lead as Logano, with a nearly empty tank, conserved as much fuel as possible. But the rain began falling three laps later.

The competitors ran six more under caution before NASCAR put out a red flag in hopes of drying the track. But the rain began falling harder and the race was called after 273 laps.

Logano, 19 years, 1 month and 4 days old, broke the record set by Kyle Busch for the youngest winner. Busch, now 24, was 20 years, 4 months and 2 days when he won for the first time at California in September 2005.

Logano was first spotted as a 15-year-old by NASCAR star Mark Martin, who predicted greatness for the youngster. He been on the fast track ever since, winning races at every level and beating some of NASCAR's top developmental drivers along the way.

Kurt Busch, who won a rain-shortened event here last June, finished third, followed by David Reutimann and Stewart, the series leader by 69 points over Gordon.

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