Here Comes Joey Logan(NO)-Sprint Cup Debut Delayed

Sliced bread has gone stale.

This weekend's Chevy Rock and Roll 400 at the Richmond International Raceway was supposed to be the scene of 18-year-old Joey Logano's first Sprint Cup start.

The keywords being "supposed to," because when the rain came crashing down at about 4:15 p.m., so did Logano's chances of making the race.

NASCAR has canceled all on-track action until Sunday because of the approach of Tropical Storm Hanna. For safety concerns and the weather, the Sprint Cup event will be Sunday at 1 p.m. and the Nationwide Series will race at 6:30 p.m. It's a very important double-header weekend.

Logano will start on the pole in the Nationwide race because the field was set on owners points, however it was the Cup start that was on everyone's mind.

Logano was entered in a fourth Joe Gibbs Racing car, the No. 02 Home Depot machine, that has no points and no starts this season, which means when NASCAR cancelled qualifying, Logano would not make the field.

Pretty frustrating for a guy, I mean kid, who was fourth fastest right off the truck before ending up ninth in final practice this morning.

"I can't change the weather, so I just go with it. I've heard a lot about [the weather] and I haven't heard too much good, so I really don't want to hear a whole bunch."

This weekend would have been the first of seven Cup starts that Logano was scheduled to make: two for Joe Gibbs Racing (Richmond and Atlanta), and then six others in the no. 96 Toyota for Hall of Fame Racing.

His first start for that will be next weekend at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the first race of the 2008 Chase for the Championship.

The most anticipated debut will now have to wait one week, but Logano did feel confident in his first few laps of Cup competition.

"Overall it was pretty good," Logano said. "I seem to think that the Cup car seems to suit my driving style better than the Nationwide car. When I'm driving the Nationwide car, it seems like there is no horsepower and it is all momentum, and you have to hustle those cars a lot to get them going.

"In the Cup cars, it seems like you can drive it into the corner straight, get it turning and focus on your forward drive. I think with the Nationwide car, you are arcing it in there and getting back to the gas as soon as you can and using the least amount of brake as you can [so] they drive a lot different that way.

"I seem to like the Cup car more, but probably because it has more horsepower and it is more fun to me. To know that you could come off the trailer and be good, that was a big plus for me mentally."

His first race may come next week, but he survived his first practice session. And practice makes perfect.