Joe Gibbs Racing named 18-year-old phenom Joey Logano as the replacement for Tony Stewart in the No. 20 Toyota car for next season.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team made the announcement Monday at the team’s race shop.
JGR making the move to Logano had been speculated since Stewart, a two-time series champion, was released from the final year of his contract earlier this summer to become co-owner of his own team known as Stewart-Haas Racing.
“There were other options, but I think for the long-term and what’s in the best interest of JGR, The Home Depot and our whole team, Joey was the guy,” said J.D. Gibbs, JGR president and Joe Gibbs’ son.
But because he is just 18 years old and his only big-time NASCAR experience has been limited to 10 Nationwide starts, it was to be expected his age is topic No. 1 in discussing his hiring.
The word from the top of the Gibbs organization to the bottom is that maturity is of zero concern in Logano’s case.
“First of all,” team president J.D. Gibbs said, “you have to be careful by what you mean about maturity. There’s experience and maturity. I think for him, the way things are, he’s more mature than most guys out there. From an experience standpoint, we were real careful from day one and we didn’t want to rush him. He’s been here three years. If it took him three more years to get to Cup that would be fine. The reality of it is we watched everything he did running. I think what you saw is a guy who the talent is there.”
“I’m cool with pressure,” Logano said. “Moving up to this car now, it’s more pressure, but I can handle it.”
Logano will make his Sprint Cup debut on Sept. 6 at Richmond. He’ll also run at Atlanta and in a few more races in a car owned by Hall of Fame Racing, which gets its engines and chassis from JGR.
Next year, Logano will also run close to a full Nationwide schedule to gain experience.
“I’m sure there’s a lot I have to learn,” Logano said. “Racing is a lot of little things that make it. Every time I go to the racetrack I learn things. ... As long as I pick up something every time I go to the racetrack it’s going to be great.”
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