The history-making day couldn't have happened at a better place than New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the rookie. Logano spent the first part of his childhood in nearby Middletown, Conn. He attended his first ever Cup race at Loudon as a kid, made his first-career Cup Series start at the track last fall and today added first Sprint Cup victory to his track resume.
"This is so special," Logano said. "I think your first win no matter where it's at is huge. Obviously it's not the way you want to win your first race, in the rain, 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. This is my home track and where I watched my first Cup race. A lot of the guys at Joe Gibbs Racing are from the northeast so it's cool to get a win here.
"I never thought I would be the one. This was the opportunity we had and we didn't have anything to lose. Zippy (Zipadelli, crew chief) made a great call. I have to thank my team and The Home Depot, I have to thank Sprint and all the fans and Toyota. This is a dream come true and it couldn't have happened at a better place."
The Home Depot Team may not have had the best car at New Hampshire on Sunday but a little luck mixed with some help from Mother Nature placed Logano in a very fortunate position as the laps wound down in the scheduled 301-lap event. After spinning during the middle portion of the race, the Home Depot team was placed in a position of pitting out of sequence from the race leaders. The unfortunate spin and flat left-side tires on lap 181 dropped The Home Depot Team a lap down, but they worked hard to get the car repaired and back onto the track for the restart on lap 187. The caution flag was displayed three laps later and Logano earned the free pass back onto the lead lap. The team was able to continue repairing the damage, top off the fuel cell and unknowingly put themselves in position for the win when they pitted on lap 194.
A long, green-flag run resulted in teams making final pit stops under racing conditions. Because they were out of sequence, The Home Depot Team was able to stay out longer than the front runners. Logano was running third with 50 to go and found himself leading on lap 264 when the No. 39 car pitted. Rain was circling the speedway so Zipadelli made the call to keep Logano on the track as long as he could. NASCAR waved the caution flag for rain on lap 266 and finally brought out the red flag on lap 273. Rain started falling at a more rapid pace and NASCAR officials called the race declaring Logano and The Home Depot Team the race winners.
"It was awesome," Logano said of his first Sprint Cup Series win. "We didn't take off as good as we needed to. I think it's just me still lost out there trying to figure out where I needed to be. We overcame a lot. We had a left rear cut down right before we made that last long green-flag run. When that happened, I thought we were done. I was thinking the day just went bad, just try to get to the end and get the best finish we can. We just made the right move at the end. Zippy went for it and I was lucky enough to be in the seat."
"Half of this sport is about putting yourself in position to have a chance to win on Sunday afternoon, and you know, that's what we did today and everything went our way," said Zipadelli. "It's nothing more than that. We were lucky, but we put ourselves in position because we were behind. Because we did have the problems, it allowed us to pit, top off with fuel and do some of the things that the guys up front that were guarding their track position, which is pretty normal here, couldn't. You can almost run this race like a road course, unless you were in the situation that we were in, and we took advantage of it. Last year, we were in the complete opposite position where we should have won this race. We dominated most of the second half, and it rained with 30 or so to go and we had to pit for fuel and today we got it back. It was fun."
The win propelled Logano to 21st in the driver point standings. He is a mere six points outside of the 20th position. It also increased his lead in the Raybestos Rookie standings to 31 points (199-168) over Scott Speed.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to Daytona International Speedway next weekend for the annual Fourth of July Weekend event - the Coke Zero 400. The race is scheduled for an 8 p.m. EDT start and will be broadcast on TNT. The live pre-race show begins at 7:30 p.m. EDT. Live radio coverage will be provided by the Motor Racing Network (MRN).
