by Lee Spencer

Logano, 18, who made his debut in the Nationwide Series at Dover in June, sat on the pole for the next two races and won in his third career start, will drive the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing next year. Championship-winning crew chief Greg Zipadelli will continue to oversee the operation.

In the beginning ...

It's official, Joey Logano is taking over the No. 20 Home Depot Camry in 2009. Check out his ride here.

Spencer: Youth movement

As FOXSports.com first reported two weeks ago, NASCAR's newest recruit will make his debut for JGR next weekend at Richmond International Raceway in the No. 02 Toyota. Wally Brown will crew chief Logano during his 2008 run. Logano is also scheduled to race the No. 02 Camry at Atlanta and will likely fill out the seven allotted pre-rookie race schedule in the No. 96 Camry at Hall of Fame Racing.

"Jumping in the 20 Nationwide car this year was a big step for me in the beginning of the season," Logano said. "You can jump with a great team, have a little bit more pressure and run up front, or you can run a middle-to-the-back team, not have the pressure to run up front, but you're not going to win races."

And Gibbs is no stranger to winning. In addition to three Super Bowl championships, Gibbs has won three Sprint Cup titles in 16 years. Oh yeah, Coach is currently leading the point standings with Kyle Busch — who has amassed a 212-point lead over second-place Carl Edwards after winning eight of the first 22 races.

Put LeBron on a team where Jerry Buss is the owner, Phil Jackson is the coach and Kobe is his teammate. I can promise you there would be more than a conference title and rookie honors in King James' trophy case over the last four years.

In addition to having Gibbs on Logano's side, the rookie will have guidance from Zippy and teammates Busch and Denny Hamlin to rely upon. His equipment is second to none. Winning the Raybestos' rookie title will be a blip on Logano's resume by the time he's finished rewriting the record books.

Around the track

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Analysis:

• Spencer: Smoke goes the wrong way
• DW: Let's be clear

Zipadelli, who won two championships and scored 32 wins with Tony Stewart, realized Logano's talent in the early stages of his stock car development when JGR tested with the then 15-year-old three years ago at Kansas. Logano has logged thousands of testing miles since.

"You could see right then that he was just very, very consistent — hitting his marks and running the same lap times with the car that he had," Zipadelli said. "I think the biggest thing is that he's very open-minded, he's not afraid to move around. He'll take what he has and do the best with it.

"From what we've done so far, it's been a lot of fun and it's been energizing to start over and have to start thinking differently and having to react differently. He's going to want and need different things than what we're used to in a race car because he's a different person. He's a different driver with different driving styles.

"Overall, I think he's done a phenomenal job in everything we've asked him to do so far."

Home Depot has enjoyed tremendous success with Stewart over the last 10 seasons. And while an 18-year-old is hardly at the center of the home improvement store's target demographic of 18 to 54, Frank Bifulco, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, believes Logano's age will not matter to customers or associates as long as the "hardware" is delivered.

"Joey will be broadly appealing," Bifulco said. "I'm not concerned about his age at all. The proof will be in his ability to drive, to run hard and to win."

Logano has already earned the respect of the garage veterans. Former Nationwide Series champ Randy LaJoie anointed Logano with the moniker "Sliced Bread." Even a few years ago, Mark Martin referred to the youngster as "the real deal." Martin, who first introduced Logano to the NASCAR media at his hanger outside Daytona Beach, doesn't believe the 18-year-old will be affected by the pressure.

"It could be a quarter-midget, legend car race, whatever, it is OK," Martin said. "The kid can take it. He can do the job. It is not like he is trying to do more. The hype is only there because he has done it, he can do it, and he has done it. That is the only reason the hype is there. It will not break him, the hype won't break him, the kid can do it."

Logano agrees. He thrives on pressure.

"I'm all about the pressure — I'm cool with pressure," Logano said. "Moving up to this car now, it's more pressure, but I can handle it. I think it's cool. When Tony (Stewart) left and they brought my name up — it was really exciting for me, especially as an 18-year-old kid.

"It's cool even to have your name brought up, but then for it all to happen and if we all work good then it's going to be really exciting."

Gibbs was convinced three months ago that Logano was mentally prepared for the challenge. But still, doubts lingered. Joey's father, Tom Logano, suggested a meeting when the word was leaking out that his son was among the candidates for the No. 20 Toyota. We're not talking some hotshot agent putting together demands or $90 million contracts. This was a concerned father whose son had just come of legal age looking for the best way to handle the obstacles ahead.

After Gibbs and his son J.D., president of JGR, sat down with the Loganos he quickly forgot that the racer sitting across from him was still a teenager.

"The meeting we had was very revealing," Gibbs said. "We went into it open minded. We asked him, 'What do you think about the 20 car? Do you want a veteran guy to serve time with you? You could race two-thirds of the races and we would bring you up slow. Or we could wait a year and you could run a season in the Nationwide Series.'

"Then his dad said, 'Let Joey talk.' He did. He stood straight up and said, 'Here's what I think. My experience is I'm not afraid of these cars. I've been in 'em. I understand the big cars.' He wasn't cocky. He just thought if someone else was running the races it would take away from the laps he had. He felt the best experience for him was to get in and drive the race cars rather than sitting on the sidelines."

Having Zippy in charge also made the decision easier for Gibbs. Combining Zipadelli's leadership skills along with a championship team will help with the transition. Certainly, Logano's disposition will make the task smoother than dealing with a prima donna.

"The good thing about Joey is that the mother and the daddy have been there the whole time," Gibbs said. "That's 18 years of being at the house with him. I used to laugh at the scouts in football when they would say a kid in the draft had questionable character. They would say, 'Well, you can handle him.' And I would say, 'No I can't. He spent 20 years getting here and I'm not going to be able to change him in six months.'

"The advantage we have with Joey is his parents looked after him for 18 years and he's very experienced for his age. He's been in tons of cars, raced lots of places. He's been at big Cup practices dealing with the best people in the world. And next week at Richmond will be another building page in his book."

And fortunately for Logano, he won't encounter the additional hoops that LeBron has had to endure.