LOUDON, N.H. - Teenager Joey Logano became the youngest winner in the history of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series Sunday, winning the rain-shortened race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The precocious 19-year-old rookie came back from a crash that put him a lap down earlier in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 and won his first Cup race in his 20th start.
Logano was among a group of drivers who moved to the front of the field after getting out of sequence on fuel stops. The youngster took the lead when Ryan Newman, trying to stay on track as long as possible with rain threatening, ran out of gas on lap 264 in the event scheduled to go 301 laps.
Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon moved into second and was steadily cutting into the lead as Logano, with a nearly empty gas tank, conserved as much fuel as possible.
However, the rain began falling three laps later and, after NASCAR put out a red flag in hopes of drying the track, the rain began falling harder and the race was called after 273 laps.
"I guess I'd rather be lucky than good right now," Logano said as he waited for the decision. "Obviously, we didn't have the car to win, but we've overcame a lot today: tires down and more issues than you can imagine."
Logano, 19 years, one month and four days old, broke the record set by Kyle Busch for the youngest winner. Busch, now 24, was 20 years, four months and two days when he won for the first time.
Logano took over the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota that had been driven the last 10 years by two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart. He also inherited veteran crew chief Greg Zipadelli, who worked with Stewart through that entire period.
"He said to just stay out, rain's in the area," Logano said of Zipadelli. "So we started saving a little bit of fuel ... It would be a dream come true, that's for sure."
It was a virtual home victory for Logano, who was raised in Middletown, Conn.
Gordon was disappointed with the second-place finish.
"I felt like we had the best car," Gordon said. "The guys got us out first on our last pit stop, but it just got us out ahead of the guys we were racing with."
He congratulated Logano and said Zipadelli made "a gutsy call" leaving the youngster on track.
