Rain, Rain Don't Go Away

You can imagine the song in the back of Joey Logano's head as the rain began to fall at New Hampshire Motor Speedway but instead of singing for the rain to go away, I'm sure he prayed for it to stay. And it did. As a result, the youngest driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series took the checker flag and became the youngest driver to win in the Sprint Cup series replacing Kyle Bush as the record holder.

Some might argue that Lagano didn't earn the win by racing for it or by having the best car, blah blah blah. Jeff Gordon's crew chief, Steve Letart, would certainly disagree. Logano, who topped off on fuel after a spin on lap 182, was able to stretch his last tank farther than most of the leaders who made their penultimate stop under a caution about 30 laps earlier. Logano also pitted again on lap 194 just before the field went back to green following a caution for the wrecked car of Scott Speed.According to Letarte,

“When you have an off-day you have those opportunities, and they took advantage of that opportunity and that’s a veteran crew chief and a veteran team making the most they can out of the situation,” Letarte said. I was surprised they made it as far as they did, but I wasn’t surprised they tried. It was a lot of cautions in there, it was a great strategy!”

Races are won or lost by drivers and by the call's of their crew chief. In this case, Tony Stewart's long time ex-crew chief and Lagono's first, Greg Zipadelli, made the best call of the race. That strategic call made NASCAR history as the young driver took the trophy at New Hampshire.

Check out NASCAR.com for the official results here.