So now its official, Joey Logano will replace Tony Stewart in the #20 Home Depot Toyota. The media hype surrounding Joey is immense, and has been that way since he debut in the Nationwide Series earlier this year. Which begs the question - Is it all too much, too early? They are two case studies that we can draw on to make our conclusions. One study is that of Casey Atwood, who, also at the age of 18 was considered to be the second coming of Jeff Gordon. He (Like Joey) was put under intense media coverage, due to the fact he was the youngest winner in Nationwide (Busch) series history (Untill Joey replaced him earlier this year). And with just very little Nationwide (Busch) seres expeience (Like Joey) landed one of the biggest seats in the premier series driving for Ray Evernham and his newly formed race team, and was partnered up with the legendary Bill Elliot. What resulted is still considered one of the biggest racing busts in NASCAR history (see my earlier blog) with only 4 top 10's to show for his efforts and was relesed from his duties from the 19 car after only 1 season, and was relegated to driving for Ultra Motorsports #7 car (basically the Evernham R&D team) where he was also quickly replaced. Casey Atwood still to this day remains the poster boy of "Too Far, Too Fast".
The other case study is that of Kyle Busch. Kyle also debuted in the Nationwide series at the age of 18. Driving for Rick Hendrick's team. Kyle (like Joey and Casey) had intense media coverage of his exploits in ARCA and his Nationwide efforts. Added to that Kyle's brother Kurt had just reciently won the Nextel (Sprint, Winston) cup, but, Kyle stayed in the Nationwide series for over 2 years. And had just a little more expeirence than Casey and Joey, before making his debut in 2004. The story of Kyle Busch is of course well known at this point, Kyle went on to contend for championships with Rick Hendrick before leaving for Joe Gibbs Racing at the beginning of this year, and going on a tear the likes that has not been seen in years on the circuit.
While the simularites between all three of these drivers are striking, they are some distinct differences. Casey had psycological issues even before going to the cup circuit. While driving for BREWCO in the Nationwide (Busch) series, Casey was sent to see a Psycologist to work out his "non-agression problems". Kyle and Joey both have not (reportedly) to this date experienced such problems.
So my conclusion at this point is that it could be in the personality of the driver in question. But it will remain to be seen if Joey can live up to the hype, due to the fact Casey was outed in just one season, and it has taken Kyle over 4 seasons to become dominate in the series. Given all this hype I just don't believe that Joey will have that luxury to become dominate. In order to avoid the "Curse of Casey" he will need to win and win right away or (unfortunately) his career will be doomed to join Casey Atwood on the "Too Far, Too Fast" poster!
Thanks once again to Wikipedia for some of the information in this article.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. . . . What does this one say to you? The bottom line is the prodical son has fired the shot heard round the world. All winter long the question burning the NASCAR world has been, How will Jr fare with HMS? Well tonight I think you got your answer!
Jr has answered all his critics and naysayers in only his FIRST RACE! And the thing that has impressed me the most is how it was an absolute team effort. Jr gave credit to his new teammate Jimmy Johnson for helping him win the race. And that is why Hendrick is the dominate team in NASCAR today, cause, lets face it, you can have all the horsepower, the best handling cars, all the sponsor dollars you want, and maybe a really good and talented driver, but in todays NASCAR world, it don't mean anything unless the whole team can look past themselves and do what is right for the collective whole. Hendrick drivers are the best today because no matter how big or popular the driver, Gordon, Johnson, Mears, and Earnhardt Jr, work together as a collective unit to accomplish the same goal. While other teams are tearing themselves and other drivers apart in the garage area, these guys are working together to WIN!!! And thats why it will be no surprise, at the end of the year it will be a HMS driver holding the Sprint Cup Trophy! Congratulations go to not just Earnhardt Jr for winning the shootout, but to the whole HMS team, for proving once again that teams win championships and individuals sink!
