Logano showed skill, maturity in Bristol

— -- BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Joey Logano's family still owns the trademark to "sliced bread," and for much of his career, that moniker appeared too boastful.

Over his four years at Joe Gibbs Racing, people rolled their eyes and thought of him more as "toast."

Now it's Logano who is leaving people to pick up the crumbs. Logano once again showed he belongs among the Sprint Cup elite drivers Saturday night as he held off Kevin Harvick in a thrilling final 50 laps to win the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

If there's something better than sliced bread, Logano was it as he kept the defending Sprint Cup champion at bay.

Logano, once a driver without a ride who faced a future of being all hype and no substance, has won eight races since the start of 2014. The only other driver who has won that many races in that span? Six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

"He's damn good," Johnson said. "There's no other way [to talk] about it. He's good. He's going to be a threat for a long time for championships."

Logano opened the 2015 season by winning the Daytona 500, and that will rank as his greatest victory. But the win Saturday night has to rank among his best, if not the best, driving job of his career. Driving a different line than Harvick lap after lap after lap, Logano knew which line he needed to run to hold off Harvick.

Logano didn't just beat a great driver, he beat a driver whom he has had several run-ins with throughout his career. Harvick couldn't even reach Logano to execute a bump-and-run. Logano was just that damn good at being able to "diamond" the corner, where a driver gets high in the middle of the turn and dives the car into the bottom line coming off the corner.

"I couldn't get my car to rotate across the center like I needed it to, and every time I tried to force it, [it] would snap the back out," Harvick said. "He was able to go in really high and before the center of the corner drive down the corner, and I was just having to wait just a split second to be able to put the throttle back down.

"I couldn't do that, that huge diamond all the way to the bottom like he could, and that was really beneficial for him through traffic."

Logano joined the Sprint Cup stable of Joe Gibbs Racing at age 18. He won only two races over four seasons and never finished Top-15 in the standings. Then JGR released him when it had the chance to sign Matt Kenseth. With the urging of Brad Keselowski, Rogert Penske hired Logano for the seat that opened up after AJ Allmendinger failed a drug test and was released from his ride.

In 2013 during Logano's first year with Penske, he won one race and finished eighth in the points. Then he blossomed in 2014, at the young age of 24, winning five times and being one of the four finalists for the championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

He opened 2015 with the Daytona 500 win and added victories at Watkins Glen and now Bristol.

"He's doing a great job," said JGR owner Joe Gibbs. "He's going to be a star. He's got everything it takes."

The Gibbs stable entered Bristol as the favorite with JGR drivers Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards starting 1-2-3, while Matt Kenseth started 13th. Kenseth's engine expired early. Busch - who led a race-high 192 laps - was caught speeding on pit road on the final caution flag on lap 432 of the 500-lap affair. Edwards was in the lead when he suffered a flat tire losing two laps and finishing seventh.

"What's really neat about Joey is to see him step up his game the last couple of years," Edwards said. "He really, really has raised his game. He's one of the toughest guys out here. I think he'll be a threat for the championship."

Hamlin had the best night for JGR finishing third. Hendrick's Johnson finished fourth. Clint Bowyer - whose Michael Waltrip Racing organization found out earlier in the week that it would cease operations after the season finale in November - placed fifth.

Bowyer holds the final spot among winless drivers for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. He has a 35-point cushion on Aric Almirola and a 37-point cushion on Kasey Kahne with two races left in the regular season. As long as no winless driver outside the top-15 in the standings wins a race, Bowyer should make the Chase.

Also having a good "points day" was Busch, who now sits 46 points ahead of 31st. Since he's won a race this season, he just needs to stay in the Top 30 to get into the postseason.

Logano has no points worries. And while the first half of the season was somewhat underwhelming after Daytona, the Penske organization has shown strength the last six races.

"He's clearly had talent," Johnson said. "He went through a very tough experience at the Gibbs group.

"And now he's surrounded with people that believe and his talent is able to shine. He's really matured behind the wheel."

A driver's "maturity" behind the wheel isn't about the way he acts. It's about the way he drives, not letting the driver on his bumper fluster him into running the wrong line or getting in his head and psyching him out.

"There's only a certain handful of guys that want to have the ball in their hands with three seconds left on the shot clock, and Joey is that guy," Logano crew chief Todd Gordon said. "When it comes down to the time to make it happen, he elevates, doesn't make mistakes.

"Kevin challenged us pretty formidably, and Joey never folded, never made a mistake and did what he had to do and executed, and that's a Joey Logano performance."

The difference in this win compared to many others is it came at Bristol, the 0.533-mile high-banked concrete oval, where drivers complete laps in 14 seconds. They constantly have to work around lapped traffic, changing their lines to avoid losing their momentum.

"This is the toughest - [Harvick] is somebody who doesn't like us very much and is very good here and was putting all the pressure he could on us," said Logano spotter Tab Boyd, who directed Logano through the traffic. "We held our ground and stayed after it. It was awesome."

Boyd considered this race as one of Logano's top-five career-best performances. Logano couldn't let Harvick get the lead because Harvick would have been very difficult to pass. After several laps, Boyd would just say "perfect" to Logano over the radio.

"They might not have looked perfect, but they were perfect for the momentum as far as runs off, just enough to stay ahead of [Harvick]," Boyd said. "He was charging the corner so hard, and there were a couple of times I thought he could get to us.

"We had to work it perfect, and I kept telling [Logano] here he was running and what he was doing and he was able to adapt."

Logano had no choice but to run perfect laps. Anticipation built over the final 25 laps that Harvick would eventually run a good enough lap to make a move. Everyone - including Logano - felt it was coming.

"I was watching him drive in and I was like, 'He's going to get me eventually,'" Logano said

Logano didn't have the cockiness, but he had the composure to win Saturday night. And that is what will keep him winning races and a threat for more championships in the years to come.

"It's cool to be racing one of the best out there and being able to hold him off and race each other hard and obviously not make mistakes," Logano said. "He didn't make mistakes and I didn't make a mistake today, either. It was fun to race like that.

"Where it ranks [in my best races], I don't know. ... I don't know where it stacks up. But it went well."