Published: July 27, 2009 12:13 am         

Logano, 19, enjoys strong Brickyard debut

INDIANAPOLIS — Joey Logano competed in his first NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday and had a nice run in the Allstate 400 at The Brickyard.

Due to changing motors in the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota, the 19-year-old started at the rear of the field instead of 18th, where he qualified Saturday.

He moved up early and finished 12th, being the top rookie finisher in the race. He raced early race leader Juan Pablo Montoya with the veteran winning the battle to take 11th.

“We were racing hard . . . [but] I didn't want to blow our good finish [smiles] away. Eventually enough is enough,” he said.

“We had a really good car. We took off on restarts like no other,” he said.

“I just wish we [had] started up closer to the front because we could run with the top-10 cars,” he said.

“Starting the race, I thought we still had a solid shot at a top-10 if some things played in our favor,” he said.

Noting that not many cars wrecked meant there were few spots given to other cars. “You had to work for [everything],” he said.

Asked if he thought he could do what Mark Martin is doing at 50 years of age, he said, “I hope I am as good he is when I am at that age. It is pretty amazing to see him go out there and run that good.”



• Crowd still good — As predicted, there were some empty seats in the stands at the Speedway but most of them were in some of the areas where track vision is not as good.

Ticket sales were down for the race, likely due to the economy and the 2008 race marred by tire problems.

Attendance totals never are announced by IMS officials. Still, the crowd total likely was more than the capacity at any other venue on the Sprint Cup circuit.

And it was nearly ideal weather with no rain.



• Hansbrough marshall — Tyler Hansbrough, first-round draft pick of the Indiana Pacers from North Carolina, served as grand marshall and waved the green flag for the start of the race around 2:30 p.m.

Casey Jamerson, who is a Hoosier from Pendleton, sang the National Anthem. She graduated from high school last year and was given a scholarship in softball to Indiana University which she gave up to move to Nashville to pursue a career in music.

Brett Bodine, who was second in the first NASCAR race, drove the Corvette ZO6 pace car.

For the first time since this race began, the Indiana State band was not part of the pre-race ceremonies. No band was included in the events.