On his third try Joey Logano gets first win

Joey Logano, the kid they call 'Sliced Bread," got his first-ever win in the Nationwide Series besting the field at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday night and becoming the youngest driver in history to do so.

It looked like a battle might shape up between Logano and Kyle Busch but with 20-or-so laps to go, Busch lost control of his Toyota Camry and slammed into the outside wall. That left the race for Logano to lose — and he didn't. It was just three weeks ago at Dover, that Logano got his first start in the Nationwide Series and he almost went out and won his first race. Last week, he sat on the pole at Nashville and now he is in Victory Lane.

"Unbelievable, that's for sure," Logano said as he climbed out of his car in Victory Lane. "I have to thank GameStop and all the fans. The team was amazing today. I didn't think we had the car today and I said I would be happy with a Top 5. I tell you what. How about this team. It's freaking amazing. I gotta alive this moment first before I live anything else."

Logano's dad Tom was at the race and said this was the best Father' Day he's ever had, as he celebrated his son's win.

Man, I don't know what to say. I was at the press conference at Lowe's Motor Speedway when they announced that Logano would be taking over driving duties for the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing machine. Still being a teenager, Logano was a perfect fit for Grapevine, Tx.-based GameStop.

I t was most-certainly a party atmosphere as they unveiled a 47-pound cake to celebrate Logano's 18th birthday and they let it be known that this kid was the real deal.

I believe them and I think it is safe to say that he has proven himself.

I have heard rumors for the past two weeks that Tony Stewart will vacate the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota at the end of the season and it is very possible that Logano will take over that ride. It could be very interesting.

Secret meetings with NASCAR teams and FORBES rates NASCAR values

Apparently, NASCAR brass held a top-secret meeting with drivers and team owners this morning to discuss the state of the sport and the importance of spending time with fans. Honestly, I can't tell you what was said but one might speculate that it also had to do with the recent $250 million discrimination lawsuit filed against the sanctioning body. NASCAR said the lawsuit was not discussed and I believe them. I have tried to find a copy of the lawsuit but it has not yet been posted to the federal government's PACER Web site. I will obtain a copy of the lawsuit as soon as possible and post it here for everyone to read.

Now, what follows below is something that I stole from FORBES. If you want to read the entire article the goto www.forbes.com. I lay no claim to the information, I just thought my readers might be interested in what FORBES came up with concerning the value of NASCAR teams. It should be interesting reading.

Taken from the FORBES.COM Web site:

There's a widening gulf in NASCAR between stock car racing's biggest, most valuable teams and those hoping to hang on for just one more race. Since our first NASCAR valuation package two years ago, values have rocketed skyward, up 65% on average, to $119 million, thanks to a rash of investment in a sport whose radical growth over the past decade appears to be sputtering.

In the past year, billionaire investors like George Gillett, the owner of the NHL's Montreal Canadians and English soccer club Liverpool, and Fortress Investment Group President Rob Kaufman purchased stakes in teams (Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Michael Waltrip Racing, respectively) after seeing value in NASCAR.

They aren't alone. Stock car racing is also seeing interest from within--mergers of middling teams are yielding ready-made contenders as teams begin to realize the new efficiencies of operating, say, two cars from one expanded shop rather than separately. Example: Ginn Racing teaming with Dale Earnhardt Inc. prior to this season.

WWW.FORBES.COM

Petty joins with investment group

First, I already know that I have been slacking on getting stuff posted to the site. I have been busy trying to meet deadline for the paper and trying to move. Anyway, the site has suffered over the past week and there is no other way to describe it. Now that I have the apologies out of the way let me say a few things about the Petty Enterprises/Boston Ventures business arrangement.

Although I hate the fact that Richard Petty and the Petty family are not the only ones that will be calling the shots at Petty Enterprises, I truly believe that had this deal not been finalized that we may have seen the eventual demise of the most famous racing organization in history.

Now, according to the press release: "Petty Enterprises, the most successful organization in the history of American motorsports, today (June 11, 2008) announced a partnership with Boston Ventures, a leading middle market private equity firm which invests in the entertainment, media, and communications sectors. This marks the first time since Lee Petty formed the organization in 1949 that an outside firm has invested in the legendary race team.  In addition to introducing new CEO David Zucker and a major investment by Boston Ventures, Petty Enterprises has also extended their contract with former NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte and will integrate the operations of Petty Enterprises and the Richard Petty Driving Experience.

So, what does that mean? Well, for sure it means that Petty Enterprises will get a big chunk of cash flung at them. The idea behind this little business experiment is to build up the team and then let Boston Ventures sell off its share at a greatly increased profit. I do disagree with several of my racing reporter colleagues that continue to say that race teams are nothing more than money pits.

Can you really say that about someone like Hendrick Motorsports? I understand that the cost of "going racing" has gone up over the years but so has everything else. It is time to face facts, most of th guys that run race teams are not necessarily the best business people in the world. Correct me if I am wrong but it appears that the most successful teams are run by real business people. Look at Roush-Fenway Racing. Yes, Jack Roush took on an investor in Fenway but the team wasn't struggling before. Prior to the investment deal, Roush had won two Sprint/Nextel/Winston Cup Championships in three years. Rick Hendrick is  great businessman and owns a gazillion-dollar auto business. His race team is doing pretty good, I would say.

But look at Ray Evernham, Michael Waltrip, Leonard Wood, Robert Yates and the list goes on. All of these guys are or were racers. It doesn't mean that they aren't business-savy but I would be that any one of them could drive a racecar better than run a Fortune 500 company. Over the past seven years, NASCAR has skyrocketed in popularity and along with that has come increased costs. It is not a bad thing that the Pettys joined up with Boston ventures. In fact, if you think about it, Petty Enterprises held off for a long time before making this deal. And now that it is done, I project that Petty Enterprises with Boston Ventures help, will once-again become a dominant force in NASCAR.

Kahne wins Pocono, continues comeback

By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

LONG POND, Pa. (June 8, 2008) -- Polesitter Kasey Kahne recovered from missing lug nuts that dropped him to the back of the field -- and weathered myriad strategic ploys from his rivals -- to win Sunday's Pocono 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway.

The victory was Kahne's second of the season and the ninth of his career in 158 starts, but it wasn't as easy as Kahne's 3.702-second margin of victory over Brian Vickers might suggest.

After a restart on Lap 182 of the 200-lap event, Kahne passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Lap 183 and Vickers on Lap 185 to take the lead for the final time.

Denny Hamlin ran third, followed by Earnhardt and Jeff Burton, who trimmed the series points lead of 43rd-place finisher Kyle Busch to 21 points. Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards and Mark Martin completed the top 10.

Kahne is riding a wave of momentum that dates to the May 17 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. After Kahne failed to qualify for the event, fans voted him in. Kahne made the most of the opportunity and won the race. Eight days later he won his first points race of the season, the Coca-Cola 600.

"The fans gave (momentum) to us in the all-star race when they gave us that boost," Kahne said. "It's done a tremendous amount for our confidence in the last month."

It gave Kahne and his No. 9 Dodge crew enough presence of mind to recover from a snafu in the pits on Lap 58. Crew chief Kenny Francis changed his call from a four-tire to a two-tire pit stop under caution, but the front tire changer didn’t pick up on the change and removed three lug nuts from the left front before Kahne left the pits.

Kahne had to pit again a lap later to replace the lug nuts and fell to 38th in the running order for a restart on Lap 64. With the race's dominant car and excellent subsequent performance in the pits, Kahne worked his way back to sixth by the halfway point. On Lap 116, he passed teammate Elliott Sadler for third.

With both Earnhardt and Vickers on fuel-mileage strategies, Francis kept Kahne on a normal cycle of pit stops and let the strength of the No. 9 car make the difference.

Because of the fuel-mileage ploy, Vickers' tires were 10 laps older than Kahne's at the finish, and Vickers thought that was the critical issue.

"I'm so proud of our guys," said Vickers, who gave Red Bull Racing its best finish in the Cup series. "We needed tires. He (Kahne) had a lot newer tires, and that’s all we needed. We had a great car."

Hamlin, who won both Pocono races from the pole in 2006, had a run on Vickers soon after the final restart but couldn’t make the pass.

"I got to the 83 (Vickers), but as soon as we got there, he moved down into our line, and we couldn't make any headway," Hamlin said.

Notes: Edwards made an astounding run through the field after puncturing a left front tire and starting deep in the field on the final restart ... Pit road speeding penalties cost Greg Biffle (15th) and Tony Stewart (35th) dearly. Both had contending cars. Stewart fell to 12th in points, just seven ahead of 13th-place David Ragan ... Kyle Busch turned right into the path of Jamie McMurray on Lap 46 and slammed the frontstretch wall, severely damaging his front suspension. Busch return to action late in the race but completed just 95 laps and finished last.