Photo – Mark Moran, The Citizens’ Voice via AP
Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) put a young Joey Logano in the Sprint Cup Series full-time in 2009. The 18-year-old took over the vacated seat in the No. 20 car from Tony Stewart.
The Cup rookie never saw Pocono Raceway until June. JGR decided to enter Logano in the ARCA race on Saturday for more track time. Logano took to the Tricky Triangle early by setting the fastest time in practice. With qualifying rained out, the No. 25 Home Depot Toyota had to start in fourth-place.
It wasn’t the first time Logano drove for Venturini Motorsports in ARCA. He previously drove at Rockingham in 2008 and won and ran the 2009 season opener at Daytona to gain approval from NASCAR and finished second.
Logano already made his way up to second on the first lap, but two early cautions bunched up the field. The No. 25 car saw its first time out in front on lap 15 and was the car to beat on the day. Logano stretched his lead to nearly seven seconds by lap 30 until another caution came out.
Another rookie driver was starting to creep up towards the front. It was Cunningham Motorsports driver Parker Kligerman. The 25 and 77 cars were the best cars and Kligerman passed Logano for the lead on lap 40. Bad luck plagued Kligerman who had two flat tires during the race and Logano took the lead back when the 77 had to pit.
Logano didn’t look back as the Cup rookie would hang on and win in his Pocono début.
2009 Pocono ARCA 200 Top 10