Joey Logano Wins Second NASCAR Toyota All-Star Challenge

How often can 19 year old, NASCAR reigning Rookie of the Year, Joey Logano be referred to as the veteran schooling the youngster? Logano had his hands full with 16 year old, Sergio Pena en route to his second victory in the Irwindale Speedway, Toyota NASCAR All-Star Challenge. Logano won the event in 2007 and crossed the line first in the 2008 Toyota All-Star Challenge only to be penalized to last place for rough driving.

Logano in the 2009 Toyota NASCAR All-Star Challenge contended with pole sitter, Sergio Pena most of the race. Pena driving in his first event of this magnitude, looked like a veteran during most of the 225 laps. Joey Logano commented on Pena's learning curve during his interview in victory lane. "Pena was good but I was beating him to the line on the early restarts and then at the end I had to pull a few tricks because he was catching on pretty fast."

NASCAR sophomore Joey Logano led the most laps with 171 laps led with Pena in close pursuit most of the time. This year Logano was in a car that was not prepared by Joe Gibbs Racing and conceded that Pena had the fastest car on the track during his Speed TV interview at the 200 lap break.

Pena beats out two other teammates for right to race.
Pena only learned he would be racing in the event on Thursday, when he won a playoff of sorts between himself and two other drivers. Pena's team Revolution Racing, owned by Andy Santerre, a four-time NASCAR Camping World Series champion as a driver and team owner and run by former Dale Earnhardt Inc CEO Max Siegle is part of the NASCAR program Drive for Diversity.

Pena didn't disappoint his team on Friday, surprising everyone including himself, by going out and qualifying for the pole of the NASCAR All-Star Showdown. Pena did show his inexperience on one restart as he appeared to miss a shift and dropped back to third after Matt Kobyluck got by on the inside. Pena quickly corrected the mistake and drove back up to second to continue hounding Logano.

East Coast NASCAR star Matt Kobyluck was best of the rest.
Another two-time winner of the NASCAR All-Star Challenge, Matt Kobyluck had a front row view of the battle between the two teenagers, Pena and Logano but couldn't get close enough to mount any serious challenges. In
Kobyluck's interview with Speed TV, the East Coast NASCAR short track legend, referred to the two as having far superior cars than the others.

Following Logano and Pena to the finish line were Kobyluck, Joe Gibbs Racing development driver Matt DiBenedetto and Andrew Myers to round out the top five. Eric Holmes, David Mayhew, Eddie MacDonald, Paulie Harraka and former NASCAR DEI driver, Steve Park finished sixth through tenth.

To view highlights of the event click here.

sources:
www.nascar.com
www.speedtv.com