FanHouse KentuckySpeedway

Consider the effort to get NASCAR Sprint Cup racing in the Bluegrass State officially underway.

Monday, Speedway Motorsports Incorporated's Bruton Smith talked at Lowe's Motor Speedway about how he's revamping his recent Kentucky Speedway purchase, and more importantly, his plan to lobby NASCAR for a Sprint Cup date at the track in 2010.

But, come on, does NASCAR really need another 1.5-miler on its schedule -- even if it likely replaces another cookie-cutter track?

Let's face it, the kid many in the NASCAR garage have referred to as sliced bread -- here's an explanation of the reference -- hasn't exactly been a great beacon of Sprint Cup championship hope for Joe Gibbs Racing in his first three races.

In other words, 18-year-old Joey Logano is really a real person, and, no, he's not going to single-handedly Kyle Busch-ize the 2009 NASCAR season (and probably doesn't want to after we've seen what happens to Busch when the pressure is on).

Joey Logano won Saturday night's Nationwide Series race at Kentucky Speedway in his third-career NASCAR start driving for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Logano, who is 18 years and 21 days old, beat the previous record for the youngest driver to ever win in the Nationwide Series by almost nine months.

But the real question for me is: Did Joey Logano win the race, or did the equipment he's in win it?

Don't take me wrong -- winning in NASCAR is a tough thing to do. Logano should be more than commended for bringing the car home in one piece and for his dominating effort late in the event. His burnout was incredible, too.

But when you're stepping into a race team that has won eight of the last ten races in Nationwide Series, its tough to not see the trend. Simply, the Joe Gibbs Racing cars are incredibly fast, regardless who is driving them.

There hasn't been a race all season that a JGR machine hasn't contended for the win with a revolving door of drivers. The team simply has the best Nationwide program right now, hands down.

Want more proof? Kyle Busch drove his JGR car from the back of the pack Saturday night to the lead, and was chasing down Logano when he spun and smashed the turn 2 wall with 37 laps to go. Without the crash, I think we'd be penciling Kyle Busch in as the winner.

Logano's good, but I can't wait to see him struggle. That's when we'll see his true talent and mettle.

Welcome to NASCAR, dude.

Bruton Smith and Speedway Motorsports Inc. won't be getting their hands on Pocono Raceway any time soon in his bid to make a race date available to his latest acquisition of Kentucky Speedway.

Rose Mattioli told The Associated Press on Tuesday there are no plans to sell Pocono, which currently has two Sprint Cup races, and there will be racing on the mountaintop for at least "as long as our grandkids live."

"It never was available; it never will be available," said Mattioli, who owns the track with her husband, Joseph. "My husband has stated that over and again. That's it."

The track is "entrusted" to the Mattioli's grandchildren, and because of that, the family isn't selling one of NASCAR's three remaining race tracks not owned by International Speedway Corp. or SMI.

However, the track did open on Tuesday for some scheduled Sprint Cup Series testing.

Teams, fresh off the 600 miles at Lowe's Motor Speedway Sunday night, headed to Pennslyvania for the test which runs through Wednesday evening at the three-turn wanna-be road course track

Tuesday, teams got in about 4 hours of practice until rain canceled activities for the day -- meaning many, many Sprint Cup drivers were likely bored out of their minds.

David Gilliland paced the session while Dario Franchitti made his first laps in a stock car after getting injured over a month ago at Talladega.

Geoffrey Miller is in Concord, N.C. for Sunday's Sprint Cup Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He'll aim to eat as many elephant ears as possible while blogging away "Live from Lowe's" throughout Memorial Day weekend.

Generally, when Bruton Smith says he'll do something, he's gonna do it.

So when Smith promised both the ownership group of Kentucky Speedway and the world at a news conference on Thursday confirming his purchase of the facility that Kentucky would have a Sprint Cup race date in 2009, you've got to believe it will happen.

But at what cost to other race dates?

The only obvious answer I've got is that next season, at least one race at a current track will be eliminated in favor of the event in the Bluegrass State.

There are now three race tracks left on the Sprint Cup schedule not owned by either International Speedway Corp. or Smith's Speedway Motorsports Inc. Those tracks are Indianapolis (one race), Dover (two races), and Pocono (two races).

The final two in that list are both on Smith's radar for purchase with the primary goal of moving one of those race dates to Kentucky. If such a deal can't happen, Smith may move a race date from one of his current race tracks, though the track presidents from Atlanta and New Hampshire Motor Speedways have released statements that they are signing agreements with NASCAR for 2009 race dates on Friday.

Last year, when David Gilliland won his first ever Busch race in an unsponsored car at the spring Kentucky event, by the fall he was piloting Robert Yates Racing No. 38.

Stephen Leicht took his first Busch win at the same track Saturday night, but he's already racing for RYR and has Citifinancial as a sponsor.

Does that mean he gets an automatic Cup ride, too?

Doubt it.

But hey, he's a winner, right? I'm sure the party will be nice tonight -- mainly because he doesn't have to be at Michigan for the Cup race Sunday.

One minor issue though. Leicht is only 20, and underage drinking is wrong. Especially in the Busch Series. Wrong.

At least now, however, Leicht has the first win slump past him. He was the first non-Cup driver to win a Busch race in 52 consecutive races.

Busch Series point leader -- or the guy that's suffocating NASCAR's idea to not add the Chase for the Busch Series -- Carl Edwards led a race-high 96 of 200 laps before being caught up in a wreck with less than 30 laps to go on a restart.

He'll probably leave Kentucky with a 30-bajillion point lead, instead of 39-bajillion one. Darn.

It was a big night otherwise for non-Cup Busch regulars.