Toyota Confirms Joey Logano Will Replace Tony Stewart

Joey Logano

Goodbye Tony Stewart. Hello Joey Logano.

Logano will take the wheel next season of the No. 20 Toyota Camry NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race car currently driven by Tony Stewart, the Bristol Herald Courier has learned.

Logano’s move – rumored and dissected for months – was confirmed Saturday evening at Bristol Motor Speedway prior to the start of the NSCS Sharpie 500 by a high-ranking official affiliated with one of NASCAR’s premier motorsports manufacturing teams.

“Joey Logano … next year is going to be the [No.] 20 car," said the Toyota official, who did not want to be named because a Monday announcement is expected by Joe Gibbs Racing.

Stewart, a two-time NASCAR Cup champion, announced earlier this season that he would leave Toyota after the 2008 campaign.

Meanwhile, Logano, an 18-year-old native of Middletown, Conn., is viewed by many as NASCAR’S next big star. His talent has been praised by NASCAR’s top drivers, including Jeff Burton, winner of the NSCS Food City 500 in March at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“I’d put [Logano] in it in a heartbeat," Burton said on Friday during a BMS press conference when asked if he would place Logano in an open driver’s seat if he owned a NASCAR Cup team.

“It’s common now to take a kid you think has talent and put him in it. If I were the Gibbs group and that seat were available, that would be my candidate. I’d put him in there and I’d put my arm around him and say, ‘We’re with you.’ " Tricities.com