Last week at Indianapolis, it was all Danica, all the time.        
Until Saturday’s rain-delayed Nationwide Series race finished and dusk settled over Dover Int’l Speedway, it was all Joey Logano, all the time.
Those with better perspectives than mine can decide if Ms. Patrick’s month of May in Indiana lived up to expectations. I will state for the record that young Mr. Logano lived up to the hype of his national series debut at the Monster Mile.

For those who don’t dig beneath the Sprint Cup Series headlines, here’s the scoop on Logano. Starting at home in Connecticut and moving to North Carolina before he was ready for junior high school, he has blown through every division available from quarter-midgets to Legends to weekly late models to Hooters Pro Cup to last year’s NASCAR Busch East Series title.

For those who don’t dig beneath the Sprint Cup Series headlines, here’s the scoop on Logano. Starting at home in Connecticut and moving to North Carolina before he was ready for junior high school, he has blown through every division available from quarter-midgets to Legends to weekly late models to Hooters Pro Cup to last year’s NASCAR Busch East Series title.
At 15, his talent was endorsed by Mark Martin, and at 16, he signed a development deal with Joe Gibbs Racing. The only impediment was NASCAR’s minimum age of 18 for national series drivers, believed by some to have been adopted with him in mind. While waiting to reach that milestone two weeks ago, he tested extensively for Gibbs and dismissed the ARCA field at the Rockingham Speedway reopening on May 4 like a man racing against boys, to use the obvious analogy.
The net result of his success was a level of anticipation not seen since Kyle Busch, his teammate in waiting at Joe Gibbs Racing, came riding out of the West in 2004.
There was no hiding behind the facade of a development team or research-and-development effort. His mount at Dover was the full-fledged JGR Toyota No. 20, a winner under any driver picked from the Gibbs stable of superstars in 2008.
A group of long-standing media types, not easily impressed by the flavor of the month, fell into a heated discussion of Logano’s prospects while waiting for a table at Sambo’s Tavern, the legendary seafood emporium out by the bay, the night before the uniquely named Heluva Good! 200.
“It’s like the shortstop who’s compared to Derek Jeter after he’s hit .358 in double-A ball,” ventured one. “We know he’s good. He’s handled everything they’ve thrown at him, but he hasn’t had to face a hard slider. Until he hits one of those out of the park, we won’t really know how good.”
“Every place Joey has been, he’s had the best equipment,” this pundit continued. “Now he’s matched against 12 or 15 more experienced drivers with the same hardware and professional teams behind them. He’s not shooting rabbits with a machine gun any more.”
Another in the company added, “Ever since he’s moved up to touring series, he’s run time trial races with that superior stuff, so he’s usually started up front. I’d be a lot more sold on him if he had stayed in New England, and I’d seen him win a bunch of 40-lap features at Stafford from 16th in a handicapped lineup with old pros like TC (Ted Christopher) and Bo Gunning there to work him over.”
If Joey Logano had been listening to the doubters, he might have made a checklist for the following day.      
He wasn’t perfect on race day, but he impressed in dealing with his imperfections. Qualifying ninth for the impound race, i.e., he was hung up in a pit traffic jam at the first caution, pitted and restarted 27th. He arrived back in the top 10 35 laps later, and passed no less a rival than Kasey Kahne for fifth with 70 to go.
Eventually, Greg Biffle demoted him to sixth, but the point was made: No panic when he got behind, controlled aggressiveness in traffic and no bashfulness about taking on the big boys.
A significant hurdle was cleared at Dover, and at least one roundtable of skeptics was converted to the ranks of the  believers.