BREAKING NEWS: Toyota Confirms Joey Logano Will Replace Tony Stewart In NASCAR

BRISTOL, Tenn. – 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.’ ”

Logano made his Nationwide Series debut on May 31 in the Helluva Good! 200 at Dover International Speedway in Delaware, finishing in sixth place.

Logano then won his first Nationwide race two starts later on June 14, taking the checker in the Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway. The victory made Logano, who had just turned 18, the youngest-ever driver to win a Nationwide Series event.

However, Logano,  in a recent phone interview with the Herald Courier, downplayed the possibility of taking over for Stewart.

“I think it’s not even up to me,” Logano said. “That’s [up to] Joe and J.D. [Gibbs], when and if I move up. So I’m focusing on what I can achieve right now, and that’s my [No.] 20 Nationwide car … .”

Asked specifically if he would be interested in Stewart’s No. 20 car if offered, Logano was more direct.

“If they made an offer to me, yeah. I’d be game-up for it. Why not? Why would you say ‘no’ to that race car?” Logano said.

The news of Logano’s ascension to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series follows a week of bad news for Toyota.

Logano and Stewart this week were penalized 150 Nationwide Series championship points and put on probation through the remainder of this year by NASCAR. The punishment was part of a penalty dealt out by NASCAR against Joe Gibbs Racing, following an attempt to distort engine power and disguise horsepower following a Nationwide Series race Aug. 16 at Michigan International Speedway.

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