Logano's Nationwide Domination Actually Embarrassment to Self

Joey Logano has 13 career Nationwide Series wins ...

Is it possible for an athlete to dominate and still be an embarrassment at the same time?

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Joey Logano is demonstrating this NASCAR season that you can dominate and still embarrass yourself. This season Logano has won four Nationwide Series races, a series high, at Auto Club Speedway, Talladega, Darlington and Dover. Logano thoroughly dominated Dover on Saturday afternoon, as one of only two Cup drivers in the field (Kurt Busch being the other), leading 154 of 200 laps.

The Dover win marked Logano’s 13^th Nationwide Series victory in almost four and a half seasons in the series. However, in three and a half seasons in the Sprint Cup Series Logano hasn’t done much at all. He does have a win in his Cup career, coming in his rookie season of 2009 at New Hampshire Speedway, but you should really chalk that win up to his crew chief Greg Zipadelli who made the right strategy call to keep Logano out with impending rain thus giving the then 19-year old the rain shortened victory. So, Logano has one win that he really didn’t even earn in three and a half seasons in the Cup Series.

One lone victory in your first three and a half seasons wouldn’t be that bad if Logano hadn’t have been “Sliced Bread,” a nickname that he garnered because he was supposed to be the next best thing since. Logano was billed coming into the Cup Series as the next Jeff Gordon, the next Jimmie Johnson, the next great racer and champion of the sport. If anybody has truly been “Sliced Bread” since entering the sport at roughly the same time it’s been Brad Keselowski, who has six wins (all of them hard fought and earned) in the same span of time. Logano was supposed to have been the next Gordon or Johnson, but he hasn’t even really been the next Steve Park or [insert guy who was expected to be big but disappointed here]. At this point in his career, long past the point where Logano should have shown us something, I don’t think he’s one of the 20 best drivers currently in the Cup Series.

... but hasn't shown a thing in the Cup Series.

He’s even struggled so bad that some fully expect that his car owner Joe Gibbs might be tempted to drop Logano from his race team at season’s end to pick up free agent and temper tantrum of the week star Kurt Busch, older brother of Gibbs’ best driver Kyle Busch.

Now, Sprint Cup drivers running and winning Nationwide Series races has always been something that has greatly bothered me, but I have to admit that I have a bigger problem with Logano winning Nationwide races than I do with Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick or anybody else.

Why?

Because even though all of those others drivers should feel like the Nationwide Series is beneath them (and it is) they’re at least proven drivers in all NASCAR series and it doesn’t really hurt their Cup reputation by doing so.

The reason why Logano should be embarrassed to keep dominating and winning these Nationwide Series races is because not only is he outrunning guys in his Joe Gibbs equipment, probably by far the best equipment in the series, against lesser competition, but he’s also showing his lack of Sprint Cup success with every Nationwide checkered flag as it certainly leads to questions like: ‘Why can’t Logano win in Cup, if he dominates in Nationwide?’

Joey Logano hasn’t shown me a single thing in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career thus far, except for maybe the fact that he was severely overrated. Beating lesser drivers in lesser equipment in basically a minor league series should be embarrassing to him when he can’t hack it in Cup. Joey Logano may be called “Sliced Bread,” but he’s been nothing more than “Stale Bread” so far.