Big stories have dominated Richmond International Raceway leading into this weekend’s Chevy Rock & Roll 400—who’s in and who’s out of the Chase, “Hurricane” Kyle’s dropkick of fan-favorite Dale Jr. in the spring race, and the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) start of racing prodigy Joey Logano—Tony Stewart’s replacement at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Since Richmond found itself awash in the wind and rain from Tropical Storm Hanna, NSCS cars will line up by virtue of points, excluding Logano from the field.

The kid has been tagged “the greatest thing since sliced bread” by NASCAR honks.

It’s been heard before – the dramatic rise and subsequent flame-out of Casey Atwood, last decade’s “next Jeff Gordon,” comes to mind—but Logano’s meteoric rise from family go-kart to heir-apparent of one of Sprint Cup’s top rides is nothing short of amazing.

Joey’s father Tom first put him on wheels at the tender age of four.

“My earliest memories of racing were driving a go-kart around the property of my Dad’s waste management company in Connecticut,” Joey recalled.

His competitive career began in quarter-midgets two years later, and he showed promise early on, bagging his first championship at age seven and several more in various divisions around New England within another two years.

At nine years old, Logano’s regional success evolved to a national level with wins and an eventual championship in Bandolero cars that raced as companion events on infield tracks at the Charlotte and Atlanta Motor Speedways. 

Seeking warmer weather and a step closer to Joey’s dream of racing in NASCAR, Tom Logano sold his business and moved the family south in 1999—compromising on Alpharetta, Ga. rather than stock-car hub Charlotte in order to enable his daughter Danielle’s endeavor to become a professional figure-skater.

Joey first stepped into more powerful cars when his father secured a waiver for him to begin racing Legends cars, which typically required a minimum age of 12 to drive. At ten years old he became the youngest driver to win a feature race, went on to win a record 14 consecutive events and the national championship in 2002.

He had a similar run of success in the Allison Legacy cars, taking four victories and 12 top-fives in 21 starts from 2001-03.

Logano continued to prove himself at each increased level of competition. He began racing full-sized late models in 2003, taking his first win at age 13. Between 2004 and 2005 he branched out his experience to ASA, FASCAR Pro Trucks and Hooters Pro Cup, where he became the series youngest three-time winner.

By that time Logano had caught the eye of many in the racing world, among them NASCAR veteran Mark Martin, whose son Matt had raced against him many times. Mark astonished many by strongly recommending Logano to Jack Roush as his own replacement in the seat of the #6 Ford.

Roush showed serious enough interest in the 15-year-old to consider signing him to a developmental contract. Team president Geoff Smith, still feeling the sting of Kyle Busch’s 2003 defection to Hendrick Motorsports, left the Loganos feeling lukewarm about their prospects with Roush Racing—despite Martin’s warm welcome and best efforts to make it happen. They set out to explore other possibilities, and were quickly snatched up by Joe Gibbs Racing.

Roush/Fenway Racing may feel the eventual sting of their potential fumble long after the former wears off.   

The rest, as they say, is history – although still in the making.

Logano is scheduled for a few more NSCS races this season in preparation for his takeover of Stewart’s orange #20 in 2009. So far, so good… his best Friday practice lap of 22.340 (10th among 46 drivers) in JGR’s #02 Toyota eclipsed Stewarts’ best (27th of 46) by almost a tenth of a second.

Too bad Richmond… you’ll have to wait a few months longer to see the kid wheel an NSCS car in person -– but he’ll be on the pole for Sunday night’s rescheduled NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race. 

JGR has had Logano on an advanced learning curve, sharing seat time with Stewart and Denny Hamlin in the NNS this season. Going into this weekend, Logano’s 11-start career includes two pole positions, a victory at Kentucky, and three top-fives and eight top-10’s in only 11 starts.

Pretty amazing stuff, but maybe par for the course considering Logano’s history of success.

He seems to take it all in stride, although he’s seldom seen without a big grin on his face. Away from the track, the self-described “geeky looking kid” with the big smile enjoys skiing, fly-fishing and playing hockey.

As his one-time racing idol Jeff Gordon quickly found out following his similar rise to prominence in the early 90’s, the final step up the racing ladder can be a daunting task, especially off the track.

“You can have all the talent in the world and a tremendous amount of experience getting to this level,” said Gordon. “The one thing you can’t be prepared for is when you’ve got that much hype and focus on you coming in… demands on your time, cameras in your face, the autographs, the fan base – all those things that you can’t train for.”

Gordon, of all drivers, knows of what he speaks in that department.

“There sure are a lot of cameras following me today,” Logano noted in a Friday press conference.

The kid better enjoy those hobbies, if it’s not too late already.

Brace yourself, kid… it only gets worse from here.