Logano's rapid ascent a sign of changing times

Jeff Burton was 21 years old in 1988 when he broke into NASCAR's national divisions in a Busch car owned by his father. More than five years passed before he got his first shot in a Cup car, a one-off for a Fil Martocci-owned team that had never before competed at that level. It wasn't until 1996 -- eight years after breaking into NASCAR's big leagues -- that he finally landed a ride capable of winning races and contending for a championship, which happened when he first slid into the No. 99 owned by Jack Roush.

Teen scene

The task facing Joey Logano is simple: perform up to elite standards on and off the track.

• For complete story, click here
• Logano officially named to 20
• Video: Logano/JGR presser

Burton was 29 by then, and had worked for the better part of a decade to climb the career ladder and secure a seat with one of the elite organizations in Cup racing. Compare that to the rapid ascent of Joey Logano, who at 18 has locked up a ride with a Joe Gibbs Racing team that's won three titles at NASCAR's highest level -- all before he's even made his first Sprint Cup start.

But Burton -- who wasn't part of any development program, and drove for the Stavola Brothers before getting his big break with Roush -- wouldn't have done it any other way.

"The way that I did it, I think, was better than the way it's done today," he said. "Me having time to grow up as a racecar driver, but more importantly as a person, I think was better than throwing a kid 19, 20 years old into this. I'm not saying it's wrong doing that, I just think it served me personally fine to do it the way I did it.

"I thought running the Nationwide Series allowed me a chance to mature. I ran it full-time for like four or five years and that was a great experience. I learned a lot. It enabled me to mature and made me a better racecar driver. It made me a more mature person before I moved up into this. Then when I moved up into this, I drove for a team that really didn't expect to win. They were very happy running 15th, 20th was a good day. It's a whole other criteria that I was doing compared to what they're doing today. To me I think the way I did it was in some ways better. In other ways it was harder, but it allowed me to grow and get a better understanding of what goes on here."

But the days when a driver has four or five years to find his footing, or can take satisfaction in a 20th-place finish, seem to be ending. No question, Logano is a special talent; he's been heralded by Mark Martin as the next great thing since he was in middle school, and backed it up on the racetrack. But he's also the product of a system that puts hopeful drivers behind the wheel when they're still tots, sees teenaged up-and-comers inked by elite organizations, puts college-aged drivers in the kind of equipment their forebears could only have dreamed of at that age, and expects them to win immediately. (Continued)