NASCAR TOYOTA ALL-STAR SHOWDOWN: YOUTH TRUMPS EXPERIENCE LOGANO, 17, WINS SEVENTH RACE IN '07.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK

Staff Writer

IRWINDALE -- Experience had been trumping potential in the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway on Saturday night.

A pair of veterans from the twoGrand National Divisions outraced some of the rising stars of NASCAR. Mike Duncan and Matt Kobyluck, with 10 combined Showdowns between them, were among the race leaders the entire night. But Joey Logano and Brian Ickler, each making their first Showdown appearances, challenged the leaders throughout the race.

In the end, it was 17-year-old Logano displaying the poise and patience of a veteran and winning the fifth annual All-Star Showdown.

Logano, the Busch East Series champion, won his seventh race of the year, the winner's share of the $417,980 purse and use of a Toyota Tundra for a year.

"I just got a lot of confidence," Logano said. "That's what it takes to win races."

Peyton Sellers was second, followed by Duncan, Kobyluck and Eddie MacDonald.

Logano led the last 85 laps. He took the lead from Ickler on lap 164 and led the rest of the way.

The race was divided into threesegments. The cars had to make mandatory pit stops on lap 100 and lap 200 of the 250-lap event. There were three collisions in the final 50 laps of the race, which was stopped with four laps to go to clean up a two-car crash in Turn 4.

Brett Thompson and Andrew Meyers crashed with seven laps to go, at which point Logano was leading with Sellers in second and Duncan in third.

At the 200-lap pit stop, Logano was leading and Duncan was in third. Ickler and Kobyluck ran into mechanical problems and fell back. Kobyluck's car cut a right front tire and Ickler's car lost power and fell a lap down just before the break.

Duncan was the leader when the race was stopped at lap 100.

Duncan was the highest qualifying driver from the West Series in the Showdown. He started the race in third and was counting on experience rather than equipment to get him through the 250-lap race. He is one eight drivers who have competed in the four previous Showdowns.

"We run it just about everywhere," said Duncan, a driver from Bakersfield who was second in the West Series standings. "We don't really have any new equipment. This is stuff we've been running for four or five years. Hopefully the technology isn't going to outweigh that."

Duncan finished second in the West Series race at Irwindale Speedway in July. His team brought the same car to the Showdown.

"We have a set up that is very similar to what we had here in July," Duncan said. "We didn't want to veer to far away from that. That's the first time we had anything decent as far as the set up goes."

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