Bump and Run For Win.

LONG POND, Pa. -- In some eyes he will always be that phenom kid racer, the can't-miss prospect out of Connecticut who people were raving about since before he was old enough to legally drive on the street. That part of Joey Logano's past sticks with him, even though he's gotten older, even though he presently occupies the quite veteran position of driving to keep his job. Maybe it's because he's still only 22, maybe it's because of that same cherubic smile he's been showing off since he broke into NASCAR's national divisions only a short four years ago.

Or maybe it's because he hasn't yet accomplished enough to be defined by his present -- something Logano took a large step toward changing during this extended weekend at Pocono Raceway, where he came to a resurfaced triangular track that challenged and befuddled teams for five days, and proceeded to show levels of grit, adaptation and savvy well beyond his years.

In short, he kicked everyone's butt. This time there would be no invisible asterisk of the kind that always accompanies a rain-shortened victory, like Logano's first Sprint Cup triumph at New Hampshire 2009. He was fast in testing on Wednesday and Thursday. He topped the sheet in final practice on Friday. He claimed the pole with a track-record speed on Saturday. And then on Sunday he led a career-high 49 laps, battling past Mark Martin at the end to become the first pole winner to reach Victory Lane in nearly a year.

Welcome to Joey Logano, all grown up. He's not a kid anymore.

"I just kept telling myself, I can do this. I can do this," Logano said. "And I knew I [could]. You've got to have that confidence in there that you can do it. I was focused in and made sure I did all the right things."

Was Sunday an indication of things to come? It was an unpredictable weekend, to be certain, one fraught with unknowns because of a new surface that rendered old notes and strategies almost useless. Ratcliff made an 11th-hour decision in final practice to replace his setup with one being used by Gibbs teammate Kyle Busch, who blew an engine in the race. "It paid off," the crew chief said. In the end there was a new Sprint Cup points leader, with Matt Kenseth usurping Roush teammate Greg Biffle, and two new wild-card leaders in Busch and Ryan Newman. There were pit-road speeding penalties and black flags and motors going bust. After five days of on-track activity, it still all felt like tossing blades of grass into the wind.