Joey Logano is a 14-year veteran of motorsports competition, which doesn’t sound like a big deal — until you consider he celebrated his 18th birthday on May 24. This weekend he makes his NASCAR Nationwide debut at Dover, and not since Jeff Gordon came on the scene has a youngster generated so much buzz.

“He’s the real deal,” Mark Martin said. “I’m not saying there isn’t someone out there who has as much talent as Joey, but I haven’t seen them. He’s better right now than a lot of guys who’ve been racing NASCAR for years.”

If not for the 18-year-old age limit, Logano would already be a NASCAR regular. He has not only succeeded at every other level of racing, he’s excelled at them all.

He began his career in quarter midgets and really got noticed while driving Legends cars, where he won a staggering 14 consecutive events at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Saturday, thousands of fans in the stands and millions more watching on TV will get to see what all the fuss is about.

And, it could serve as a nice belated birthday present for a guy who — at 6-foot-1, 140 pounds — looks like he should be a wallflower at a senior prom instead of a racecar driver.

“I’m definitely excited to get out there, been just waiting my whole life to get out to the Nationwide Series,” he said. “Finally to get to run, it’s definitely exciting. I waited until I turned 14 to run ASA, 15 for Pro Cup. Ran the Camping World Series last year. It was like the first time I was able to run for a whole series for points.

“I kind of had to wait because my birthday is in May, you know, it’s in the middle of the season. But, yeah, I’ve definitely been excited.”

I remember a time in NASCAR when a driver didn’t even hit his stride until he was well into his 30s. It seemed as though the learning curve was quite steep for the young guys just breaking into the sport.

But, just as Gordon and the Busch brothers have shown, talent is talent regardless of what the birth certificate says. And now that he’s part of Joe Gibbs Racing, he can learn even more from the best.

“I’ve talked to Kyle (Busch), Denny (Hamlin), Tony (Stewart),” Logano said. “They’re real good guys, help me out as much as they can. I talked to Kyle a little bit last week. Gave me some advice about Dover, about who you can race with, what to do, things to do on the racetrack. Yeah, they’re very helpful.”

Aside from his appearance, the only thing that leads you to believe Logano is a novice is the fact he realizes he’s “just a kid.”

“I think it’s cool personally,” he said. “You know, as a kid, as any kid, you would think it’s cool to be on TV and newspaper and all that stuff. But I don’t really look into it that much. You know, I don’t really read many of the articles. I don’t know, I don’t really let it get to me. I’m here to race. I have known that stuff comes along with it, which is fine.”

I doubt many people expect Logano to take the checker in Saturday’s Nationwide race, but few would be surprised if he visits victory lane before the 2008 season ends.

It’ll be fun to watch him come along in the big leagues — seeing just how fast he does it and how far he goes.