RICHMOND, Va. -- On a rain-soaked Friday evening at Richmond International Raceway, there was no telling when the Joey Logano Era in Sprint Cup racing would take the green flag, after qualifying for the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 was cancelled.

The cutoff race for the Chase for the Sprint Cup will now be held Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET, but without Logano, who in just 105 minutes of practice Friday morning made a serious statement about what his impact on NASCAR's premier division would eventually be.

“

I seem to like the Cup car more, but probably because it has more horsepower and it is more fun to me. To know that you could come off the trailer and be good, that was a big plus for me mentally.

”

JOEY LOGANO

With the best stock-car racers in the world amped-up for the impending start of NASCAR's championship playoff, Logano, 18, came out of the gate for his first official practice in a Cup car third on the time sheet. He quit 15 minutes early and ran only 39 laps, which left him fourth at the time.

When practice ended, Logano was ninth on the chart, with a lap only .122 seconds slower than fast man Jeff Gordon, coincidentally a four-time Cup champion. As impressive as it was, in the end it did him no good.

Logano's Joe Gibbs Racing team entered a No. 02 Toyota for the first time this season, for their development program's star to make his first attempt at a Cup start. When rain from Tropical Storm Hanna began falling at about 4:15 p.m. ET Friday afternoon, it was the death knell for Logano's debut hopes.

When NASCAR pulled the plug on Sprint Cup qualifying and both Friday night's Nationwide Series Emerson Radio 250 and Saturday night's 400-lap Cup event -- postponing both races to Sunday -- Logano's car, one of 46 entries for the 43-car field, did not satisfy the rulebook parameters to gain a starting position.

The fact that Logano, by virtue of his No. 20 JGR Toyota leading the owner standings in the Nationwide Series, would start on the pole for Sunday evening's 250-lapper was no consolation for his Cup washout.

"That would suck a lot," Logano had said at mid-afternoon, when asked about the poor weather forecast. "I can't change the weather, so I just go with it. I've heard a lot about [the weather] and I haven't heard too much good so I really don't want to hear a whole bunch."

The less-than-stellar news continued when a Joe Gibbs Racing spokesman said team officials were discussing options for when Logano's Cup debut would occur and in what vehicle. Hall of Fame Racing, a JGR ally, had previously announced Logano would run that team's No. 96 Toyota next weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Continued)