LOUDON, N.H. -- To call Sunday the best day of Joey Logano's life would be overstating things because he's only 19 years old.

He likely will have even better days.

Yet, no matter how long he races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series, it's unlikely he will ever have a day like he did Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Under slate-gray skies and at the track where he watched his first Cup race, drove in his first Cup race and, Sunday, won his first Cup race, Logano twice fell off the lead lap, spun, ascended to the lead as others pitted for fuel and celebrated a historic victory after rain cut the race short by 28 laps.

"We got lucky,'' said Logano, who became the series' youngest winner at 19 years, one month and four days, taking the honors from teammate Kyle Busch.

Logano will take this in what has been a tough season. A rookie with so much promise, he was thrust into the Cup series a year early when Tony Stewart left Joe Gibbs Racing after last season. When NASCAR eliminated testing before this season, Logano's task became more difficult.

"We were just really looking for consistent improvement,'' car owner Joe Gibbs said about the goals for Logano this season.

Logano looked lost at Daytona in February. Busch got into his car during a practice session to help dissect the car's handling issues. Logano finished 30th or worse in five of the first seven races leading to questions of how soon he might be replaced.

He preserved and the results improved. Nothing flashy, but enough to show progress.

This week was different. More was at stake. Crew chief Greg Zipadelli, as does Logano, hails from the Northeast. Zipadelli told Logano a few days before arriving that "we've run good here forever and it's not going to change.''

Yet, Zipadelli admitted before the race that the team had struggled this weekend in practice. With Logano mired between 20th-25th for the first half of the race, it appeared that a top-15 finish would be the best the team could hope to earn.

Then came Logano's incident. Stuck in a pack of cars, Logano's car was hit by another and cut a left rear tire, sending him into a slide. That shredded both left side tires and Logano drove to pit road on the rims of those wheels, his car looking like something out of a salvage yard.

"The day just went bad,'' Logano said he thought to himself then.

When he made it to his pit stall, another problem. The carcass of the left rear tire wrapped around the axle and ripped the left rear brake line off. Logano lost a lap as the team sawed the tire remains off and made adjustments.

Logano's fortunes changed a few laps later when rookie Scott Speed was hit from behind and crashed. Logano, the first car a lap down, got his lap back, pitted and refueled, meaning he could go longer than anyone else on fuel.

With rain coming -- Zipadelli had one of his engineers watching the radar and calculating when rain would arrive -- Logano steadily moved up as others in front pitted.

He moved into the lead when Ryan Newman pitted on lap 264. Sprinkles turned to rain drops and NASCAR officials brought out the caution flag on 268.

Still, it wasn't easy.

"You've got to save fuel for me, you've got to save fuel,'' Zipadelli radioed Logano. "Just save fuel. Roll off (the accelerator). Shut (the engine) off.''

Logano did. He coasted down the straightaways, as runner-up Jeff Gordon ran beside him and nearly passed him.

"I was just running the pace car speed,'' Gordon said. "It allowed me to get to the outside of him and make him start his engine and use some fuel and he didn't like that.''

The rain stopped the race before Logano ran out of fuel and Logano suddenly had a few more lucky charms.

"I'm going to wear this thing,'' he said of his driver's uniform, "every race now. I'll keep as many things as I can. You only get the first win one time.''

None have been like this.