Despite the fact that Joey Logano is considered the home state kid, few around here knew much, if anything, about him before he became a household name in NASCAR circles earlier this season. 

They see the smiling face of Logano on television and they have to ask: "Is he really that good? Is it real talent or is the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Series Nationwide Series car that much better than everybody else?"

It's a legitimate question to be asked, even by those somewhat in the know of the sport. Great equipment that flies beyond the rulebook can make a good driver look great.

But there were no questions about the 18-year old Logano, a Middletown native. How could one question seven top-10 finishes in his first nine Nationwide Series events, including a victory in his third appearance in the division?

They can today, and that's truly unfortunate for Logano, who has done nothing more this season than what he has been doing since he was 6-years old, which is drive racecars better than most everybody else around him.

Joe Gibbs Racing got caught in an ugly way Saturday following the CarFax 250 at Michigan International Speedway. The two Gibbs Nationwide Series teams, which have dominated competition in the division this season, weren't working in the gray area, they weren't bending the rules, they weren't finding holes in the rulebook, they were caught cheating.

NASCAR inspectors discovered magnets on the gas pedals of the Gibbs No. 18 car and No. 20 car before the cars were set to be tested on a NASCAR dynamometer, which measures horsepower. The magnets essentially served as stops, not allowing the gas pedal to be depressed all the way for the test, which would have skewed the results to show the cars with lower horsepower than they actually have.

It was an action team owner Joe Gibbs said: "Goes against everything we stand for as an organization."

There have been wild rumors floating all season that the Gibbs Nationwide teams were doing something shady. NASCAR went so far as to cut back horsepower to Toyota teams like Gibbs' last month, but even that did little to slow the Gibbs bunch.

In 25 races this year the Gibbs No. 20 car, which Logano has raced eight times, has nine victories, 14 top-5's and 19 top-10's. The Gibbs No. 18 car, which Logano ran for the first time Saturday and finished seventh in, has five wins, eight top-5's and nine top-10's in 11 starts.

Besides Logano driving, Joe Gibbs Racing's stable of Sprint Cup drivers - Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin - have split time in the two Nationwide rides this season.

And now those that had all those questions about the legitimacy of those gaudy statistics can look and point at a pair of Gibbs Nationwide crews that look far too guilty today after trying to pull off what they attempted to pull off at Michigan.

And there will undoubtedly now be questions about just how good Logano really is.

Many called the weeks long hype of Logano's May 31 Nationwide Series debut overkill and predicted the youngster would flop or at minimum look average against the stable of Sprint Cup Series talent that also calls the Nationwide Series home most weeks.

But Logano, if anything, has topped expectations. He finished sixth in his series debut at Dover International Speedway on May 31 and two weeks after on June 14 won at Kentucky Speedway to become the youngest winner in Nationwide Series history.

It seemed too good to be true, even for someone coming in with the credentials of Logano, for it to go as well as it had in his first 9 events. He was living up the hype in a big way.

Then you stop and think about what they say when something seems too good to be true. Probably isn't true right? Yes, those who questioned whether Logano was the real deal or just overhyped will assuredly point to this situation. That something Logano had nothing at all to do with will have people questioning whether his quick Nationwide Series success has been real or rule breaking created is a terrible situation for the 18-year old to be in.

And next it will beg the question of those who have already questioned if he was ready for all this, whether or not Logano is ready for the Sprint Cup Series.

It seems a foregone conclusion that Logano, the 2007 Camping World East Series champion, will replace Tony Stewart in the No. 20 Home Depot Sprint Cup Series car in 2009. And nothing he has done in a Nationwide Series car has shown in any way that he's not ready to make the jump. After Logano's scorching Nationwide Series start, it seemed there was little reason to believe he would need another year of Nationwide seasoning before hitting the big league.

But now, for the naysayers out there, the ammunition is there to question whether or not it was a cheated up car that made Logano look so ready. It sounds unfair, but the question will be be asked now, did Joey Logano the driver make Joey Logano look good or did cheating make Logano look ready enough to be a Sprint Cup regular right now?

Maybe Gibbs' Nationwide crew chiefs Dave Rogers and Jason Ratcliff can answer that question. They are after all the guilty parties that have put Logano, and for that matter the rest of Gibbs' Nationwide drivers, in this position.