"Thank god, finally, it feels like I've been waiting for it seems like eighteen years." That was the sentiment Saturday of the one of the sport's most hyped drivers in years, Joey Logano. The Joe Gibbs Racing development driver has attracted an impressive amount of media hype in anticipation of his 18th birthday. Today, that day has finally come.

With the help of an over-sized cake in the shape and color scheme of his No. 20 Nationwide car, Joe Gibbs, J.D. Gibbs and Logano today announced a partnership between Joe Gibbs Racing and GameStop to sponsor Logano in his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut next week at Dover International Speedway.

"I am really excited to drive the GameStop car at Dover," Logano said. "It's perfect timing for me. I have always loved video games. Having GameStop on the car is definitely a big step."

"Joey's debut in the Nationwide Series is something all of us at Joe Gibbs Racing have been looking forward to for a long time," J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing, explained. "He's developed so quickly that the only thing holding him back from running the Nationwide Series sooner was his age. Now that he's 18, he finally gets to take that next step in his racing career. We're very happy to have GameStop as a partner for Joey and we look forward to a great future together."

"Coach" Joe Gibbs summed up the feelings of the day by saying Logano is the future, "We've been waiting, preparing and I know Joey is excited. Hopefully for us, this is going to be the start of something that can go for 20 years."

For Logano, this day couldn't come soon enough. Following his Nationwide debut at Dover, Logano is slated to run eighteen or nineteen more Nationwide events throughout the year, in addition to some ARCA events.

J.D. went on to say, "We're in no hurry to get him up there into the Cup Series, let's just enjoy this Nationwide thing and take it as long as we can, and off the track, just make sure he has fun, which is the key to all of it."

As far as his fellow competitors, Joey explains, "They've been cool, welcoming all of that stuff. Going to Dover is going to be a new game for me, but I feel like I'm ready. They seem to be welcoming. I'm going to race them the way I want to be raced and hope they do the same for me."

One of the biggest mentors for Logano as he has made his way through the ranks in preparation for this day has been veteran driver Mark Martin. Admittedly his favorite driver growing up, Martin described Logano as "magic."

"Mark Martin was one for sure that has always been my idol," Logano told HardcoreRaceFans.com. "He's one of the most hardcore racers out there. He does everything right off the racetrack and on the racetrack. It doesn't matter how busy his schedule is he's going to find time to do that work out, do whatever he's got to do to make himself better, and I really look up to him for that."

Logano explained he has been able to put all of the hype surrounding him out of his mind, "We're here to race, that's our priority," Logano explained. "We're here to have fun and to race and to win races. It's cool there's a lot of hype, as a young kid I think it's a cool thing, but when it comes game-time that stuff doesn't really matter."

Be sure to tune in to HardcoreRaceFans.com next week to follow all of the action from Dover and see how Logano's NASCAR debut goes.