Loudon, NH (My Sportsbook) - Rookie Joey Logano benefited from crew chief Greg Zipadelli's gutsy late-race pit strategy for his first Sprint Cup Series victory in Sunday's rain-shortened Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Logano overcame a one-lap deficit after cutting his left-rear tire in the late-stages of the race. He was the only driver who had yet to pit during the final round of green flag stops.

Ryan Newman gave up the lead when he ran out of fuel and coasted into his pit stall. That allowed Logano to take the top spot for the first time. He then conserved enough fuel before rain fell on the 1.058-mile track.

"Obviously everything the end of the day went our way," Zipadelli said. "You can't control the weather. The only thing we can do is try to play it to our hand."

NASCAR displayed the red flag 28 laps short of the 301-lap scheduled distance, with the race being called shortly after. Logano's first win, coming in his 20th start, occurred at his hometrack.

"This is where I watched my first Cup race and where I ran my first Cup race and where I won my first Cup race, so I could not have picked a better place," Logano said. This is kind of like a home turf place for me, a lot of family and friends here."

His first Cup start came here last September, driving an entry for Hall of Fame Racing.

Logano, a native of nearby Middletown, CT, became the youngest driver ever to win a Cup Series race at 19 years, one month and four days. Kyle Busch previously held the record at age 20 when he won in September 2005 at California

"Obviously it's not the way you want to win your first race, in the rain, but 20 years down the road when you look in the record books, no one will know the difference," Logano added.

Logano, who won a NASCAR Camping World East Series event at New Hampshire in 2007, became the third first-time race winner in NASCAR's top-tier circuit this year. He joined Brad Keselowski (Talladega) and David Reutimann, who won the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Jeff Gordon appeared to be on his way to reclaiming the lead after the last round of stops, but the three-time New Hampshire winner had to settle for a second-place finish.

"I saw the rain coming, and I pushed it the first lap or so, and it started getting pretty slick and started backing off," Gordon said. "Kurt (Busch) really gained on me, and then (crew chief) Steve (Letarte) told me who was actually the leader. At that moment, my heart sunk that we didn't have a shot at winning it, and I was hoping we would run out of gas if it wane."

Kurt Busch finished third after winning at New Hampshire one year ago when rain curtailed that event 17 laps short of the full distance.

"Last year, to drive into victory lane and do it in a rain shortened race, and today to have it where we were fast enough to win and not get the win, that's how this sport evens itself out," Busch said.

David Reutimann and Tony Stewart rounded out the top-five.

Gordon slightly trimmed Stewart's lead to 69 points.

Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Sam Hornish, Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne were sixth through 10th, respectively.

After a restart on lap 175, Kyle Busch checked up and bumped into Martin Truex Jr., who spun and hit the wall. Truex's car then slid up the track and triggered a chain reaction.

"I was just staying in line doing what I could do to get going, and obviously you can't pass before the start/finish line," Truex said. "I guess Kyle just decided he didn't want to lift, so I was just an innocent victim today."

Truex expressed his displeasure towards Busch on one of the caution laps when it looked as though he was going to throw his helmet at Busch's car.

All three Richard Childress Racing drivers - Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer - were among those involved in the eight-car pileup.

"All I saw was some cars stopped in front of me," Burton said. "Double-file restarts are going to make things more aggressive. They are going to create more accidents because things are going to be more aggressive."

NASCAR stopped the race for 13 minutes in an effort to clean up the track.