MACON - Good luck and a good car are musts if a driver is going to have success on the race track, but for Kyle Logue, none of it would be possible without good friends.

Without the support and considerable generosity of his friends, Logue probably would not be leading the UMP late model division at Macon Speedway this season. He would not be facing one of the busiest and most exciting weeks of his racing life and he would not be a driver to watch in Thursday's 29th annual Herald & Review 100.

But thanks to those many friends, Logue is deep in the chase for his third Macon Speedway late model points championship, an honor he would gladly accept on behalf of all those who helped make it happen.

Logue is a 29-year-old union carpenter from Oreana who raced for the first time at Macon when he was an 18-year-old junior at Argenta-Oreana High School.

He crawled into a Modified car, loved the thrill of the door-to-door action on Macon's tight dirt oval and has been hooked ever since.

In 2004 he switched to the late model division and was driving for Butch Smith in 2007 and 2008 until he learned that Smith was getting out of the racing business. So this past winter Logue was faced with the prospect of going out on his own.

As hobbies go, auto racing is an expensive one, especially in the late model division, so Logue was thinking of scaling back to the more affordable Modified cars.

But Macon Speedway co-owner Bob Sargent encouraged Logue to stage a fund-raiser to see if he could raise some operating revenue. Sure enough, in March Logue invited friends to attend a party, chip in and hope for the best.

What Logue got was an outpouring of support that blew him away.

"I was big-time surprised," he said. "I thought it would raise some money, but I raised over twice what I thought I would get."

As a result, and with some extra sponsorship help, Logue was able to stay in a late model and, going into the Herald & Review 100, owns six feature wins at Macon.

This week, he plans to dive into the Summernational series head-first, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle and win one or more of these high-dollar races.

On Sunday he raced Rob Babb's car at Lincoln. On Monday he was planning to race at Farmer City, then move to Peoria today before taking Wednesday off in preparation of the Herald & Review 100.

There's work to do on his own car, having experienced trouble last Saturday when he struggled in the feature once his rear brakes went out.

He's had mixed luck in past Herald & Review 100s. A highlight was finishing second the year his close racing friend, Shannon Babb, won the 100-lap feature. Less pleasant was the Herald & Review 100 in 2007, when his throttle stuck and he plowed into the wall, breaking his foot and spoiling his season.

This week, with Babb and other hot shots expected to be on hand, he knows there may be faster cars in the field. But he'll call on his knowledge of the track and hope that a little racing luck comes his way.

"I think I'll do fine," he said. "It's 100 laps, so anything can happen. As long as you stay smooth and stay out of trouble, you can do real well.

"The key at Macon is to have a loose car. You don't want to get your car too tight. You've got to get through the corners good.

"Keep your nose clean, don't get into a big rush and drive a smooth race."

And despite the need to go fast, Logue said the intelligent strategy is to have a little patience.

"You need to take your time," he said.

Some who have watched his career say Logue reminds them of a young Butch Garner, the former track champion who was a talented and popular driver who won the inaugural Herald & Review 100 in 1981.

Logue knows Garner and considers that a compliment.

"I've known Butch for years," he said. "He helps me out a little bit and he comes down to the track all the time."

Garner was known as a gentleman racer, and Logue has a similar reputation.

"I'm the kind of guy who gets along with everyone," said Logue, who has two sons, 3-year-old Chase and 1-year-old Carter, with his wife, Joni.

"I race people clean. That's the way I want to be raced. I figure if I respect people, they will respect me."

Logue would love it if he could land the kind of sponsorship that could help afford a higher-dollar motor and allow him to compete in more of the regional races. While he considers Macon Speedway his home, he wonders how he'd do driving in something like the Northern Allstar late model series.

For now, though, he'll try to gobble up all the prize money he can. And with $6,000 to win on the line Thursday, that would be a significant payday.

"My goal is to win the Herald & Review 100 before I quit racing," he said. "This is like the World 100 for me. I just hope I have the car to do it. That, and a little luck. You need to have some good luck on your side to win one of these."

A little luck and a lot of friends have kept Kyle Logue in the chase.

mtupper@herald-review.com|421-7983