Pretty sure it was your attitude he had a problem with, not your driving…
Joey Logano is one of the more…well, let’s just say “divisive” drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series. You’ll hear plenty of boos at the racetrack when Logano is introduced, and a lot of those have nothing to do with his driving and are more about his attitude.
Fair or not, Logano has gotten a reputation for being a whiny driver who has no problem racing others rough but complains about it when it happens to him. And this past Sunday during the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, it was one of his own teammates who was the target of Joey’s criticism.
Joey’s teammate Austin Cindric won the race, holding off Ryan Preece on the final lap for his third Cup Series win. But earlier in the race, the NASCAR on FOX broadcast had aired some of Joey’s in-car audio showing that Logano wasn’t too happy with his fellow Team Penske driver at the end of stage 2.
With three laps to go in the stage, Logano was leading the race, with Bubba Wallace and Cindric behind him in the top line. But Logano moved to the bottom lane, leaving Wallace and Cindric on the outside, and with Cindric trying to move forward himself, he had no choice but to push Wallace to the lead.
Cindric then got a run, and it appeared that Logano moved up to try to get a push from his teammate to get past Wallace, but Cindric ended up having to lift off the gas to keep from wrecking Logano and Wallace went on to get the stage win.
After Wallace won the stage, Logano wasn’t happy that his teammate had pushed another manufacturer’s car around him for the stage win – and didn’t give Logano the same push when he had the chance:
“Way to go Austin. Way to go you dumb f**k. Way to f***ing go. What a stupid shit. He just gave it to him. Gave a Toyota a stage win. Nice job. Way to go. What a dumbass. Put that in the book again. He can put that in his freakin’ notes and text it to us.”
Now, looking at the replay it looks like Cindric actually did Logano a favor by lifting out of the gas instead of bumping his teammate. Cindric had a pretty good run, and risked wrecking Logano if he had stayed in the gas. What else was he supposed to do?
Well obviously Cindric got the last laugh by winning the race, and to add insult to injury, Logano’s car was disqualified after post-race inspection for missing a bolt in his rear spoiler.
And Chipper Jones was loving it.
The retired Atlanta Braves player took to social media with some harsh words for Logano:
“Congrats to Austin Cindric on his Talladega win. Good teammates are hard to come by, Boss! Remember that one of urs MFed u on national tv, when in all actuality, u did everything possible to keep from wrecking him. Hate to be deuces in the ‘team’ meeting on Monday. Some people are ‘hooray for our team as long as I’m the star’ as every team has them. Hendrick, RCR, JGR, Penske, etc. Sometimes karma is glorious. Enjoy this one! In case anyone is confused, lemme be clear….Joey Logano.”
And he also called out Logano for not even congratulating his teammate during his post-race interview:
But Jones was pretty happy when Logano was DQ’d after the race:
Well Logano didn’t see the comments from the Braves legend, but he was told about them during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR radio this morning – and he had some strong words for Chipper Jones:
“Has Chipper Jones ever driven a race car at Talladega? That would be my first question. I’m pretty certain he hasn’t.
That’s like me saying something about baseball. I know nothing about baseball. That’s like me saying something that he did something in baseball that was wrong. That doesn’t matter…
No one else, nobody, Chipper Jones, no race fans, nobody is in the room when we come up with how we’re going to race at superspeedways except the drivers, the team principals at Penske and the crew chiefs. That is it. That’s the only opinions that matter. The only ones.”
Joey then went on to continue to blame his teammate for not following the “rules” that are laid out by their team and manufacturer:
“You go superspeedway racing, there’s different rules in place for the teams,” Logano said. “There’s the (manufacturer) rules, there’s the team rules and you try to put these all in place to try to give your cars the best chance to win. Everyone knows superspeedways you’ve got to work together. … The rules that were set in place weren’t followed. That ticked me off quite a bit because I feel like I’ve always done the right thing and try really hard to do that.
The rules have been put in place because of things we have done wrong in the past. You don’t want to make the same mistakes over and over again. It wasn’t the first offense kind of situation. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and, yeah, I lit up pretty quickly because I care. I am into racing, I am in 100%, and I expect things to go a certain way. When they don’t, yeah, I get pissed off.”
And he said that Chipper didn’t know the full story when he chimed in on the situation:
“Chipper Jones, he seems like a cool dude, he’s done a lot, right? He’s a pretty popular, good baseball player, but he’s not a race car driver, and I know he wasn’t in the room with us when we set in place the way things are supposed to go.”
Now, a couple of things here. First of all, this is a problem with NASCAR right now. All the drivers have orders from their team and their manufacturer, so they’re expected to a good “team player” instead of racing for the win. Who cares if you’re working with a car from a different team if you’re putting yourself in the best position to win the race? Isn’t that what’s it should be about, getting the best possible finish for yourself and your own team?
And Chipper wasn’t criticizing Joey’s driving: He was calling him out for his attitude towards one of his teammates. Chipper knows what it’s like to play a team sport, so while he may have never driven a race car, I feel like he probably knows what it’s like to have somebody who’s got a bad attitude on the team.
But hey, Joey’s the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion so who am I to question him?
