“I Was Like Him” – Joey Logano Left Dumbfounded by Ty Gibbs’ Lack of Respect Despite Early Promise

Published 02/07/2024, 2:23 AM EST

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The unofficial start of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series was rife with drama, as is expected in a Cup Series race. There was a driver altercation in the Clash at the Coliseum event between Team Penske racer Joey Logano and Joe Gibbs Racing youngster Ty Gibbs. The two had a heated exchange after the race, and in a post-race interview, the former accused the latter of pushing him into the wall.

However, the 33-year-old’s claims were not met with a lot of support. On the contrary, several fans and insiders believed that the Team Penske star was making a big deal out of good, hard racing. The former Cup Series driver, Kyle Petty, even went on to say that Logano had no right to complain since he does the same thing as well. But, recently, the 2-time Cup Series champion cleared the air over why he was so angry at Ty Gibbs about what went down at the LA Memorial Coliseum.

Joey Logano wished he was like Ty Gibbs when he was younger

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There is definitely a history between Joey Logano and Ty Gibbs. Last season, the two had multiple on-track moments, which left a sour taste in the mind of the 2-time Cup Series champion. The Team Penske star revealed that Gibbs had done something similar 3 times last season, and at Martinsville, Logano lost his cool. However, that led to the two of them having a mature conversation.

“We had a conversation, he came to my place, we talked for  30 minutes and I thought that was pretty cool. He’s very humble. I’ve been through a lot of this stuff before when I was like him. So I can see a lot of myself in Ty. And I thought man, if I talked to Kevin that way or Tony that way, it would have been great to have that. So I was open. I’ve been through this before, let me see if I can help the situation out. So he left, we shook hands. This is how we’re gonna do it, we’re gonna respect each other on the race track,” he said in a recent interview on SiriusXM Radio.

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Joey Logano did not feel very respected when Ty Gibbs ran him up the track close to the wall on Saturday. It was the fact that the JGR star had promised to respect Logano and then broke that promise that made the 2-time Cup Series champion lose his temper with the 2023 Rookie of the Year.

“Only for the first opportunity to race each other since that conversation, to get completely used up on the restart. I get it, it’s 10 laps to go in the Clash and we’re gonna be aggressive with each other, I get that. But to completely use me up into the fence, not gonna be okay with me,” the driver of the #22 added.

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But the show must go on, and now there will be tension between the two drivers. It will be interesting to see how they handle it when the season officially starts in Daytona.

Is a new Cup Series rivalry in the making?

In the video of the altercation, Joey Logano could be heard saying, “I’ll remember this.” The two drivers have spoken since the crash, but Team Penske simply does not trust Ty Gibbs anymore. Gibbs may have given certain assurances or acknowledged that he might have messed up, but in Logano’s mind, his words don’t hold value anymore.

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“Where do we go from here? I don’t know. We had a conversation; he said all the right things; his words don’t mean nothing to me anymore, so I’m not gonna talk to him, but I don’t really know the next thing to do,” the Team Penske star said.

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While this is a rivalry that not many people might have expected to see, it certainly is something that we will be getting when the Cup Series season starts. A seasoned veteran against an up-and-comer—it’s almost like a movie. Both drivers drive for big teams, and it can be assumed that their cars won’t be too far apart in terms of competitiveness.

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Written by:

Nilavro Ghosh

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Nilavro Ghosh is a NASCAR Writer at EssentiallySports, where he is known for his creative yet easy-to-read writing style. Before taking up his role as a sports journalist at ES, Nilavro has written for some of the top publishing houses, like The Telegraph. While most journalists stop at covering live events and taking the news to the readers, Nilavro goes the extra mile to give fans a platform for them to express their thoughts through his 'race reaction' pieces.
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Edited by:

Shivali Nathta