Joey Logano Contradicts Hendrick Motorsports Crew Chief’s Calls for Professionalism: “Fans Want to See Drivers Hate Each Other”

Earlier, Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Greg Ives called out the NASCAR drivers for over-aggressive actions. According to him, it was hugely unprofessional, and he had seen better racing from his children. However, Team Penske driver Joey Logano has seemingly hit out on such criticisms of aggressive driving.

He said, “You just can’t make everybody happy. If everyone races too clean and it’s just a gentleman’s race, no one’s going to want to watch that. They’re like, ‘Oh they just let them go and he let them go’. What’s that?”

“Fans want to see drivers hate each other. That’s just what it is.”

“Now there is a level of respect out there and give and take, eye for an eye, those type of things out there. But I don’t think fans want to see everybody just hold hands and sing Kumbaya together.”

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“We’re not doing that, that’s not going to happen, I don’t think anybody wants that to happen.”

What else did Joey Logano say about the matter?

According to him, there should be a balance. Also, he confessed that many took it a little too far at Indianapolis. However, he justified it by insisting that everybody is pushing hard. In essence, all cars are the same and teams can only tinker a little bit to make them run faster. This only serves to make it tougher to overtake, especially if rival cars are two or three-tenths quicker.

Since they are also in the dirty air, it hampers the speed, so drivers start to get desperate. Joey Logano said that at this juncture, drivers are desperate enough to attempt “big moves”.

He said, “Oh I’m going to try and out-brake him here and I’m going to really send it in there. I got to pass him and I got a car that’s more durable. So I got to get by him unless I’m going to stay behind this car and finish 15th, I got to move forward.”

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So, when the drivers divebomb their rival down the corner, they get out of control and run too fast. That was precisely what happened at Turn 1 at Indianapolis last weekend. It happened at any time and was not just seen during restarts. Since the first corner was a prime overtaking hotspot, the drivers took chances. Otherwise, they would be stuck behind for the rest of the lap.