Logano bracing for impact
Cup drivers bracing for sudden impact after controversial skirmish in race leading up to the NASCAR series finale
Joey Logano is gearing up for conflict with Martin Truex Jr. at the season finale in Homestead.
MIAMI BEACH — Joey Logano walked up to the NASCAR Championship 4 media scrum Thursday afternoon, when someone jokingly made a reference to how many friends he can count.
“My mother is my friend,” Logano said, his signature squinty eyes revealing a smile.
It was a light-hearted moment in the chaotic circumstances of NASCAR Championship weekend. If the four remaining drivers are playing NASCAR Survivor, Logano is out on an island, barefoot and all alone.
It’s his fault, of course. He knows it, but hardly runs away from the circumstances that bring him to South Florida in hopes of winning his first NASCAR Cup title:
He roughed up Martin Truex Jr.’s car during a last-lap bump-and-run three weeks ago at Martinsville Speedway, squeezing it out of the way. Logano’s victory secured a spot in the Sunday’s Final Four mix, which includes Truex, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.
Having been rough-housed, the normally-affable Truex promised payback. But having since qualified for the Final Four, perhaps Truex may not have quite the itchy-finger.
Key word: Perhaps.
“I have a free pass,” Truex said during his media availability Thursday. “He already told me I could. He told me he’s fair game. So here we go.”
So it’s “Boys Have At It, 2.0,” or whatever you want to call it.
However this plays out Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Logano is the quirky odd duck in the mix. The NASCAR Cup season has been all about The Big Three (Truex, Busch and Harvick). They have combined for 16 wins. Logano has two.
He won at Talladega Superspeedway this spring (always a crapshoot) before going bump-and-run with Truex to win at Martinsville. It’s impressive but the resumes don’t stack up.
“It’s the Big Three and me,” Logano said.
Yes and no. Logano, 28, is no squintyeyed newbie. Now wrapping up a decade of racing in the Cup series full-time, Logano has 20 victories and has finished no lower than eighth in all but one season since 2013. The glitch is 2017 and a 17th-place finish.
He comes here to make amends. “Does that sound crazy or what?” Logano said, laughing, while reflecting on the contrast between 2017 and 2018. “Oh, man, I think you finish second in the points, you think making the playoffs is a given. That’s going to be easy. We quickly found out that is not a given. It’s a little harder than you think.
“We learned a lot last year as a race team. We dug hard. We’ve slowly scratched and clawed our way back to where we are.”
Logano wears a bright yellow firesuit for Team Penske, but he’s got the proverbial black hat going on, too. NASCAR was built on the dynamics of love-hate relationships between fans and drivers, so consider it an homage to Logano that he receives a mix of cheers and boos during driver introductions.
“You know, at the end of a day, if you’re up there and you have noise being made, I think it means that you’re doing the right things and you’re being competitive, because your fans are very passionately cheering you,” Todd Gordon, his crew chief, said recently. “But the fans of … you have 39 competitors that their fans probably, if you’re very successful and you’re competitive, they’re going to make noise in the opposite direction.
“You know, volume speaks for what you’re able to accomplish, not necessarily the words that come out of it.”
There promises to be noise on Sunday. We’ll find out if Logano is down to Mommy Dearest again after all the festivities.