USA TODAY International Edition
Truex still burning over Logano’s ‘cheap shot’
FORT WORTH, Texas – Martin Truex Jr. didn’t deny that his text to Joey Logano after he was spun out last weekend at Martinsville Speedway included profanity.
“I wanted to get his point of view and what he was thinking,” Truex told reporters Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, “what he thought about it. Now I know.”
That knowledge didn’t change how Truex feels about Logano nudging him out of the way just feet from the finish line at Martinsville. Like he did minutes after his third-place finish Sunday, Truex again dropped a “cheap shot” mention on Friday.
There’s little chance Truex will seek retribution at Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN), where Ryan Blaney will start on the pole as Ford swept the top five qualifying slots. Plus, Logano’s Martinsville win locked him into the Championship 4, so revenge this weekend would be fairly hollow.
Truex, who qualified 13th on Friday, is among the seven remaining drivers seeking to compete for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship at the season finale Nov. 18 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“I am not going to let what happened last week take my focus off of that,” Truex said. “I think it’s something that stays on the top of your mind — if you get in a certain situation where it would be wise to remember what happened. That’s there. I really haven’t thought past that. I know what’s on the line this weekend.”
Logano said he was in no hurry to contact Truex via text after his No. 22 Team Penske Ford bumper made contact with Truex’s No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. “I can’t say I was surprised that he texted me,” he said. “I am glad he did. It kind of broke the ice. I was planning on waiting a couple days to let things settle. It got a lot of things out of the way. We both know where we stand.”
The budding driver spat hasn’t gotten to the level of Kyle Busch’s and Brad Keselowski’s running feud. Yet.
“I guess that’s just the way it’s going to be,” said Busch, who won at Texas this spring and qualified 10th Friday as he seeks entry into the Championship 4. “I guess that’s going to be the new norm eventually of some sort. Overall, it’s just there’s certain guys and individuals that you can race that wouldn’t do those sorts of things.”
Busch spun out Truex late in a race at Bristol in August, leading Truex to kick the side of his car in frustration. Truex told reporters afterward that he didn’t think Busch wrecked him on purpose.
“Some people think it’s perfectly fine to knock a guy out of the way to get a win,” Truex said. “In my opinion, it’s not. We all think differently. It’s the not the way I have ever done it. Whether it’s GoKarts or Modified cars. No matter what it was, that’s the way I was taught to race.
“You race fair. You race clean and you race as hard as you can straight up. I can say that every single win I have had, I earned it. That’s just the way it is.”