Joey Logano experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows in about ten minutes.
The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion won Stage 1 of the HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway. Because other drivers pit before the stage break, they jumped ahead of Logano as he had to pit.
In the middle of the pack, Logano got pinched by a couple of cars and wrecked on the ensuing restart. While everyone was trying to avoid Logano, Daniel Suárez was hit and suffered heavy damage.
The risk of staying out and getting stage points. Stage 1 winner Joey Logano wrecks on the ensuing restart. Daniel Suárez suffers the heaviest damage. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/SkGPJbYkCz
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) July 23, 2023
Logano’s car didn’t look that damaged, but he couldn’t drive away on his own because his tires were flat. That can be frustrating for a driver because the longer it takes, the more laps down that driver will be. As track workers and safety crews tended to Logano, Logano flipped out on them, screaming at them to get his car on a tow truck and get his car to the pit.
Yikes. Should go listen to this full time pic.twitter.com/dKJPq9q6lj
— Ethan G | 🏎🏁🏆 (@efgregs) July 23, 2023
It’s a little difficult to hear, but Logano was growing increasingly frustrated as time was ticking and there were lots of expletives in the 45-second clip. Among some of the notable soundbites, Logano shouted the following:
“Put the truck to the ******* thing!”
Letting the track worker know, “I can’t drive it. I need a tow truck.”
After a back and forth about hooking the car up, the track worker eventually let Logano know they were going to tow him backward to his pit. To which Logano said, “Yeah, that’s what I’ve been asking for!” Then Logano screamed, “God, stupid sons of *******!”
The frustration seemed to come from the tow truck initially trying to push Logano back to the pit, which wasn’t going to work well with four flat tires. That wasted precious minutes, and at that time, Logano thought he could continue racing. As frustrated as Logano was, he attempted to be calm when talking to the track worker. It wasn’t a successful attempt, but it was an attempt nonetheless.
Logano would be out of the race after the car suffered too much damage. After enough time passed, Logano was a lot calmer in his NBC interview, although Logano still pointed out the need for NASCAR to improve the efficiency of how to tow cars back to the pits.
Logano finished 35th after winning Stage 1 and earning a playoff point. So Logano at least got something out of the day, but one of the better cars of the day was out early.
[@efgregs/Photo: USA]
