Joey Logano twice presented his side of the Las Vegas fight story on Friday.
After getting back on track at Phoenix Raceway and qualifying ninth, it was Kyle Busch’s turn.
Busch spoke to a pair of reporters (including me) on pit road after his qualifying lap, telling us why he punched Logano last week and adding he still didn’t buy Logano’s explanation.
When Busch tried to make a move down the backstretch and avoid a slowing Brad Keselowski on the last lap, he made contact with Logano. He felt Logano then took revenge right away.
“It was instantaneous,” Busch said. “I made a move down the backstretch that cut Joey off — and I had to; I wasn’t just going to roll out of the gas and fall in behind Brad and probably lose spots to more guys behind me. So I made a bold move — I was two-thirds of my way past Logano, and I figured I can wedge my way through there a little bit.
“And I did, and it was instantaneous retaliation. That’s what I thought and that’s kind of what I still think.”
Logano presented Busch with data during their meeting with NASCAR that he felt proved the incident was unintentional, but Busch didn’t believe it.
“No,” Busch said after being asked whether the data changed his mind. “Nope.”
Busch said he’s raced Logano well over the years and “didn’t expect that move from Joey.” He thought the two would be able to showcase their talent in a good, side-by-side finish and then say something like, “Ah, he got me this time. Damn.”
But Logano “chose a different route,” Busch said.
“And if it was Brad, I would have expected that route to be chosen, you know what I mean?” he added. “So that’s how I interpret that.”
Busch also expressed frustration over “continuing to get wrecked by the Penske guys.” You’ll recall Logano has also been in recent high-profile wrecks with Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth.
As for the lack of NASCAR penalty for punching Logano on pit road?
“There could have been different circumstances that played out that wouldn’t have allowed me to be here, and that’s why I said what I said earlier — that everything is great,” Busch said. “Life is good.”
Oh, and one more thing: Did Busch’s punch connect or not?
Busch’s public relations representative cut off the question, and the driver didn’t answer — but Busch grinned and shook his hand like it hurt.
For anyone who thinks Joey’s intent was to take out Kyle, he hit him in the door initially. That isn’t where you’d hit someone if your intent was to wreck them. No I’m not a Logano fan, nor am I a Busch fan, I think the best thing that could happen to NASCAR right now is for their rivalry to get bigger every week. A few more rivalries wouldn’t hurt either, the sport needs another Earnhardt vs. Gordon old guy against the young guy thing. While this isn’t the same it is still good for the sport.
Bush poor baby should have been kicked out of nascar oh that’s right it’s nascar the sport with rich babies
Next time Kyle ,dont go without more of you pit crew behind you. Have your crew take out his pit crew then have your way with Logano.
You don’t have to be a fan of either…take likes out of the equation..racing deal, happens just about every week, and nobody says a word. Kyle has a temper tantrum and all of a sudden it is something more than it is and garners stupid attention.
This is so Kyle Busch…… What I heard was it was ok for him to hit Someone but not ok for someone to hit him……….He can never seem to get out of his own way. Always making excuse after excuse. Delusional to the facts. It was just a racing thing, just own it and move on. Also Great point by Brian, If he was intentionally trying to wreck him he would not have chose to hit him in the Door.
That’s exactly what I read.
“I made a move down the backstretch that cut Joey off — and I had to;”
U guys don’t know much about racing..
Brian, I agree that this could be a good thing and I’d like to seee them go at it in a few weeks at Bristol or Martinsville for a win.
In my opinion though, for sure Joey took him out, remember 2013 at Fontana how he took Hamlin out? He’s a slick wheel man who knew 8 tires was going to be better than 4 and drove in hard. I don’t blame Joey one bit and I don’t blame Kyle one bit. They both had issues and solved them. Joey got his revenge on track while Kyle “somewhat” got revenge although he was the only one bleeding.
How can you say that? Really…come on. Guess haters gonna hate…logic goes out the door..or there is no understanding of racing..just a personality you like or not..Kardashian Time!
He left bleeding cause that bad ass had the balls to go in by himself against 6 or 7 pit guys pussy ass Logano got pulled away I’d rather get my ass beat then be a chicken shit
go. Kyle
Agreed.. Kicked him when he was down!
I can arrange that ass-beating. Come to the Texas race.
Great stuff Jeff. Kyle did look foolish earlier today exiting the NASCAR trailer. Sounds like he opened up to you later.
The way I see it, over the years the blame street media has favored Lagono the same way they did Obama, always defending him, as his can do no wrong. On the other hand, they treat Busch the way they do Trump, out to get him at all costs. There doesn’t seem to be any fairness to the coverage. Lagono can always excuse his actions as “just hard racing” and the media buys it. No respect, no remorse and no responsibility. In my opinion, he still drives like a rookie, wild and sometimes out of control.
I see just the opposite…the other drivers getting a free pass for their stuff, and Logano all of a sudden because of his demeanor and age, suddenly becomes the poster boy for controversy. Double standard and pure hypocrisy!
God, shut up.
Jeff Gluck Willie…? Is that all you God, jerk?
Wow, does Kyle listen to what he says? He said he has raced Joey good over the years, and now Joey is Attila the Hun? What?
Damn Kyle, your own hard racing must be different, yeah?
They were friends too. Is he so egotistical and immature (sadly, I think so) that he really believes that the racing move by Logano was some sort of payback and intent? How shallow, lame and stupid. Everybody but Kyle (and his blind sheep, the few there are) could see it was a racing incident. If Logano or any other driver “races” and something happens this type of nonsense attention Kyle got will give way to all the other babies who just cannot handle racing, the attention they do not deserve. Now if the offended feels the need to distract from HIS mistakes and starts a fight, the poor slob just racing will have undue attention and microphones shoved in his face, putting them on the defensive..and the narrative someone always shows, because so and so had a hissy fit..so and so is the bad guy! Way to go Nascar Media!!!
I am baffled like others he chose the Toyota way to blame Logano as a personal vendetta type thing, where it clearly was not the case. And I have to say..Kyle of all people making these preposterous claims at his age, is childish..well big surprise there!
Has anybody looked at Kyle’s HARD RACING. I know Richard Childress has and others…so Kyle Girl…please STFU!
Logano I thought was too nice to the media making him the villain, he should not have apologized and spoke of Kyle’s temper tantrum so much! Let it die, although the sharks in the media will not. Logano needs to learn not to be so accommodating to the dumb media questions, I don’t know if that is a Penske rule or not..but shut them up. Enough already! Somebody whined and made a big deal out of it..I am not saying they should not have been upset, of course..but look at the replay, and move on.
Should be interesting to see when Kyle races hard, and he will…what will that driver do..nothing..and the hypocrisy will live on and Kyle will get away with it once again. Double standard…BS!
Wow!!! Hahaha
I think Kyle knows fair reporting when he sees it. It makes it a little easier for him to talk to you then to talk to some of the others.
Logano keeps doing the things he’s doing on the tracking wrecking people and saying oh it wasn’t intentional it was just racing but because he’s a Penske driver NASCAR chooses to do nothing about it he’s going to hurt someone on the track one day really bad
And I stopped liking Logano for what he did to Denny. I don’t like Kyle either.
I do believe no penalties was a good move. Settle it on the track boys!! BUT toward the end of the scrum you can see one of Joeys pit guys deliberately kick Kyle. That’s not acceptable and he should get big time penalty.
Stop being a drama queen. That crew member did not kick anyone. He was trying to regain his balance. Period. It took me 2 looks at the video to see it, but its there.
Of course Kyle doesn’t believe Joey did it unintentionally. All the data in the world could never convince him. If he did believe it, he would have to admit he was wrong and that is very psychically painful for most people.
It’ll be the Joey and Kyle Show tomorrow at Phoenix.
Good reporting here. But even more impressive is the etiquette in the comment section. Is this some kind of alternate universe where everything is good and everyone is nice?
I fully see both drivers stance and Kyle had to make that last second backstretch move on the last lap. I do think Logano drove in harder heat of the moment last turn obviously did get lose but he didn’t mind getting into Kyle bc of what just happened. 8tires better than 4.
Joey tried to use brad as a pick…and brad had no buisness being in the racing line going that slow..with leaders coming..kyle had to swerve around brad..slaped the side of joey..and anybody that knows racing..the angle joey took.was going to cause him to get loose and either hit busch or the wall..and he hit busch .. instead of just taking fourth or fith..he wrecked busch and a prefectly good race car..that wasnt hard racing …becouse he never would have taken that line ..so you can bullshit the fans …byt not the players
Happy to see Kyle open up with you. The level of trust the drivers have with you has always made you the best in the business. Logano has issues with his departure from JGR. Not sure what they are, but they are real. A broken back for Denny due to his issue and the list continues to grow. One day KARMA will catch up with him. ????????
For those of you that couldn’t clearly see what logano did to Kyle, well you need a pair of glasses, he couldn’t stand it because Kyle was going around him, Kyle Bush is in the right and as far as I’m concern kyle Bush is the best driver out there, and someone is always trying to rain on his parade
LOL…LINDY…..did he promise you a meet and greet at the local Waffle House?
It looked to me like little Joey was driving over his head. So what’s going to happen if someone pops Danica? The stages are just throwing the yellow so she doesn’t get lapped. Maybe NASCAR will throw a yellow with 5 laps to go every race to manufacture excitement in the future.
HEY JEFF GLUCK. YES YOU!!! A suggestion not in a negative way. But you need to position the REPLYS that go with the poster..right now you cannot tell who is responding to what..no order! Work on it, you have a good site, that can generate buzz…but the REPLY button needs to find a true home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go JEFF GLUCK…YOU CAN DO IT!!! OR YOU PAID WEBSITE GUY SHOULD!
If you want to crash someone you hit on the left corner & trun them straight into the wall.That’s he deserved after miss judgement of slower traffic.
Kyle Busch stop wasting your time w other driver & show leadership to JGR team 18 Focus on your Performance Performance & only your Performance.
Rowdy victory lane is the gold nothing else.Adding more winning diecast on the KBM walls.