One of the biggest storylines that has kicked off the 2024 NASCAR Cup season has been the beef between Ty Gibbs and Joey Logano. Following their fiery confrontation after the Clash, many are speculating as to who the real culprit was in their on-track incident. Or whether one of them overreacted. But as far as Freddie Kraft, the spotter of Bubba Wallace, is concerned, neither of them overreacted and both of them were right in their place.
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He shared his views on this subject in a recent episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast. “I don’t think Joey overreacted. Obviously, I’d be upset if I was him. One thing that puzzled me, which I wasn’t expecting, I talked about it on the radio to Bubba, was I was fully expecting Joey to choose the bottom behind Ty and ship his a**. That’s kind of what I would just expect out of Joey,” he said.
“I was surprised when he took the top and I was like, ‘That’s different.'”
Kraft claimed that Ty Gibbs made a mistake when he decided to run Logano so high that it was Denny Hamlin who passed them on the bottom, took the lead, and won the race.
Neither Ty Gibbs nor Joey Logano ended up overreacting, Kraft claims
Freddie Kraft mentioned how difficult it was for tires to find grip on restarts in the Clash as he pointed to Logano’s big issue with the young #54 driver. “What compounded Joey’s issue was, Ty runs him to the damn woodshed there, and then he’s gotta check-up, and then (Ryan) Blaney gets him and knocks him out of shape. And that’s what compounded for Joey,” he described.
“He’s frustrated. He ran top two or three all night long. He was in a position to win the race. I was surprised by his decision to choose the top there because you see who came out in the lead and won the race, the guy who chose the bottom behind the #54.”
Having said that, the spotter emphasized how Logano didn’t overreact, that there’s some history between them from Martinsville last year, and that incident too was a product of things that happened in previous races. In the end, Kraft claimed, “It is what it is. I don’t think Ty did it on purpose. I don’t think he meant to take him that high.”
As for Logano, he emphasized that Logano was right in his reaction to Gibbs, considering the young driver cost him a chance to win the race.
