There’s an old saying that goes, “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” At times, teammates fall somewhere in the middle. That’s kind of the message that NASCAR announcer Kyle Petty seemed to convey on a recent episode of NASCAR Daily.
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The veteran announcer and former driver addressed the lingering fallout from the Joey Logano–Austin Cindric issue during last Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
To his credit, Petty saw things a bit more neutral about the incident. Logano took considerable criticism for his profanity-laced rant against teammate Austin Cindric after Stage 2, but Petty was a bit more understanding of Logano’s fiery rebuke.
“It’s a crazy thing. I’m not sure you have this in any other sport,” Petty said. “Maybe in tennis when you play doubles. Maybe you get to play your doubles partner in a singles match at some point and he was your teammate and now you’ve got to beat him.
“I don’t think you have this in any other sport. Rick (Hendrick) says he has one team, he just has four cars and that’s kind of the way you have to look at it. As a driver, that’s the way I have to look at it. I think that’s the way the mentality is.
“Yes, I drive for Roger Penske and he has three or four cars but I’m his No. 1 driver. Every one of those drivers believe they’re his No. 1 and you’ve got to look after your team. You’ve got to go out there and do it if you’re Joey Logano. It’s a hard thing to balance.
“You beg for your teammates early in the race, you beg for your teammates to keep you up front to put you in position, but I’m telling you we’ve seen it 10 million times, it seems like every time we get to the last few laps at Daytona and Talladega, it’s every man for himself and how many times have we seen teammates wrecking teammates.
“Why? Because they want to win the race. They don’t care whether you’re their teammate, their brother, their uncle, their cousin, their mama, their sister. They don’t care, they want to win the race and I think that’s part of Joey’s mentality. He’s one of the fiercest competitors. When he slides that helmet on, he doesn’t care who you are, he wants to win a race and I think in that situation when he vented, you know he saw somebody make a mistake and he’s going to vent about it.”
But could this be specifically due to the teammate dynamics that exist in a racing team?
Drivers hold their teammates to a higher standard, says Kyle Petty
Kyle Petty was also asked about how drivers often hold their teammates to a higher standard on the racetrack. This is perhaps because they understand the inner workings and effort involved in putting cars on the track. Simply put, it’s on the back of their mind that this is a team effort.
Petty said, “You hold your teammates to a higher standard because you depend on your teammates. In that Tuesday morning meeting and we heard Joey address that.
“You want that guy to be spot-on. You want that guy, if he’s bringing something to that meeting, to be 100 percent, but if you don’t depend on him and you can’t depend on him, then you’re wasting your time going to the meeting because you don’t believe anything that guy says.”
It would seem that Kyle Petty is among those who wouldn’t care what goes on during a race. Even if it’s spat involving teammates, it’s all fine as long as the team gets a W in their column of the record books. This is the only thing that matters.
