Before Joey Logano left for south of the border for this weekend’s global race in Mexico City, the three-time NASCAR Cup champ appeared on the Whiskey Riff podcast. His memory once again brought him back to an incident nearly a month ago.
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Logano had a run-in with Christopher Bell at the NASCAR All-Star Race on May 18. A few days later, he did the gentlemanly thing — calling Bell to apologize for calling him out and saying a few less than gentlemanly things.
In other words, Logano was a sore loser and admitted as much. And after cooling off, he did the right thing and reached out to Bell, who won the race while Logano finished second.
“Hey, listen, we’re racing for a million bucks,” Logano said on the show. “You lost out, like, are you gonna be upset? Yeah, I’m human. If someone’s listening right now and says they wouldn’t be upset about losing a million dollars at the end of a race, I think you probably need to check yourself — you probably would be upset.”
Logano added that his post-race comments were in the heat of the moment and, upon further reflection, he realized he said some inappropriate things.
“And so, what NASCAR does to the drivers is they stick a microphone in your face immediately when you get out of the car,” Logano said. “You haven’t watched a replay, you haven’t seen nothing yet, and you’re mad. We led the most laps in that race, we pretty much had the race won — until that caution comes out. And then we just didn’t play it correctly.”
And after missing out so narrowly, Logano was indeed raging. “So you’re upset about it, and you just kind of say whatever comes to your mind. That’s kind of how I am, good or bad, there’s not much of a filter from the brain to the mouth,” he said.
“And then like I watched the replay and I thought, ‘Nah, I ran him all over the racetrack, I had it coming’. Sometimes it takes a couple [of] hours to have a moment to realize maybe that wasn’t okay,” confessed Logano.
On another front related to the All-Star Race, some drivers have said that the $1 million prize for winning the exhibition event should be increased. Logano both agrees and disagrees with this.
Logano: NASCAR All-Star Race is better than similar events in other sports
Some feel that what the All-Star race offers, perhaps, isn’t enough money to motivate drivers or teams, especially since the driver doesn’t get the whole million bucks. He typically has to share it with his team members. While giving his take on this, Logano addressed the competitive aspect of it first.
“Honestly, yeah, a million bucks, that’s what makes our all-star event so much better than other sports because there’s something to play for, something to race for. You watch these other sports, they’re out there for fun, basically,” said the three-time Cup Series champion.
“You see, they don’t play defense, they’re just kind of shooting around. They’re having a good time. It’s cool to watch them have a good time for a little bit. But [at the All-Star Race], you want to put something on the line, like what’s up there to grab?
“It’s been a million dollars for a long time, so if you’re asking me, should they raise it, yes. I’m always going to say that. I don’t think there’s ever going to be enough,” said Logano, laughing.
At the same time, Logano acknowledged that winning the All-Star Race carries a certain prestige and is something drivers always see as a “cool thing” to check off on their resume.
