“That Doesn’t Happen in Any Other Sport”: Joey Logano Questions the “Norm” in NASCAR’s Fan Treatment

Fans of every sport have a dream of meeting their favorite athlete, or in the case of NASCAR, their favorite driver in person, up close and personal. But often times such kind of access is blocked behind layers of security. But then again, this isn’t the case in NASCAR compared to other sports such as the NFL or F1. Yet, two-time Cup Series champion, Joey Logano thinks otherwise.

He recently argued how the fans in NASCAR get way too much access to drivers compared to other sports.  “Our fans are spoiled and I love our race fans. But think about other sports for a second,” Logano said.

“Think about it, when are you going to meet an NFL player… Can you access an NFL player? Anytime like three hours before a game? No…”

“Our fans are spoiled.”

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He added, “But you can meet me 20 mins, 10 mins, 5 mins before I get into the race car. You can take a picture with me. Like it’s I am there, and all the other racers are the same thing. “

“We walk down a red carpet and there are people on both sides of us. All the drivers stop and sign autographs. Or at least try their hardest to… That is the norm in our sport. That doesn’t happen in any other sport at all. So to say we are not accessible is wrong. That is not the case at all. We are very accessible.”

Logano went on to explain that most of the race car drivers are “normal folk” and even if some of them might have a more extravagant lifestyle, the majority of them are just normal racers.

NASCAR fans don’t quite agree with Joey Logano calling NASCAR accessible

While Logano might argue that NASCAR is highly accessible to its fans, the people think otherwise. Reacting to the Team Penske drivers’ comments, several fans indicated how this wasn’t the case. One even went on to say how NASCAR fan access was the second most restrictive after Formula 1.

A lot of the people argued that the only way to get up and close with the drivers was through the sponsor route. In a nutshell driving the argument that if one had the money, the drivers would only become accessible then.

Fans also pointed out that true access to the drivers was only provided in racing series such as the NHRA and IMSA, and the access provided by NASCAR was not even close to it.