“What a Stupid S**t”: Does Joey Logano’s Profanity Laden Rant Against Teammate Austin Cindric Hint Towards Signs of Frustration From the 3-Time Champ?

There’s no question it has been a frustrating year so far for Joey Logano. The three-time and defending NASCAR Cup champion had unusually struggled in the season’s first nine races prior to Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway, managing just one top-10 finish (8^th at Martinsville) thus far.

While the 34-year-old Logano may be frustrated by his own performances, he did another uncharacteristic – and totally immature – thing in Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500, profanely calling out Team Penske teammate and eventual race winner Austin Cindric.

Cindric drew Logano’s ire when the former failed to push his teammate past Bubba Wallace at the end of Stage 2, allowing Wallace to take the stage win.

Cindric was doing his best to push Logano forward, but when the field tightened up, Cindric was forced to check up – lest he wreck both Logano and himself – something Logano either ignored or overlooked.

“Way to go Austin, way to go, you dumb f**k,” Logano said over his team radio. “Way to f***ing go. What a stupid s**t. You just gave it to him. Gave a Toyota a stage win. Nice job. Way to go. What a dumba**. Put that in the book again.”

It’s pretty clear that Logano will get a talking to from iconic team owner Roger Penske, who is extremely conservative and expects his drivers to look and talk cleanly, and especially never call out or embarrass a teammate. While Logano is certainly entitled to his opinion, blasting a teammate is a cardinal sin in both Roger Penske’s and NASCAR’s book of ethics.

If Logano were blasting an opponent, few people would have cared. NASCAR drivers typically call out their rivals’ on-track errors, whether intentional or not. But because he blasted Cindric, who happens to be the son of Team Penske IndyCar operations president Tim Cindric, Logano will likely be persona non grata around the team’s headquarters for the next week or so.

The elder Cindric has been as close to an adopted son to Penske as you can get. He’s been a loyal and true soldier to the Penske cause since he joined the organization in 1999, quickly moving up through the ranks. While it wouldn’t be a total surprise if Tim Cindric also chewed out Logano, I think it’s more likely that he’ll demur to Penske, as a father protecting his son in NASCAR is a pretty blatant conflict of interest.

Hey Joey, what goes around, comes around

But perhaps the biggest development was what happened after the race. As the old saying goes, karma – particularly in NASCAR – can be a real pain in the back. Less than two hours after Logano uttered his disgust at his teammate, Joey Logano was disqualified from what would have been a season-best fifth-place finish.

Instead, NASCAR handed Logano an embarrassing 39^th-place finish. In other words, he wound up dead last and dropped to 11^th in the Cup standings. Logano’s crime, so to speak? A missing spoiler bolt.

I don’t know about you, but I’m willing to bet there’s quite a few fans who are doubting and asking themselves about Logano.