Joey Logano explains frustration with Austin Cindric at Talladega, reveals meeting between drivers

Joey Logano is going on the defensive after receiving some serious blowback due to his temper at Talladega Superspeedway. While his teammate Austin Cindric was victorious, Logano wasn’t very happy with him during the race.

The No. 2 Ford wheelman was the focus of a scathing rant from the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion at the end of Stage 2. Logano ripped Cindric after Bubba Wallace won the second stage of the race in Alabama.

He was angry at his teammate for slowing up, which killed his speed coming to the start-finish line: “Way to go Austin, way to go, you dumb f***!” Logano said, via Jeff Gluck of The Athletic. “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 dumbass. Put that in the book again.”

Since, Logano has been panned for the moment of frustration, receiving backlash from his fellow drivers, media members and even Atlanta Braves legend Chipper Jones. The three-time champion tried to explain his side of the story to clear up any confusion, revealing that he’s spoken with Cindric, and the pair have decided to move forward from the incident. 

“You go superspeedway racing, there’s different rules in place for the teams,” Logano said, via Dustin Long of NBC Sports. “There’s the (manufacturer) rules, there’s the team rules and you try to put these all in place to try to give your cars the best chance to win. Everyone knows superspeedways you’ve got to work together. … The rules that were set in place weren’t followed. That ticked me off quite a bit because I feel like I’ve always done the right thing and try really hard to do that.

“The rules have been put in place because of things we have done wrong in the past. You don’t want to make the same mistakes over and over again. It wasn’t the first offense kind of situation. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and, yeah, I lit up pretty quickly because I care. I am into racing, I am in 100%, and I expect things to go a certain way. When they don’t, yeah, I get pissed off.

“Austin and I talked about it. We’ve got to move forward. That’s what it is. I explained my side. He understood. We move on. That’s pretty much all there is to it. There’s no sense in airing our dirty laundry and airing out what the actual rules are because that’s private information that doesn’t need to be out to everybody. But the facts are that what we set in place wasn’t happening and that’s why I got frustrated. Like I said, we talked about it and we moved on.”

“Should I have hit the (radio) button and probably spouted off so much? Probably not. Probably not. Probably blew up into a little bigger situation than it needed to, but the conversation, either way, needed to happen. Just more people are talking about it now.”

On the other hand, Cindric provided his point of view on the matter while speaking with NBC Sports, as well. He was simply trying to not cause a massive wreck, and while Logano might not see it that way, the eventual winner at Talladega is comfortable enough to back his decision up, looking at the bigger picture. 

“I felt like I kind of just got pinched and was trying not to wreck the cars in front of me, including Joey,” Cindric added, following his third career Cup win. “So, it was a messy end to the stage and I feel like between myself and (Josh Berry) and Joey probably could have done better, because I do feel we let one slip there.

“I can understand his frustration without kind of seeing the whole picture, but yeah, those are the type of things that when you’re expecting someone to have your best interest, those are the challenges. We have a lot of meetings centered around that, and I feel like it’s a constant, requires constant maintenance. It’s not always pretty and the conversations aren’t always easy, but I do feel like as a team we do it better than most.”

All told, it’s evident Joey Logano certainly regrets his moment of frustration, and the fallout it’s caused. It’s taken away from the joy of Austin Cindric’s landmark win.

We’ll see if there’s any trepidation when it comes to these two working together in the future. Perhaps they’ll simply chalk it up to some good old fashioned superspeedway racing. That’s what Roger Penske would like to see happen, at least.