"I can see a lot of myself in Ty" - Joey Logano reflects on his run-ins with Ty Gibbs, elaborates on 'the next step' of their relationship
Two-time NASCAR Cup champion Joey Logano and Ty Gibbs had yet another explosive face-off in the pre-season Busch Light Clash. Their on-track battle was followed by a heated exchange of words post-race, as both drivers lost out on a potential victory.
In Gibbs' brief history in the Cup Series, he had repeated run-ins with Logano in his rookie campaign last season. Their rivalry intensified when the veteran driver spun the rookie at Martinsville Speedway.
Joey Logano reflected on a constructive conversation he had with Gibbs in the aftermath of the Martinsville incident. The 33-year-old expressed empathy for the rookie driver in October last year, seeing his younger self in the 21-year-old Gibbs. He reiterated his past feelings in a recent appearance on NASCAR SiriusXM radio.
"I thought I’ve been through a lot of this stuff before when I was like him, right? I can see a lot of myself in Ty. I get a lot of it. I thought, ‘Man, if I talked to Kevin (Harvick) that way or I talked to Tony (Stewart) in that way, gosh that would have been great, like to have had that,’" Logano said, recalling his incidents with veteran drivers.
He added:
"So, I was open … I’ve been through this before. Let me see if I can help the situation out. So we left and we shook hands and ‘OK, here is how we’re going to do it, we’re going to respect each other on the racetrack, we’re going to respect each other."
Joey Logano and Ty Gibbs had buried the past incidents and kicked off the 2024 campaign at the Busch Light Clash, where things took a turn for the worse. Gibbs and Logano were fighting for the race lead and were shuffled down the order when the JGR driver pushed the Penske driver to the outside wall on a restart.
Logano explained the reasons behind their heated off-track exchange stating:
"So, obviously, I’m mad about that. At that point, I wanted to make sure he knew that I was pretty upset about that and that’s not acceptable."
The #22 Penske driver concluded that Gibbs' words "had no meaning" for him after their altercation in the Clash.
Joey Logano believes NASCAR can race on any track
Following NASCAR's three-year trip to the L.A. Coliseum for the pre-season Busch Light Clash, Joey Logano believes they can now race on any kind of track.
In recent years, NASCAR has raced inside stadiums, on dirt and street tracks, adding to the already diverse track specifications. After the Cup Series made its final trip to the L.A. Coliseum, Logano believes it's time to move to a new location.
"We can race anywhere now," he said on SiriusXM radio. "As a sport, one of the key learnings that we found is changing it up. And the clash was a big change-up. But it’s been three years, maybe it’s time for something different, and bringing it somewhere else."
"We can do about anything… We can do pretty much anything with these race cars."
There is no official update about the location of the Busch Light Clash for the upcoming season.