Joey Logano fires back at MLB legend after brutal criticism: “Has he ever driven a race car in Talladega?”
Joey Logano hit back at former MLB player Chipper Jones's comments against the Team Penske driver after he had a moment of rage during the race at Talladega Superspeedway last week. Logano had passed several comments on his teammate Austin Cindric after the end of stage 2 during the race.
Logano had managed to put himself within the top-10 for a large part of the race and was close to winning the second stage. While he was on the inside line, his Penske teammate, Austin Cindric, was moving up from the outside. In an attempt to defend and also gain the lead, Logaono moved towards the outside, forcing Cindric to lift off, and Bubba Wallace won the stage.
Austin Cindric managed to keep the momentum going and managed to win the race as well, bringing in a strong finish for Team Penske. Following the race win, former Atlanta Braves player Chipper Jones shared a congratulatory message for the driver, taking a direct dig on Joey Logano for not being an ideal teammate, considering his rage on the radio.
"Congrats to @AustinCindric on his @TALLADEGA win. Good teammates are hard to come by, Boss! Remember that one of urs MFed u on national tv, when in all actuality, u did everything possible to keep from wrecking him. Hate to be #dueces in the ‘team’ meeting on Monday," Jones wrote on X.
"In case anyone is confused, lemme be clear….@joeylogano"
Reacting to his comments, Joey Logano claimed that Jones has never raced in Talladega, so he wouldn't understand the pressure that builds up on the track. Furthermore, Logano mentioned that if he were to comment on baseball, his opinon wouldn't matter because he's not a professional player.
"Has Chipper Jones ever driven a race car at Talladega? That would be my first question. I’m pretty certain he hasn’t," Logano said (via @NBC Sports). "That’s like me saying something about baseball. I know nothing about baseball. That’s like me saying something that he did something in baseball that was wrong. That doesn’t matter."
The 34-year-old further explained the reason for his outrage on the team radio, suggesting that teams should be working together on Superspeedways.
Joey Logano explains his anger on team radio at Talladega
Logano is yet to win a race this season. Although he has been consistenly delivering within the top-20 in most races, he hasn't been competitive enough to get a single top-5 finish. Moreover, his best finish was P8 in Martinsville.
Winning the stage at Talladega would have given Joey Logano an advantage, however, with his teammate Austin Cindric backing off, Logano was unable to get ahead of Bubba Wallace, following which he had an outrage.
Explaining himself, he mentioned that teams have to work together on Superspeedways to win.
"You go superspeedway racing, there’s different rules in place for the teams," Logano said. "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 race was still competitive for Joey Logano, who finished in fifth place, however, he was disqualified because of a spoiler violation.