Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Ford Mustang Dark Horse, was fined $50,000 for spinning his tires in frustration on Pit Road after being wrecked by the No. 3 Chevy Camaro ZL1 of Austin Dillon at Richmond on August 11th, 2024. Elton Sawyer, senior vice president of competition at NASCAR, explained the officials’ decision to ding Logano for the incident after the race.
Sawyer revealed his reasoning for the penalty on an interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Essentially, it boils down to the fact that Logano, a two-time Cup Series champion and division veteran of 15 years, should have “known better” than to floor it in front of Dillon’s crew on Pit Road – and his family. Logano’s actions caused several of Dillon’s crewmembers to scatter as his No. 22 NASCAR Ford bore down on them, and Logano himself caught a verbal lashing from an official stationed on Pit Road.
“Totally understand the emotion of what went on there, and Joey’s a champion,” Sawyer said. “He knows better. We just had, there’s too many people out there, which is something on our side, we’ve got to do a better job of making sure we’re protecting, you know, our fans that are there, our families, the kids.”
Elton Sawyer said @joeylogano‘s $50K fine was consistent with past rulings, but also said it’s a learning experience.
🗣️ “There’s too many people out there, which is something on our side that we’ve gotta do a better job making sure that we’re protecting (everyone on pit road).” pic.twitter.com/yOzSms2R2d
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) August 15, 2024
He added, “Even with them behind the hot side, we still have security, we still have our NASCAR officials out there. So, it’s in the comms every week that goes out to the race teams that as you’re coming down pit road postrace and we’re capturing all the cars, to be careful, and obviously, this was one, and we’ve been consistent with this call on Pit Road and that’s why the penalty rose to the level it did for Joey.”
Logano was not docked points for the incident. The fine was his only punishment.
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Comments
NASCAR races can be pretty hair, with drivers blocking each other when the races gets close to the end, but then ramming another driver from behind, to take the advantage of putting him out of the running or wrecking him on purpose, seems to me, not an ideal way of racing, for one, it will cause others to do the same, causing an act that would sooner or later have all the race drivers doing it and it can be dangerous to a driver, even with all the safety factors in place and to me it shows poor sportsman ship, when you intentionally ram someone from behind like in this past race, the driver who won, didn’t only ram the lead car in front, but also the one behind him, when he was passed by the car that was behind him!
Not competitive sportsmanship, but an act of unwanted desperation!
Logano should have been fined more and docked points. This idiot has no business being on the racetrack. If anybody out there thinks Logano has not done his share of wrecking in his career, you are blind. Hurling a vehicle on pit road at defenseless people is unacceptable.
Logano should have been suspended for a race or two for his actions on pit road and not gotten a playoff waiver.
No need to explain the fine. It was one hundred percent correct as Logano, acting like a spoiled child, did a high speed burnout down pit road.
Yea, fine Logano, but condon and reward Dillon for crashing Logano out of the lead…what is Nascar coming too? 🙁
I see how it works, Dillon is just another Nepo Baby. Thanks to Grampa it’s all bettering