Loose-ing His Cool

On lap 148 in turn 4 at Michigan International Speedway, it would seem like Joey Logano has another enemy to add to his Shit list in his very short NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career.

Ryan Newman.

Going into turn 4, Logano's car got loose, and slid into the #39 Tornados Chevrolet of Newman's left rear quarter panel. Completely a racing accident. But, after the race, Newman didn't consider it to be. Nascar.com has released a transcript of the confrontation between the two drivers:

"Give someone an inch, man," Logano said.

"No, I gave you the whole race track," Newman said.

"I was on the bottom and you door-jammed the crap out of me," Logano said. "There's six lanes up top."

Newman would have none of it.

"I was six lanes up, and I steered up and tried to miss you, because you couldn't control your damn race car," he said.

"Because I was freaking sideways because you were on my freaking door," Logano said. "All right, I'll door-jam you every freaking time I get around you."

The two traded shoves, and that's when the officials stepped in.

"I'm good," he said. "I'm just trying to teach the little kid how to drive."

Apparently, from this report, Logano gave the first push. I looked back at the video, Joey didn't 'push' him. He barely touched Newman, and that's when he flipped out saying, "Don't touch me." Call me crazy, but i don't consider a 'touch' generally a 'push.'

Getting back to the on-track incident. Joey's car got loose. Simply a racing deal. Newman has been around long enough in the Cup Series to understand this. But, he hasn't seen the replay before Joey went over to talk to him. Joey was just trying to explain what happened from his view, and it looked like Newman was too frustrated to even consider hearing Joey out.

Yes, Newman was racing hard because, unfortunately for him, he's 103 points out of the chase. And the accident with Logano, doesn't help that matter. I can see why Ryan is upset, but he needs to be upset for the right reason. From my point of view, pushing Joey like that was a little uncalled for; and to see that behavior from a veteran like Newman? It's kind of disappointing. Yes, i love to see how passionate the drivers are for their sport, but that's being over-passionate.

Some comments that i've read, have placed all of the blame on Joey. My perspective: everything from the previous 23 races have led up to where Newman is currently in points. Yes, he's had other encounters with Joey on the track this year. But stuff like engine and parts failures, you can't help.

You could say i'm a little biased in my thoughts, because everyone knows i'm a Logano fan. But what happened out on the track was purely a racing accident. Everyone knows that. Once Newman looks back at the replay, he'll see that, and will hopefully see things from Joey's perspective a little bit.

Hard racing? Yes, it was hard racing. You've got to race every lap, like it's the last. Joey does have to learn that some of the veterans will make his Cup career difficult; they didn't get this far by letting other people go around them, and give away positions.

So, we all have our own opinions on this situation, and this is mine!

Until next time, i'm Steph Piech for The Finish Line