Joey Logano rallied from a lap down to nearly win the 67th Daytona 500, but those moves weren‘t why some were pointing fingers at the three-time Cup champion afterward.
On Lap 186 of a scheduled 200, Logano swung from the outside line to the middle in an attempt to reach third by squeezing Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Blaney. But Stenhouse blocked and was tapped in the left rear by Logano, triggering an eight-car crash on the backstretch.
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Among the victims was Kyle Busch, who had been running fifth in pursuit of a breakthrough Daytona 500 win in his 20th attempt.
“Looks like the fastest car got in a hurry to get to the wreck,” said the Richard Childress Racing driver, whose No. 8 Chevrolet finished 34th. “Logano was by far the fastest car today. Saw a lot of laps led. And he could about do anything. The Penske cars were very strong.
“We still got (15) laps to go, and he‘s trying to go through the middle and make a hole that isn‘t there and just created chaos. I hate it for all of our guys. We had a fast car, and we were in position and just kind of biding our time. You‘ve got to know how wide your race car is to be able to find a hole that it‘ll fit in, and he obviously doesn‘t know that.”
The criticism of Logano continued two hours later during the winner‘s news conference in the Daytona International Speedway media center, where three-time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon took an unprompted shot at the three-time Cup champion.
“Joey did,” Gordon, the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, responded when race winner William Byron was asked if “people made dumb moves.”
Byron chuckled and said, “Yeah, that‘s fair,” after Gordon‘s comment on Logano.
“I think it’s just the nature of these cars don’t push and receive pushes very easily,” Byron said. “It looks like it’s in control, but the car has a lot of drag. So when you come off the corner, it’s easy to get to somebody’s bumper. But the cars don’t get pushed easily. You have your hands full the whole straightaway.”
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Logano, whose No. 22 Ford led three times for 43 laps, felt urgency to move into position behind the first-place car of Penske teammate Austin Cindric, who led a race-high 59 laps. So he decided to dive in front of Noah Gragson, hoping for a push past Stenhouse and Blaney to the rear of Cindric‘s No. 2 Ford.
“I had to get to the second car in line to have a chance to win the thing,” said Logano, who later added that “(Stenhouse) had a bit of an indecisive moment, and that‘s what gets you in trouble at times is when you kind of have to pick one.”
He said he initially slowed for Stenhouse‘s block, then hit the accelerator again when he thought Stenhouse would stay in the top lane, “but he kept coming down. I am checking up, but at that point, the checkup has already happened behind me. Everybody is all over each other, and I was getting shoved into it. I can‘t get out of it, and then we made contact. It is unfortunate.”
Interviewed by Fox Sports‘ Bob Pockrass before having seen a replay, Stenhouse tempered his view of Logano‘s move.
“I feel like the holes were pretty small he was trying to fill,” Stenhouse said. “I got a couple of late blocks on him as we were making our runs up through there, and I was hoping he would stick with me, him and LaJoie. We were getting ready to drive to first, second and third with still 10 to go.
“I‘d have to go back and watch. I feel like maybe he was trying to fill the gap and then him and somebody else got together and hit me in the left rear.”
Though the 2015 Daytona 5000 winner came up short in his quest for a second win in the “Great American Race,” Logano could take some solace in an impressive rebound from debris in his car‘s throttle body that caused his engine to begin lagging on the Stage 2 restart. He lost a lap for multiple pit stops as his team tried to diagnose the issue, but he zoomed from 35th to eighth at the end of Stage 2.
Logano still salvaged a playoff point with his Stage 1 victory.
“Something to get out of the day and take a positive out of it,” he said. “Had a fast car. Just wasn‘t able to get it done this year.”
