Kyle Busch, Joey Logano meet face-to-face at Phoenix
AVONDALE, Az. -- Kyle Busch and Joey Logano met with NASCAR officials at Phoenix Raceway Friday morning to discuss last week’s contretemps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but it’s doubtful that there were any changes of opinion about the battle.
The two were involved in a fight last weekend after last Sunday’s Kobalt 400, where as they were racing for position on the last lap, Logano slid up the track and hit Busch, dropping him from fifth to 22nd. Logano finished fourth in the race.
Afterwards, Busch threw a punch at Logano and a brief scrum ensued on pit road, with Busch leaving with blood dripping down his forehead.
After the Phoenix meeting, Busch met with the media for less than a minute and simply reiterated essentially the same response to each of the half a dozen or so questions placed to him: “Everything’s great. Looking forward to getting back to the race track and into my race car.”
Logano was a little more forthcoming.
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“I really just tried to explain I made a mistake underneath him (Busch),” said Logano. “That’s basically what it was. He (Busch) asked for some data. I was able to show him that. It was pretty clear in my opinion what happened, so that’s that and we’ll move on.”
Asked if he thought the two drivers were good with each other, Logano said he wasn’t sure.
“Time will tell,” Logano said. “All I can do at this point is plead my case and say that, ‘Hey, it was an honest mistake.’ And it was hard racing at the end and we’re going to try to move on and all we can do is focus on our Shell-Pennzoil Ford and try to win Phoenix.”
Neither driver was penalized after the Las Vegas incident.
NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell, who was in the meeting, said NASCAR made its expectations clear going forward.
“It’s an emotional sport,” said O’Donnell. “We still view that as two drivers racing hard for position. If that escalates beyond that to someone doing something intentionally, on the race track, we were very clear that we’ll react. But we’re moving on and we want to see a great race here in Phoenix.”
