Joey Logano finds boos and one-finger salutes at Martinsville motivating
NASCAR legend has it that Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt were riding together in the back of a pickup truck during driver introductions one time when Gordon asked Earnhardt about all the boos and cat-calls that Gordon was getting at that time.
Earnhardt’s response was something to the effect of, “Doesn’t matter if they’re cheering you or booing you, as long as they’re making noise. When they stop making noise, that’s when you worry.”
Evidently, Team Penske driver Joey Logano has taken that lesson to heart.
Logano has emerged as one of NASCAR’s best young drivers over the past three seasons, but his aggressive style hasn’t always sat well with fans, especially not after he wrecked Matt Kenseth at Kansas in 2015.
That famous incident, of course, led Kenseth to retaliate at Martinsville a couple of race later, knocking Logano out of NASCAR’s playoffs. Even though Kenseth wrecked Logano at the Virginia short track, it’s Logano who gets more than his share of boos and one-finger salutes there.
And he’s OK with that.
“I secretly love it,” said Logano. “Don’t tell anybody. In all honesty, yeah I would rather be loved than hated but I would rather them say something than nothing. … As long as they are making noise.”
For Logano, winning at Martinsville would be the best revenge.
“In all honesty, Martinsville is the race track that I think they dislike me the most,” he said. “I can tell usually by the pick-up truck ride and counting the number of birds I get.
“All I can think of is how cool it would be to win there and do a big burnout,” said Logano. “That would be the coolest. That is motivation to me.”
