'Poop face' or not, Joey Logano pleased with third-place run
As much as the racing world appeared to embrace Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win by Tony Stewart, Joey Logano said he was ready to spoil the storyline in a split second if Stewart and second-place finisher Denny Hamlin had wrecked each other heading to the finish at Sonoma Raceway.
And for a split second, he was sure they were going to do exactly that.
"I thought I could win the race there on the last lap when you're watching those two go into (Turns) 7 and 11 and you're running third," Logano said. "You think you're in a pretty good spot to win this thing, thinking that they're most likely going to crash each other.
"It was a fun race to watch. Going into Turn 11, I was 100 percent sure that Denny was not going to win just by watching it, and we were right there on the cusp of trying to sneak one by. It would have been a gift if we got it, but you take them any way you can."
Logano ended up taking third, his best finish in eight career starts on the 1.99-mile road course. He said he was pleased with that in the end, pointing out that his No. 22 Team Penske Ford group has made great gains at Sonoma over the last few years.
"I think a couple of years ago we had a fast short-run car and we fell off harder than anybody," Logano said. "Last year, we had a slow short-run car, but a good long-run car. This year, we had a pretty decent car throughout the whole run. It didn't fall off really hard, so I'm super-proud of the effort that has been put into this race track here in Sonoma. This is a nice, solid third-place finish."
Logano called the 45-year-old Stewart's win "historic" and said he appreciates the magnitude of it after Stewart missed the first eight races of this season because of a back injury suffered in the offseason. Stewart, a three-time champion who is retiring from Sprint Cup competition at the end of this year, also broke an 84-race winless streak by going to Victory Lane.
It didn't take long for Logano to notice Stewart was in the mood to really go for it Sunday.
"It's cool to see Tony get that win here when it's much needed," Logano said. "It still shows he's got what it takes if you give him the right stuff. He's gonna push hard when he needs to. I noticed that from Lap One. I started right next to him and he was hammering right off the bat. I said, 'Alright, we've got that Tony Stewart today.'
"There are two different ones, and it was the aggressive one all day. Obviously, we saw that going into Turn 11 (on the final lap, when Stewart made the race-winning pass on Hamlin), so it's cool for him."
Of course, Stewart wasn't the only aggressive driver in Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350.
Logano angered fellow drivers Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr. following a restart in the closing laps when he overdrove into a turn and banged into Edwards trying to get back on course. Edwards then ran into Earnhardt -- costing both of those drivers valuable track position in the mad scramble.
Edwards recovered well enough to finish fourth. Earnhardt fell off to 11th and took to Twitter after the race to question Logano's aggressive move.
Logano obviously didn't have any problems with anyone or anything after the race.
Asked in the media center afterward if he was mad at anyone, Logano laughed and replied: "I'm happy. I don't get mad at anyone. Are you kidding me? I love everyone. I'm a lover."
Ya @joeylogano what the hell. (I honestly couldn't see who was beside Carl) I'm glad we all survived it. https://t.co/ztSyBOx9A0
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) June 26, 2016
Carl Edwards texted me to say thanks for giving him room and he said @joeylogano was a "poop face" ? #LiesAllLies pic.twitter.com/NeURxwlxG6
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) June 27, 2016
