I spent most of the weekend flat on my bad with a bad cold courtesy of my wife, who brought it back from a trip to Illinois. So on Saturday I wake up, flip on the TV and caught about half of the Toyota All-Star Showdown on SPEED.
What a finish — and what an indication of the true character of NASCAR’s uber-driver, Joey Logano. If you missed it, I’ve included the video below.
To sum it up, Peyton Sellers had fought his way to the front after a late-race restart, but Logano wasn’t going to be denied, and he dove in deep in the final turn of the white-flag lap,
Unfortunately, physics got in the way and Logano slid up the track, taking out Sellers and starting a melee that also involved a bunch of other drivers including Jason Bowles.
NASCAR penalized Logano, who was pretty unrepentent in a post-race interview, by sending him to the rear of the field and giving the win to Matt Kobyluck.
In my mind there was no call for what Logano did — wanting to win if OK, but wanting to win at all costs isn’t. Logano was beaten after the restart, but fought his way back to the front and if he’d had 1-2 more laps, probably could’ve taken the lead back. But he didn’t have any more laps, so instead of saying “that’s racing” he dive-bombed the final turn and ended up taking the leader out.
After all was said and done, I couldn’t help but think that a driver like Logano, with the financial wherewithall of a Sprint Cup driver with Joe Gibbs Racing, probably didn’t stop for a second to think about the impact his actions would have on the less-well-offr racers.
I know from talking to Camping World Series West driver Jeff Barkshire of Auburn that his team is made up of friends and family. Barkshire was caught up in an earlier wreck Saturday night involving Ron Hornaday Jr. and then-leader Brian Ickler. Hopefully that doesn’t put them too far in the hole money-wise before the season even begins.
On a positive note, I really enjoyed seeing a lot of the drivers I’ve had a chance to talk to over the past two years when the NASCAR Camping World Series West visited Evergreen Speedway. Bowles, Johnny Borneman, Jim Warn, Barkshire, Jim Inglebright, Mike David, and David Mayhew to name a few. I took off that “no cheering in the press box” hat and was rooting hard for Barkshire, then Warn, then Borneman.
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