Coming to the checkered flag Saturday night in NASCAR’s Coke Zero 400, contact between Joey Logano and Kurt Busch sent Busch spinning through the infield grass. After the race both drivers had a take on what happened.
NASCAR’s Coke Zero 400 from Daytona was filled with plenty of moments from start to finish. In the closing laps of the race both Joey Logano and Kurt Busch were looking for a win but neither driver was able to get by Brad Keselowski. Logano wound up with a top-five finish while Busch finished outside of the top-20 thanks to some contact with Logano on the final lap.
Stupid is as stupid does!!! #22
— Tony Gibson (@TonyOldman41) July 3, 2016
After the race Busch wasn’t happy with Logano and he wasn’t afraid to share his thoughts via a press release on the situation. Busch’s crew chief, Tony Gibson, also had some choice words for the driver of the No. 22 machine (as seen above).
"We positioned ourselves to be the car to get a good run off the bottom. It just didn’t work out with him (Joey Logano) trying to drive straight through us. And it would have worked out better if he would have pushed us. We could have had a shot at the #2 (Brad Keselowski).On the last lap, there is so much going on. You can’t drive other people’s cars for them. I think that he made an aggressive mistake. You can’t go from fifth to first. There’s just no shot at it. And, it’s a shame that we ended up spun around and wrecked. We could have come out of here with the point lead."
After the race Logano also shared his view on what transpired during the final laps of the Coke Zero 400. Logano was apologetic for what happened to Busch but he chalked the incident up to it being Daytona and not Busch’s claim that he made an aggressive mistake.
"It was hard fought for sure. Anytime you have an opportunity to win and you are in the top four or five or six on the last restart you know you have a shot at it. I was able to get Brad a good push to clear and get a Penske car to victory lane which is really cool.Todd Gordon made a great call to put four tires on which allowed us to be aggressive at the end. I hate that I got into Kurt (Busch) there at the end racing to the line. I had a run to turn up underneath him and when you do that the cars get free and then I was there and he tried to catch it and I was there again. It is a product of this racing but I hate that it happened. The last thing I want to do is hit someone like that. Unfortunately, it happened."
In the end both drivers bring solid points to the table. Unfortunately NASCAR is a place where a fans opinion of a driver will often trump what is said or the circumstances for which something took place. With that in mind many will pin this on Logano and it being all his fault.
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The good news for fans of Busch is that the poor finish doesn’t have too negative of an impact on him considering he is already locked into the Chase. Busch was correct though in saying that they should have left Daytona with the points lead.