NASCAR Cup Series: Hypocrisy on display following Martinsville incident

Rarely does controversy take place in the NASCAR Cup Series without hypocrisy being on display afterwards. That has been the case once again following the incident at Martinsville Speedway.

The last-lap incident between Team Penske’s Joey Logano and Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. in the opening race of the round of 8 of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, the First Data 500, has resulted in tons of hypocrisy being on display from the NASCAR community.

After being involved in a tight battle with Logano for several laps leading up to the 500th lap of the 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia but trailing him throughout that battle, Truex Jr. finally took the lead of the race coming to the white flag.

Truex Jr. cleared the #22 Ford of Logano on the back straightaway in his #78 Toyota, but Logano proceeded to move Truex Jr. out of the way in turn three.

The two drivers bumped and banged into one another as they came to the checkered flag, but it was Logano who ended up winning. In fact, Truex Jr. did not even finish in second place, as Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin snuck up and took second. Truex Jr. finished in third.

Here is a video of the finish of this race.

As usual when controversy strikes in the NASCAR Cup Series, hypocrisy has been on full display. Following this incident, it has been on display in many ways.

First of all, look at what happened in last year’s round of 8 race at Martinsville Speedway. With just over two laps remaining, Hamlin spun out Chase Elliott while Elliott was leading the race. While many fans were clearly upset with Hamlin, especially considering the fact that Elliott is a fan-favorite, I don’t think there was anyone who didn’t understand that Hamlin did what he did because there was a berth in the Championship 4 on the line.

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Yet Hamlin’s move didn’t even pay off, as he finished the race in seventh place and ironically ended up losing his chance to advance to the Championship 4 two races later when Elliott got payback.

Meanwhile, Logano didn’t do nearly to Truex Jr. what Hamlin did to Elliott. With a berth in the Championship 4 on the line, Logano, unlike Hamlin, did what he needed to do to win the race, and, like it or not, he did it clean. Truex Jr. still finished the race in third place and likely would have finished in second or possibly even still won it had he not tried to fight back after Logano moved him out of the way.

However, for some reason, even with all of that in mind, Logano’s move is being compared to Hamlin’s. This is almost laughable.

But there is a far better comparison.

Logano literally did exactly to Truex Jr. what Elliott did to Brad Keselowski late in last year’s round of 8 race at Martinsville Speedway to get the lead of the race. He moved him out of the way to take the lead without wrecking him. Yet because of what happened to Elliott later in the race, no one ever talks about the fact that this move is what cost Keselowski the great chance he had to win the race. He ended up finishing in fourth place.

This is the case despite the fact that by the way many fans have reacted to Logano’s move, you’d think that none of them have ever heard of Dale Earnhardt before, even though many people believe that he is the best driver in NASCAR history and don’t hesitate to criticize anyone who thinks anything about the modern era is better than it was in Earnhardt’s era.

That’s another thing. Fans complain all the time about NASCAR is not as good as it once was and how today’s fans “don’t know real racing”, yet when a driver returns to NASCAR’s roots and puts his bumper to the bumper of another car to move him out of the way — even without spinning him — to win a race, everyone loses their minds.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that fans are constantly begging for NASCAR to add more short track races to the schedule. Yet when a short track race, a short track playoff race nonetheless, lives up to its billing with bumping and banging and what was pretty much a three-wide finish that came down to the final few inches before the finish line, once again, everyone loses their minds.

Tying into to the last point, fans also complain when one driver dominates a race and wins it by 10+ seconds. That was literally the exact opposite of what happened at Martinsville Speedway, yet that exciting finish was followed up by an onslaught of complaints.

All of this hypocrisy is bad enough even without mentioning the fact that had Logano not moved Truex Jr. out of the way and Truex Jr. gone on to win the race, many fans would have responded with the typical post-Toyota victory line of “NASCAR is rigged for Toyota!” regardless of how close and exciting the finish would have been — and it certainly still would have been.

Will this incident between Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. at the end of the First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway lead to anything else between the two drivers throughout the remainder of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs? If so, how will the NASCAR community react?