NASCAR: Denny Hamlin slams Joey Logano’s ‘stupid statement’

Denny Hamlin slammed Joey Logano’s “stupid statement” about racing hard while 24 laps off the lead lap in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Dover International Speedway.

Team Penske’s Joey Logano, who entered the round of 12 of the four-round, 10-race 2019 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs in a favorable position above the round of 8 cut line thanks to his playoff points, saw his chance to win the round of 12 opener at Dover International Speedway, the Drydene 400, go out the window before the race even before.

Before the green flag flew to get this 400-lap race around the four-turn, 1.0-mile (1.609-kilometer) high-banked Monster Mile oval in Dover, Delaware underway, Logano’s #22 Ford suffered a busted rear axle.

As a result, his Team Penske crew worked feverishly on the car to try to get Logano back out on to the track in the hope that attrition throughout the rest of the field would result in him still being able to pick up a couple of valuable points throughout the race.

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Logano did eventually get back onto the track, but he was two dozen laps off the lead lap.

As the end of stage two (lap 240) neared, the race leaders were running around Logano on the track. But even though Logano was 24 laps off the lead lap, he was not making it easy for the leaders.

As a result, race polesitter Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing, who led 218 of the race’s first 228 laps, could not pass the #22 Ford, and that allowed teammate Martin Truex Jr. to take the lead and eventual race winner Kyle Larson of Chip Ganassi Racing to slot into second place.

Hamlin finished stage two in third place, and he never led the race again en route to a fifth place finish.

Yet after the race, Logano, who ended up finishing in 34th place and scoring three points as opposed to 35th and scoring two or 36th or worse and scoring one, defended his actions, which may very well have cost Hamlin a guaranteed ticked into the round of 8 by way of robbing him of the race victory.

As a result, Hamlin called Logano an idiot for making such a remark, although he recanted the idea that Logano is an idiot and reiterated that he only feels that his remark was out of line.

Here is what Hamlin had to say about the matter, according to NASCAR.

"“Make up position? He’s 24 laps down. That’s the most idiotic statement I’ve ever heard. We’re battling for the end of the stage. It’s not your day, you had bad luck. We get it. But why? I don’t understand that at all. That’s just a stupid statement by an idiot…Probably shouldn’t call Joey an idiot. He’s not an idiot. But that was just a bad choice to say that he’s fighting for something. He’s not fighting for anything, he’s just running around the race track. Stay in one lane. Maybe the high lane, because nobody’s up there. Get the laps over with. Get the race over with and go home and get ready for Talladega to try to win that race.”"

Denny Hamlin is set to enter the second race of the three-race round of 12 at Talladega Superspeedway in a third place tie in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff picture, still well above the round of 8 cut line (+48 points).

Joey Logano, meanwhile, is currently on the outside looking in due to being on the wrong end of a tiebreaker with Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, who sits in the eighth and final transfer spot.

This race, the 1000Bulbs.com 500, is set to be broadcast live from the track in Lincoln, Alabama on NBC beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, October 13.