NASCAR: Joey Logano makes direct admission after Homestead

Joey Logano did not hold back when asked if he intentionally cost Chase Elliott a victory in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Chase Elliott took the lead of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway from Denny Hamlin after coming into the pits for new tires one lap sooner than he did.

That one lap difference eliminated Elliott’s deficit to the driver of the #11 Toyota and put him out front by well over one second. Hamlin began to reel him in, but after he closed the gap, Elliott began to stretch it again.

That is, until the #22 Ford of Joey Logano came into the picture.

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Logano and Elliott were involved in a late wreck at Bristol Motor Speedway two weeks prior when Elliott tried to take the lead from Logano with just over two laps remaining. Logano had just passed Elliott for the lead following the race’s final restart with five laps remaining.

Elliott’s #9 Chevrolet got loose in turns three and four and shot up into the #22 Ford, sending it into the wall, and instead of finishing in first and second place, the two drivers finished in 21st and 22nd.

In this past Sunday’s race, Logano was already running a lap off the lead lap when Elliott approached him to try to put him another lap down. But he made it difficult for Elliott to get around him, and in the meantime, Hamlin caught up and took the lead.

He never looked back.

After that, it was smooth sailing. Hamlin won the race, Elliott finished in second place after being unable to reel him in again and Logano finished in 27th, two laps off the lead lap.

Of course, the fact that Logano raced Elliott as if they were battling for the win and not like the backmarker he was caused quite a bit of speculation as to whether or not he intentionally raced him hard and cost him the win due to what had happened two weeks prior at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Elliott didn’t offer any kind of specific opinion about the issue.

"“I just need to get through lapped traffic better.”"

Hamlin, however, had a slightly different take.

"“Joey probably ran him pretty hard there…I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. It’s all speculative. You kind of have to ask Joey. The way I saw it, he was very generous to me. That’s all I know. I appreciated that.”"

As Hamlin suggested, Logano was asked, and he did not hold back. Here is what he had to say, according to Sporting News.

"“Yeah, of course. You race people the way they race you. You can’t do things without repercussions of some sort. You cost me a win, I cost you a win. Those types of things go like that. I would assume that everyone kind of understands how that stuff works. And you kind of move on from there.”"

He also refused to say that the feud is now over.

"“We’ll see.”"

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Is the latest round of the Chase Elliott-Joey Logano feud the final one? The next race on the schedule is the GEICO 500, which was won by Logano two years ago and by Elliott last year. This race is set to be broadcast live on Fox from Talladega Superspeedway this Sunday, June 21 beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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