NASCAR: Is Joey Logano setting himself up for another disaster?

After admitting to intentionally costing Chase Elliott a win on Sunday in the late stages of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, is Joey Logano setting himself up for another Matt Kenseth-like Martinsville disaster?

The feud between NASCAR‘s most popular driver and one of the sport’s most disliked characters continued in a rather subtle way this past Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, two weeks after it began in the closing laps of the race at Bristol Motor Speedway on the final day of May. But it continued nonetheless.

At Bristol Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano were battling for the win with three laps to go. Logano had just taken the lead away from Elliott, who led on the final restart with five laps remaining, when Elliott tried to battle back.

Elliott got loose underneath Logano in turns three and four and came up the track and into the side of the #22 Ford, sending it into the wall. Instead of finishing in first and second place, Logano and Elliott finished in 21st and 22nd, respectively, with damaged race cars.

More from NASCAR Cup Series

• NASCAR Cup Series: New team set to compete in 2024
• NASCAR: Surprising name continuously linked to new seat
• NASCAR driver at risk of missing the Daytona 500?
• NASCAR set for rare appearance last seen 13 years ago
• NASCAR team adds third car, names driver for 2024 Daytona 500

At Homestead-Miami Speedway, Elliott was leading the race ahead of Denny Hamlin when he came up on Logano, who had already been put a lap down as a result of having multiple things not go his way throughout the evening.

Logano decided to race the #9 Chevrolet like he was battling for position, and just like that, Hamlin’s #11 Toyota shot to the lead. Hamlin went on to win the race after Elliott was unable to get back around him in the closing laps.

Here is what Hamlin, who has been involved in his fair share of Logano feuds over the years, had to say about how Logano “raced” Elliott after the race in a Zoom media conference.

"“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.”"

Elliott simply shrugged it off.

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

But what Elliott did not say, everybody else was thinking, and Logano even admitted to it. Here is what he had to say about the matter, 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.”"

Will he continue the revenge? He isn’t ready to commit to the whole feud being over.

"“We’ll see.”"

This in itself is interesting because Hamlin literally just addressed the same topic of retaliation involving another incident with Elliott, one that also saw him walk away with a win.

While on new tires at the end of the Wednesday night race at Darlington Raceway a few weeks ago, Elliott was blowing by the leaders and had just slotted into second place behind Hamlin on old tires.

Kyle Busch, who happens to be Hamlin’s teammate, tried to slide into line behind Elliott, and wrecked him in doing so.

Moments later, during the caution flag period that ensued, the rains came and sealed a victory for Hamlin, his first since opening the season with his third Daytona 500 victory.

Busch was quick to apologize and stated on many occasions that the move was unintentional.

"“That was entirely unintentional. I’ll definitely reach out to (Elliott) and tell him I’m sorry, tell him I hate that it happened and all I can do, but that doesn’t change the outcome of the night.”"

Take away that wreck, and right now Elliott is leading both the championship standings and the playoff picture — and quite comfortably.

Naturally, the calls from NASCAR’s biggest driver fanbase came for revenge against Busch, and Busch himself admitted that he would have to deal with the repercussions of this incident down the road.

But here is what Hamlin, who has now twice in the last month seen wins escape Elliott’s hands and fall into his, had to say after the incident between Busch and Elliott in a Zoom media conference.

"“I would say that if Chase were to retaliate, you know that’s international, right? We all know it’s intentional. What Kyle did was unintentional. Now, is the score really even if one is intentional and one is not? Probably not.”"

Sure, Chase “retaliated” — by holding off Busch to win the Truck Series bounty that had been placed by him by Kevin Harvick and Marcus Lemonis.

But he also donated $25,000 of his winnings to the Bundle of Joy Fund, founded by Kyle and his wife Samantha. They were extremely grateful for that kind gesture.

Now put Hamlin’s post-Darlington comments in the context of the Elliott/Logano feud.

At Bristol Motor Speedway, they were racing for a win when Elliott went low, got loose and wrecked them both.

In fact, you could even argue that Logano is the one who started the rising tensions by nudging Elliott under the previous caution flag period. He had wrongly believed that Elliott had made contact with him and gotten him loose as Hamlin wrecked in front of them to bring out the yellow.

Nevertheless, Elliott wrecked them both while racing for the win.

But at Homestead-Miami Speedway, it was completely different. Logano was completely irrelevant and not even on the lead lap. He finished in 27th place, two laps off the lead lap.

So put Hamlin’s comments into a Homestead context.

“I would say that if Joey were to retaliate, you know that’s intentional, right? We all know it’s intentional. What Chase did was unintentional. Now, is the score really even if one is intentional and one is not? Probably not.”

No, Logano didn’t wreck Elliott, and he easily could have. And perhaps Hamlin would have been able to run him down and win the race anyway. But Logano said himself that he cost him a win, and he wasn’t afraid to say that he did it intentionally.

Most notably, he refused to admit that he is done getting retaliation. But for his own sake, he might want to think long and hard about that one.

Because even now for the score to be “even”, based solely on Hamlin’s idea of intent, Elliott needs to do the same thing back to Logano — cost him a win — and we know he is capable of it.

Best way to tell? Listen to the drivers themselves, what they said above and what they’ve said over the years in similar situations.

Just ask Hamlin what happened at Phoenix Raceway back in 2017 after he wrecked Elliott at Martinsville Speedway two weeks beforehand, costing him a Championship 4 bid in just his second season of competition.

Just ask Logano how it felt to see a potential championship bid go up in smoke while being catapulted into the Martinsville Speedway turn one wall.

In the second round of the 2015 playoffs, Matt Kenseth was effectively in a must-win situation at Kansas Speedway in the second of three races of the round after wrecking at Charlotte Motor Speedway the previous week. Logano had won that race to punch his ticket to the next round.

Late in the race at Kansas Speedway, Kenseth was leading with Logano in hot pursuit. After Kenseth defended his position while battling through lapped traffic, Logano felt slighted and dumped him. Kenseth finished in 14th place while Logano went on to win.

The following week at Talladega Superspeedway, Kenseth and Logano got into it again. Logano made a bold move to pit and cut Kenseth off in doing so before going on to brake check him entering the pits, causing contact between the two cars.

Kenseth was heated on the radio.

"“Tell that #22 I’m going to knock his ass out after the race. You tell him. Tell him to hide behind his daddy. He came from the third lane. I didn’t even think he was going to pit. Turned right down in front of me and brake checked me.”"

Logano won that race as well. Kenseth finished in 26th place and was officially eliminated from championship contention.

The following week at Martinsville Speedway featured the opening race of the third round of the playoffs, and Logano was dominant.

Kenseth did not go easy on Logano early on, several times giving him a few “friendly” nudges. Later in the race, Brad Keselowski, Logano’s Team Penske teammate, made contact with Kenseth, spinning him out and heavily damaging his #20 Toyota. This contact mired Kenseth several laps down and out of contention.

Logano could be seen fist pumping inside his car.

At that point, Kenseth was fed up. While running several laps down and without a hood on his car, he took matters into his own hands. Logano was well on his way to clinching a berth in the Championship 4 with his fourth consecutive victory.

Until he went to put Kenseth another lap down.

As Logano went around the outside of the #20 Toyota, Kenseth slammed into Logano’s #22 Ford and drove it hard into the turn one wall, bringing pretty much everybody in the crowd except the #22 fans to their feet, roaring in approval.

Logano did not recover throughout the rest of the round and didn’t even qualify for the Championship 4.

There are 14 races remaining before the playoffs begin, the first of which slated to take place this afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway, and many of them won’t be contested in front of fans. Has Logano done enough thus far to warrant this kind of retaliation from Elliott? Intent-wise, absolutely. But with everything considered, probably not.

But if his “we’ll see” comment leads to anything else, it will absolutely happen. It can’t not happen, for Elliott’s sake.

If Elliott does end up retaliating against Logano, he’d be smart to wait until a playoff race with fans in the grandstands. If you thought Kenseth’s revenge was insane, you won’t want to miss it. Pure pandemonium.