NASCAR: Joey Logano draws Dale Earnhardt comparison

Kyle Petty compared Joey Logano to NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt following Logano’s victory at Bristol Motor Speedway on Monday afternoon.

Team Penske’s Joey Logano secured his first win of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season on Monday afternoon on dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway to become the first Cup Series dirt race winner since 1970 and the first first-time winner on dirt since 1968.

Logano led Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin ahead of the final restart around the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) high-banked oval in Bristol, Tennessee, and Hamlin was told by crew chief Chris Gabehart to “find a way” past the “most aggressive guy in the business”.

Hamlin tried to go around the outside of Logano entering turn one on the penultimate lap of the 253-lap race when the green flag flew again, and the move failed. In fact, he relinquished second place to JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Logano ended up winning the race by 0.554 seconds ahead of Stenhouse, with Hamlin in third.

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Gabehart’s comments, coupled with Logano fending off Hamlin in the laps prior to the caution flag period which led to the final restart, led Kyle Petty to compare the 2018 series champion to legendary 76-time race winner and seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt in the latest edition of the NASCAR on NBC podcast.

Petty noted that Logano, who now has 27 career victories and at least one win in each of the last 10 seasons going back to 2012, can be everybody’s worst enemy on the race track, but he can also be their best friend off of the race track.

And he emphasized the fact that the other teams, drivers and crew chiefs know it and are willing to admit it.

Here is what Petty had to say in comparing Logano to the driver who many consider to be the greatest NASCAR driver of all-time.

"“Beat you onto pit road, beat you off of pit road, beat you around to the start/finish line, beat you for 10th position, beat you for sixth position, beat you for the win – beat you, beat you, beat you.“That’s what it’s all about for him. When he takes that helmet off, you want Joey to come to your house every day and hang out with you. He’s such a good guy. But he puts that helmet on, and he’s the caliber of race car driver, that of a Cale Yarborough, a Dale Earnhardt Sr., a Richard Petty and David Pearson, a Bobby Allison – that golden era where people weren’t friends. They were acquaintances, but they weren’t friends.“Joey already has them beat like Earnhardt used to, in a certain way. You heard Gabehart say, ‘He’s the most aggressive guy in the sport.’ When the crew chiefs and other teams are acknowledging that, I’ve gotta think those drivers, when they get in their helmets, they acknowledge it too.”"

An Earnhardt comparison is not one to take lightly, so these comments are sure to rile up a good percentage of the sport’s fanbase.

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However, in a season where two-time Xfinity Series race winner Noah Gragson continues to draw Earnhardt comparisons from fans simply by being involved in various controversies, perhaps they won’t rile up as many as they ordinarily would.

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