Joey Logano had the opportunity to speak Thursday, at NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup media advance at Chicago’s Navy Pier, for the first time since a potential controversy involving his team emerged Wednesday.
News broke then regarding radio chatter involving his No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford for Penske Racing and team communications from the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, driven by David Gilliland.
The radio chatter was solely issued by Front Row, not Penske, and Logano hadn’t even heard anything about the situation until he landed at a NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup pre-advance in New Hampshire.
“I landed there and my phone started blowing up,” Logano said Thursday. “I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ It was all new stuff to me. There was no transcript on our radio.”
Logano said communications between spotters happens all the time, and he didn’t think much of the situation.
“That stuff happens week-in and week-out with spotters,” Logano said. “If we didn’t pass the 38 car, we were still 10th in points, so it had no change in the outcome. I don’t look at it as that big a deal at all, to be honest.”
Asked if he was concerned that any penalties could be coming, Logano said he wasn’t and was instead focused on trying to win this weekend. He won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race there early this year.
Furthermore, he dismissed suggestions that he and the No. 22 team weren’t worthy of Logano’s first career Chase spot on merit, forgetting what happened Saturday night when he and the team missed the setup.
“We have one win, eight top fives and 13 or 14 top-10s. If you look at those numbers, that’s every bit of top three or four this year,” he said. “I don’t feel bad about being in the Chase at all. We deserve to be in if you look at those numbers. Then the bonus points you get from being 10th. We’re in the Chase, we’re here to race, and we deserve it.”