Kyle Petty defends Joey Logano as the Ford veteran is getting ‘crucified’ for Talladega meltdown

Ex-NASCAR Cup racer Kyle Petty has a solid defense in favor of Joey Logano amidst the controversy over his Talladega radio rant.

Kyle Petty defends Joey Logano as the Ford veteran is getting ‘crucified’ for Talladega meltdown

Joey Logano and Kyle Petty (Via IMAGO)

The reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano found himself in midst of controversy, after having a radio meltdown following the stage-2 lost to Bubba Wallace due to his teammate Austin Cindric. He was criticized by majority of the racing community for using almost every curse word in the dictionary at his teammate.

But ex-NASCAR racer Kyle Petty got his back, as in his NASCAR Daily show, the legend argued in favor of Joey Logano. Being part of the Big-3 teams the three times Cup champion regularly has to fight his teammates for race wins. So, to succeed the drivers have to selfish on and off the track. This factor makes it the radio rant acceptable. But Petty didn’t analyze whether the intensity of words used was a bit too much.

You’re going to vent about your teammates, because guess what – when you drive for Penske, when you drive for Gibbs, when you drive for Hendrick – three of those other guys out there that you’re trying to beat into submission are your teammates. You show up to race for you, you’ve gotta be selfish as a driver. I don’t think those comments are uncalled for at all.

Kyle Petty said via NASCAR Daily.

The rivalry or beef between teammates is nothing new, as there has been many incidents in the past where teammates came to head-to-head. But most of them stayed behind the curtain, or didn’t become publish knowledge like in Logano’s case. That’s another fact that make Petty feel the Ford drivers didn’t deserve to get crucified like this from Monday over comments on Sunday.

Here’s the difference, those same comments have been going on in the sport ever since we had teammates, the only difference is, we didn’t have access to it as the public. We didn’t have it where we could play it back on the Monday morning and crucify Joey or crucify somebody on down the line, whoever it may be, for whatever they said.

Kyle Petty added.

Kyle Petty recalls the only time he had a beef with his teammate

The former driver in the same conversation, admitted that he was no stager to teammate drama despite him racing in a time where the teammate dynamic wasn’t as crucial as it is now. He revealed that he and his boss Felix Sabates had a confrontation when Petty made some comments on Kenny Wallace who was his teammate.  Other than that, he had an overall good teammate dynamic.

32780 16549738039280 1920
Kyle Petty (Credits: imago)

I came along a long time before the teammate concept. The only fight or argument that Felix Sabates and I ever got into was over a teammate when Kenny Wallace drove there. I made some comments, Felix didn’t like it, and I stood up for what I believed, and he stood up for what he believed.

Kyle Petty said.

The teammates battles and beef has long been the story of NASCAR. The competitive atmosphere the sports put the drivers in is the major reason for this dynamic. No one will become a champion by being the perfect teammate and Logano of all people knows that perfectly. That’s why he has been nonchalant about the criticism, and the racing community can expect him to continue like that till retirement.

Also Read: Denny Hamlin SLAMS Joey Logano for “losing his mind” at Talladega