Joey Logano Blames Race control for his Daytona 500 loss

Joey Logano comes close to becoming only the second active multiple Daytona 500 wins.

Joey Logano Blames Race control for his Daytona 500 loss

Joey Logano (@Team Penske)

Joey Logano missed the opportunity to start his title defense with a bang. The No:22 Penke driver finished P2 in the 75th anniversary season opener as NASCAR officials awarded the win to No:47 JTGDR driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Logano, Christopher Bell, and Stenhouse Jr. were racing three wide the white flag when Kyle Larson got into the wall bringing in the final caution of the race in second over time. In his post-race interview, the 2015 Daytona 500 winner said that he hates finishing in 2nd, and the race winner decided an official call makes it more painful.

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During his post-race media interaction, the Team Penske Racing driver pointed out that he could have won if the caution had been put out one or two seconds sooner. He cracked a remorseful joke that he would have gifted half of his winner’s purse if the trigger had been pressed earlier. The Truck and Xfinity series opener results were also decided via official calls. Race hub gave Zane Smith the Truck race win after a rain delay and Austin Hill secured the Xfinity series win the same way Stenhouse Jr. did.

“So whoever is up there wasn’t quick enough on the trigger. They could have hit that maybe a second or two sooner. I would have given that guy half the (winner’s) purse. I would have given him the whole…thing, actually,” Joey Logano said.

“Oh man, it hurts. It stings. Sucks. There’s not really much you can say. Congrats to Ricky and his team. Unfortunately, we were close to winning the Daytona 500, and being this close just hurts,” Logano said about finishing P2.

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Joey Logano is proud of Team Penske’s efforts at Florida

Joey Logano
Joey Logano

Ex-The former Joe Gibbs Racing driver had a solid speed week with a duel win and comfortable front row run throughout the race.  He could hang on to the lead even after having no Fords on the top 5 alongside him for support l. 

“We did a good job putting ourselves in position and doing what we could do today, and you hope the race would have played out there at the end. Maybe it would have been a little different, or the caution came out a second sooner. That would have been good too. But it is what it is,” Joey Logano said.

Though Logano counts the start of the season as a win, P2 is nothing to be ashamed of. But he has to perform consistently in the remaining 35 races to keep the sin one more championship ring. The future Hall of Famer will be eying at least a win before the west coast swing ends.

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