2024 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Joey Logano has raised concerns about race manipulation during the Phoenix race weekend, despite NASCAR’s explicit warnings against such activity.
During an episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast (below), Logano described race manipulation affecting the Phoenix practice sessions.
Logano’s comments come shortly after NASCAR’s decisive measures to combat race manipulation following controversies at Martinsville Speedway, where allegations of interference by Chevrolet teams resulted in hefty fines. Amid efforts by NASCAR to maintain fairness, Logano revealed his concerns about how these practices took root during Phoenix practice sessions.
Logano explained:
“NASCAR did the right thing by doing something. They had to. If you let that go, it will continue to grow. It will be the next thing and the next thing.
“Going into Phoenix the next weekend after something like that like geez, it’s going to be everybody saying the hell with their race and they’re going to be blocking everybody. NASCAR is put in a spot where they had to do something. It’s tricky for NASCAR I believe because how do you prove it?
“We unload for practice, the 1 (Ross Chastain) is racing the dog crap out of the 12 (Ryan Blaney) in practice. The 77 (Carson Hocevar) unloads, backs up to me, had a straightaway gap ahead of me, backed up right in front of me and ran right there and just put dirty air. Killed my run in practice.
“We’re doing this in practice the week after you just got dinged for this. Okay, you see how the weekend’s going to go. They’re not backing off on it, they’re just not going to talk about it.”
Before the Phoenix race, NASCAR officials issued stern warnings to drivers, threatening disqualification from the prestigious Daytona 500 if found guilty of manipulating race results. Reflecting on this, Logano continued:
“They did threaten us before the race that if anyone manipulates the race somehow, you are not racing in the Daytona 500 next year.
“Is that a threat? Is that real? We’ll know if something happened. I didn’t see anything happen yesterday (Sunday), but this playoff system is a big piece of it and who do you answer to? That’s the question you have to ask, who do you answer to?”
While no race manipulation was confirmed during the Phoenix race itself, these pre-race activities cast a shadow over proceedings. The race culminated in a tightly contested battle between Logano and Ryan Blaney, with Logano eventually clinching victory.
