Joey Logano comes clean on his radio rant over Austin Cindric: “I lit up pretty quickly because I care”

Joey Logano admitted that he was angry during his rant over the radio last Sunday. He said that it happened because he cares deeply about his team and racing.

During the last NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, Logano burst over the radio, cursing at his Penske teammate, Austin Cindric, after missing out on a stage win. Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Logano said there are certain rules teammates follow during superspeedway races to help each other win.

"Everyone knows superspeedways you’ve got to work together...The rules that were set in place weren’t followed. That ticked me off quite a bit because I feel like I’ve always done the right thing and try really hard to do that. The rules have been put in place because of things we have done wrong in the past," Joey Logano said (via NBC Sports).

Logano needed a push from Cindric to win Stage 2 of Sunday's Lack Link's 500 but he backed off to avoid a crash. 23XI Racing's No. 23 Toyota driver Bubba Wallace held off the defending Cup champion to win the stage. This upset Logano and he shared his frustration with Cindric.

"You don’t want to make the same mistakes over and over again. It wasn’t the first offense kind of situation. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and, yeah, I lit up pretty quickly because I care. I am into racing, I am in 100%, and I expect things to go a certain way. When they don’t, yeah, I get pissed off," Logano added.

Logano also mentioned that he had a talk with Austin Cindric after the race to clear things up. He said he got too upset in the heat of the moment, but felt the issue had to be discussed.

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"That doesn’t matter" - Joey Logano on Chipper Jones criticism

Joey Logano (22) and Ross Chastain (1) fight for the lead during stage two of the Jack Link's 500 - Source: Imagn

Joey Logano finished the Talladega race in fifth place, but in the end, winning the stage did not matter much as his No. 22 Ford was disqualified. One of his car's bolts on the spoiler was loose, and he could not pass the post-race inspection.

Baseball star Chipper Jones also criticized Logano's comments after the race.

"Way to go Austin, way to go, you dumb f**k! Way to f**king go. What a stupid s**t. You just gave it to him. Gave a Toyota a stage win. Nice job. Way to go. What a dumbass," Joey Logano had said over the radio.

When asked during the same podcast episode about the criticism, Logano said:

"That’s like me saying something about baseball. I know nothing about baseball. That’s like me saying something that he did something in baseball that was wrong. That doesn’t matter."

Logano moved two points down in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings after last week. The 34-year-old currently stands in 11th place with only one top-10 finish in the first 10 races of this season.