“We have to do something”: Joey Logano extremely clear on repercussions if NASCAR failed to do ‘something’ about the controversial weekend

The incident at the Martinsville Raceway before the championship race at Phoenix is something that NASCAR fans are still talking about. Recently, Team Penske’s Joey Logano, who also won the series title this year, chimed in while speaking on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast.

NASCAR issued $600,000 in fines and parked nine crew members from Austin Dillon, Ross Chastain, and Bubba Wallace’s teams for the championship race. According to Logano, it was the right thing to do.

“NASCAR did the right thing by doing something. They had to. If you let that go, it will continue to grow... everybody just saying, to hell with their race and they're going to be blocking everybody,” Joey Logano explained. “So NASCAR has been put in a spot where they have to do.”

Even Christopher Bell viewed it as a case of blatant race manipulation. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was heard saying,

“I could very clearly see the race manipulation and the race fixing that was going on.”

So what happened back there? Let’s take a look.

As Austin Dillon was closing in on William Byron during the closing laps, the former’s crew chief Justin Alexander radioed to the Richard Childress Racing driver:

“The 24 (Byron) is only two points to the good right now and there’s two spots between them… if we pass him he’ll be out.”

Things got even more interesting when Ross Chastain, who was running close by, pulled up beside Dillon. Alexander asked,

“Does he know the deal?”

“I’m trying to tell him, Justin, can you tell him?” replied Brandon Benesch, spotter of the No. 3 Chevy driven by Dillon.

What was the “deal”? One might wonder. Notably, there was a time when Chastain got to the outside of Byron, perhaps to pass him. Right at that moment, Chastain’s spotter Brandon McReynolds told the Trackhouse Racing speedster,

“Nice and smart with the 24 here down there.”

Chastain did not reply, but he did not pass Byron either. With about 10 laps to go, Dillon and Chastain ran side by side, blocking the rest of the field from getting close to Byron. Right behind them were Brad Keselowski, Carson Hocevar and Logano himself, tightly packed in traffic.

A little while later, things got even more bizarre. On lap 495, Bubba Wallace’s tires went down and, as per Motorsport.com, he ran “a full second slower than the previous lap”, which in turn, gave Bell the 18th spot. Bell needed that spot to make the finals. But NASCAR penalized him for riding the wall and he dropped to a disappointing P22 finish. His hopes of making the grand finale were over then and there.

“The 20 (Christopher Bell), pretty easy to see. He rode the wall; can't do that. That's a black-and-white rule. Easy call,” Joey Logano further stated. “The others...easy call because you heard him talking on the radio. That communication over the radio (was) pretty obvious... If they didn't say that on the radio are they going to make that call though? I don't know. But we have to do something or else we're gonna look like F1 and that ain't what we are."

Safe to say, NASCAR did not tread lightly on the matter. They even warned the drivers and the teams of the consequences lest they tried manipulating the following week's race, arguably the most important race of the season.

Joey Logano shed light on “threats” issued by NASCAR

Logano revealed that ahead of the race at Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR officials had made it clear that if any driver were to be found guilty of manipulating the race, they would be disqualified from the crown jewel Daytona 500 next year.

“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?” Joey Logano said (via Newsweek).

Nothing of that sort happened last Sunday. Leading 107 of the 312-lap showdown, Joey Logano won his third Cup Series championship, also his second in the NextGen era. With that, he became the 10th driver in NASCAR history to win three or more championships.

“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?" Joey Logano added.

All said and done; the drivers, including Joey Logano, are now enjoying their offseason. The Team Penske star was recently seen playing Monopoly while on a flight.