“You just hope you’re in the right place.” Joey Logano’s plea ahead of Sunday’s race made perfect sense. Talladega Superspeedway has presented a recipe for chaos to the NASCAR Cup Series for decades. Ranging from dangerous wrecks in the past like Bobby Allison’s crash in 1987 to the 28-car ‘Big One’ that unfolded in last fall’s playoff race, things can turn wild. This time, however, Logano’s chaotic rant against his own teammate stood out at the track.

Ever since he clinched the 2024 Cup Series championship, Joey Logano has yet to visit Victory Lane. So when he was deprived of an advantage to gain crucial playoff points in the second stage, it got on the Team Penske driver’s nerves. What resulted was a barrage of expletives, which Logano soon upturned in his interview. Nevertheless, fans did not appreciate that.

Joey Logano’s split side was visible

Well, Talladega can make a driver feel different emotions. It happened last fall to Joey Logano, while his No. 22 Ford remained stranded among a bevy of other cars in a massive wreck, as he issued a radio rant about how only selective drivers were being towed for repairs. This time, he was tense about the Jack Link’s 500 beforehand.

Between the races in Daytona and Atlanta, the three in-house Penske cars have combined to lead 256 of 467 laps, yet their best finish at those races was Rya Blaney’s 7th place at Daytona. Hence, a win was long overdue for any Penske driver. Logano and Austin Cindric have already reached triple-digit laps out front on superspeedways, and this competition continued into the 2.66-mile Alabama oval, but Logano was not happy.

In the run-up to the second stage during the race, a line of Fords was in contention. Austin Cindric was making his way up the outside lane and forced Logano to move down on the inside. Logano was adamant that Cindric should have helped him draft instead, as the move eventually allowed Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota to get through the broken line and win Stage 2. However, Cindric’s move may have prevented a wreck, as one fan on X pointed out, “He threw a bad block… Austin did everything to not wreck him. Should be thanking his teammate.” But instead of thanking his ‘guardian angel,’ Logano went on a blazing rant.

This incident elicited a healthy number of curse words from Joey Logano on the radio. “Way to go, Austin, way to go, you dumb f—! Way to f—ing go. What a stupid s—. You just gave it to him. Gave a Toyota a stage win. Nice job. Way to go. What a dumba–. Put that in the book again.” Yet bizarrely, Logano immediately switched up this violent rant during the post-race interview.

Austin Cindric‘s No. 2 Ford edged out Ryan Preece by 0.002 seconds to clinch the trophy at Talladega. Following this unexpected result, you can hear Joey Logano’s scaled-down frustration in the interview. He congratulated his teammate: “It’s about time one of us wins these things. When you think about the amount of laps led by Team Penske and Ford in general, we just haven’t been able to close. So, good to see a couple of Fords here in the front row duking it out. I wish one of them was me in a selfish way…But it’s good to see one of those guys running up there and tick one off for Penske.”

Ford nailed their strategy today, and specifically, Team Penske. For an organization that has won the last three championships, their start to the season was less than desired. Pit crew mishaps like Ryan Blaney’s slow stop at Darlington were the root cause of Penske teams struggling to close good runs. However. Cindric had a clutch pit stop at the end of the race to give him the lead, which is an encouraging sign for the team. Cindric marked Penske’s first triumph of the season in style, and Logano eventually seemed to come around to his teammate’s success after a wild rant.

However, despite Joey Logano reversing his stance, fans were not convinced. The NASCAR community jumped into the comments to express their displeasure.

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After all, Joey Logano was not very popular at the end of last season. The No. 22 driver was officially out of the playoffs in Charlotte based on points. However, Alex Bowman’s shock ejection put him back in, following which Logano went on to win two races and eventually the championship. Considering that most people did not accept the legitimacy of the win, as Logano’s average finish for the season was 17.0, fans also did not accept his wild rant about not winning a stage. One fan wrote, “POV: Joey Logano when his teammates do anything but help him win a stage.” Given that Austin Cindric ironically went on to win the race in a dramatic photo finish with Ryan Preece, another fan took a jibe at Logano’s jarring comments: “And Austin ended up winning 😅

Moreover, Joey Logano went a little over the top with his in-radio communication. Logano’s harsh expletives against his teammate were perceived to be uncalled for. Echoing this sentiment, one fan wrote that this is why Logano is in the bad books of most people, vouching for Cindric instead. “And @DanielleTrotta wonders why no one likes him?? Duh……. Austin>Joey.”

Then somebody called for a revival of the 2024 Richmond race. Austin Dillon had dumped both Logano and Denny Hamlin to charge for the victory in controversial fashion. So the fan wants Austin Cindric to do the same thing now. “Don’t worry Joey, next time Austin will just drive thru your dumba–.” Another fan carefully scrutinized what exactly happened.

Evidently, Joey Logano’s altered personality did nothing to convince the community. His ballistic rant lingered in the fans’ minds, even after his teammate won. Hopefully, things will improve between Logano and Cindric.