The blazing Daytona sun burned into the most chilling atmosphere. Where Joey Logano was with his engine on; ready to leave his mark on the famous 500. As he prepared with the victory vision through a complicated maneuver, he kept dodging between his rival and friend. But instantly, that good prospect turned into a bad reality -possibly the worst- burying Logano’s hopes. However, he simply moved on passing the buck to a fellow driver. 

With 15 laps to go in the race, Logano tried to make a move for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., but the space was at a premium as the drivers were too close for comfort in the pack. Stenhouse Jr. had an idea about Logano’s intention and had managed to fend him off, but only this time he couldn’t. Next thing you know, there’s a big crash which took out race contenders, including Team Penske star Ryan Blaney. 

There’s a raging debate going on among the racing circle on who was at fault that led to this wreck. But, for the time being, the driver of the No. 22 is taking all the heat. But when Logano was asked about his opinion on the crash, he whipped his hands clean pinning the blame on Stenhouse Jr.

Joey Logano stood for his stance

As the dust settled, Blaney managed to finish seventh, but the incident left a cloud of tension hanging over Team Penske. In the aftermath, Logano faced intense scrutiny from reporters and fellow drivers. When questioned about the crash, where remarked, “Not my fault; it was Stenhouse’s move.” Even Kyle Busch criticized him saying, “We still got (15) laps to go, and he’s trying to go through the middle and make a hole that isn’t there and just created chaos. You’ve got to know how wide your race car is to be able to find a hole that it’ll fit in, and he obviously doesn’t know that.”

But it looks like Logano isn’t bothered about the backlash he received and clarified his stance. “The move key down to the middle is no doubt the right move. They tried to secure track position up there and get to that second lane. Ricky’s block was a little late. Right? And I checked up for that. And, where it all went wrong is I assumed he was gonna go back up to the third lane… from this time block the first time, and he kinda veered up that way. And at that point, I throttled back up so, here’s my shot. I’m gonna get into this hole.” He continued further. 

Well, it’s just difficult to know how different things would’ve panned out had Logano been patient for a few more laps. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, Stenhouse Jr. was no saint as he kept on switching lanes to fend off a charging run. The No. 47 Chevy turned into the middle lane and Logano did check up and hoped that Stenhouse would go back to the high lane. Well, he stuck to his task and the No. 22 Ford with the momentum behind him just crashed into the rear of the No. 47 Chevy.

The resulting wreck led to the loss of several top contenders, such as Logano, Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Noah Gragson, Cole Custer, and Todd Gilliland. Although being caught in the chaos, Ryan Blaney managed to recover and finished the race in seventh place. At the time when the crash happened, Blaney was running in the second spot with a real shot at Dayton Glory, but his teammate wasn’t exactly on the same wavelength. 

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Team Penske drivers shared words after the Daytona debacle

Now Ryan Blaney might be a Cup Series champion, but he is still searching for his first Daytona 500 victory. Last Sunday he was in a good spot to fulfil that dream, but Logano had different ideas. At Superspeedway, teammates and OEM partnership play a huge role, but in Blaney’s case, his teammate’s eagerness cost him a potential shot at Dayton glory.

Ryan Blaney said this after qualifying rounds at Atlanta Motor Speedway, “We bring really fast cars, that’s a huge part of it, but it’s also like, we make it a huge point to find each other and be committed to each other. I personally feel like we do it better than other groups and that’s what makes us really successful.” He further stated, “Everyone is a little bit different mindset-wise but I think it’s a product of teammates working together, and everyone at Team Penske is doing a good job of bringing some competitive cars every time we go to these speedways.”

Joey Logano took a similar stance when questioned about the conversation structure between his two teammates following the situation. Which he twisted with a marriage touch, as he said, “It’s just like any other conflict you have with your spouse, right? Where is the intention? Is the intention to wreck your teammate? Absolutely not. Does it go against any of our rules we come up as a team with on how we win speedways? No, it did not. Does it s—? Absolutely.”

Well, the good thing for the Penske duo is that they will have a lot of opportunities to make amends throughout the 2025 season.