It seems Joey Logano went overboard with his seething anger. The Sunday Cook Out 400 race showcased a dramatic finish — RCR’s No. 3 Austin Dillon, a proclaimed underdog for the last two years, roared out of his slumber, shoving Denny Hamlin and race-leading Joey Logano out of the way for a controversial win. Team Penske’s team was visibly frustrated looking at Dillon’s wreck-ball tactics; 2x series champion and No. 22 driver blurted out, “It was chicken [expletive].” The race settled down, but Logano clearly had not!

Logano’s retaliatory actions took a dark side. Granted, Austin Dillon‘s last-lap aggression was a tad uncalled for. It may have overstepped the boundaries in NASCAR’s rulebook. But even as officials determine what judicial step to take for Dillon, they are burdened with another task. Joey Logano, who finished 19th after getting spun by Dillon and was looking for his second win this season, went for his team.

When you challenge a driver known for their unchecked attitude, who knows what is coming? The news piece circulated initially that Logano decided to go for a drive. Joey Logano has showcased his flaring tempers before, like the 2017 fistfight with Kyle Busch in Las Vegas. In fact, he drove the No. 22 Ford over to Richard Childress’ celebratory squad and burned his tires there. But nothing may compare to the 2024 Cook Out 400 race as a video that surfaced recently makes matters way worse.

Logano’s in-car camera clearly captured footage of him speeding up a little upon seeing the No. 3 team on pit road, which included Dillon’s wife and child. NASCAR journalist Jeff Gluck predicted a massive penalty for the Team Penske driver. “Guessing this will be $50k.” A $50,000 penalty isn’t a far-fetched number, considering safety violations on the cool-down lap have caused drivers like Daniel Suarez (COTA, 2023) and Bubba Wallace (Chicago, 2024) precisely that much since the start of the 2023 season.

Besides Joey Logano’s clearly dangerous stunt, Gluck also pointed out that people were flouting the pit road rules. “That said, as a totally separate issue, there are too many people on pit road as the cars are coming in from the cooldown lap.”

This emerges as a crucial piece of evidence about Joey Logano’s rowdy attitude. Austin Dillon accepted Hamlin’s level-headed arguments, but he couldn’t tolerate Logano’s unbridled anger. “The only thing that did pi** me off about Joey was when he came through there, my wife and kid were headed across to get to cross, and he revved the engine up right in front of my kid and Johnny Morris and those people.

“I mean, I get it. You got to be mad and upset, but do it like [in] an interview or talk to me about it. You got to be careful on pit road with that type of stuff.” He said. Not just Dillon but Elton Sawyer, senior Vice President of competition, also commented on NASCAR’s next course of action,

“We don’t wanna make a split-second decision and get it wrong. So, we wanna make sure we go back and we’ll look at everything that happened on the last lap and post-race and see if any penalties need to be issued.”

Meanwhile, fans are not entirely excited about the incident either. They took shots at both Logano and NASCAR for this dangerous ordeal.

NASCAR fans shake their heads

One fan bashed the Penske driver for putting Dillon’s family at risk. “Clearly targeting them. That’s insanity. That’s behavior that goes on during riots and crap. You don’t get to do that at people no matter what the situation. Pathetic honestly.”

While Dillon may receive a penalty for his last-lap chaos, Logano’s stunt belittles that situation. Some fans are even hoping that Joey Logano hogs the bigger penalty. “Can’t wait for Logano’s penalty to be more than Dillon’s.” Another fan thinks Jeff Gluck’s estimation is too lenient: “50k seems light.” Somebody appreciated the NASCAR official, who rushed to put a stop to Logano’s tantrums. “Who’s the official? That guy deserves a raise.”

Yet some other people raised an issue with the situation as a whole. One fan pointed fingers at NASCAR for being too lighthearted with pit road rules. “I blame @NASCAR, there shouldn’t be anyone on pit road until All the cars are parked, except @NASCAR officials …” Raising concern about Dillon’s baby boy, another fan protested against allowing him in the risky area. “Why are children allowed on a hot pit road?”

Clearly, Joey Logano’s unbridled anger is drawing immense criticism. He would certainly draw a hefty fine, even though NASCAR has yet to fix Dillon’s penalty.