October 13, 2009
By Allen Madding
With Joey Logano leading the NASCAR Nationwide Copart 300 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California early in the going, Greg Biffle was stalking the leader in second place.
Biffle reportedly came on his team’s radio and commented that he might have to put Lagano in the wall to get around him.
On lap 50, that is exactly what happened.
Biffle dove to the inside of Logano, slid up and knocked Logano’s No. 20 Toyota into the outside wall. Dave Rogers, Logano's crew chief, called Biffle "a coward" over the radio after the on track incident.
Logano and company worked diligently to recover a top-10 finish after the incident. A late race caution due to a wreck involving Biffle and Denny Hamlin aided Logano. A green-white-checker finish paired Logano and Brian Vickers for the final restart. Logano got the jump on the restart and proceeded to pull away from Vickers to score the win.
As Joey was on his way to Victory Lane to celebrate his win, his father, Tom, was waiting on pit road for Greg Biffle. As Biffle rolled to a stop on pit road, the elder Logano was motioning to him. According to witnesses, a heated exchange between the two ensued after Biffle emerged from the No. 16 Ford, and a NASCAR official had to intervene.
Then NASCAR official revoked Tom Logano’s NASCAR “hard card” credential on the spot. He was allowed to join his son in Victory Lane before being escorted to the NASCAR Nationwide Series hauler for a private conference with series director Joe Balash.
"A NASCAR official pulled Mr. Logano's annual credential after he confronted the 16 on pit road," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said, “Tom Logano will be eligible to sign for a single-event license while officials review the event and can attend Sunday's Sprint Cup event at the track.”
Poston also added that NASCAR Nationwide officials would review Biffle’s radio communications this week along with the video footage of the event.
Biffle’s view of the incident was somewhat different. “I saw him flip me off,” Biffle said. “They have short memories. They don’t remember last week when he smashed my left front fender in. It’s all about theirselves. It’s not always about you. He was lucky that he had time to fix it. I got mine smashed in on the last run of the day. I didn’t have time to fix mine and I fell back and finished wherever I did.”
Mr. Logano had possessed a “hard card” or annual credential that allowed him easy access to each race track’s garage and pit road. He will now have to be listed on the team’s “guest list” submitted each week to NASCAR for the remaining tracks on the schedule and then wait in line at the NASCAR trailer outside the race track to be issued a single event paper credential.
When asked about the situation on Sunday, J.D. Gibbs, President of Joe Gibbs Racing, said that Logano was, “contrite and apologetic.”
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