June 10, 2010
By Doug Demmons
If there is one nickname you want to avoid in racing, it is The Intimidated.
It’s a name that was beginning to stick to Joey Logano as he got pushed around by one driver after another and did little about it.
Sliced Bread was starting to smell like Burnt Toast.
Despite reports to the contrary, that didn’t change much Sunday at Pocono. In fact, Logano getting out of his car to confront Kevin Harvick was nothing short of comical.
Logano can drive the wheels off a stock car, but he sucks at standing up for himself. And Pocono was just further proof of that.
Consider:
He drives up to where Harvick’s car is parked on pit road, careful not to hit anything. He gets out and his dad, Tom Logano, is there to assist.
There’s a phalanx of bodies from both crews between him and Harvick, so all Logano can do is twist and shout.
He then walks off and gives a TV interview. He’s clearly frustrated and tells the interviewer that the whole thing might not be Harvick’s fault because his wife DeLana “wears the fire suit in the family.”
That’s just pathetic -- on several levels.
First, he let Harvick profit from his move by finishing in fourth. Wrong. Logano could have caved in his fenders on the caution laps leading up the the green-white-checkered.
Second, he waited until Harvick was parked on pit road and the car was surrounded by people. Wrong. Could have spun him as they came down pit road.
Third, he said he just wanted to talk to Harvick. If you are going to get into a feud with a guy who has gone throat-to-throat with Carl Edwards you don’t assume that talking will smooth things over.
Fourth, he had no idea what kind of vitriol to hurl at Harvick so he came up with a schoolyard taunt -- telling Harvick he’s a sissy.
That just blew up in his face. DeLana Harvick is now selling ladies T-shirts that say “I wear the fire suit in this family.”
Besides, you don’t need to be making comments about how someone else is being led around by his wife if your dad is still intervening in your fights. This isn’t T-ball.
And who got ordered to appear in the NASCAR hauler? Was it Harvick for wrecking Logano? No. Instead NASCAR heaps embarrassment on Logano by bringing him and his dad in for a lecture on proper parental behavior.
To a large degree Logano is handicapped. He’s a truly nice kid, the kind you hope your daughter brings home to dinner.
He much prefers to race clean like Jeff Burton and Mark Martin. But the garage is not full of Burtons and Martins. And even Martin reached the position of respect he has over many years with more than a few confrontations along the way.
Logano doesn’t have it in him to get out of a wrecked car on the track and fling his helmet at the guy who wrecked him as he drives by under caution.
But he needs to.
He needs a real trip to the hauler, the kind where Mike Helton asks him, “Joey, what on Earth were you thinking when you drove straight through Harvick while he was leading coming out of that final turn?”
He needs to be on NASCAR probation until the end of the year, like everybody else.
He needs a tattoo on his bicep that says, “Section 12-4-A, Actions Detrimental to Stock Car Racing.”
He needs to announce in a pre-race interview this weekend at Michigan that Harvick better hire some more sheet-metal fabricators because he’s gonna need them. And then he needs to punt Harvick into Lake Huron.
Take the points penalty. Ignore the media pundits who will tsk tsk that you are acting like a thug. Unleash your inner thug.
Even Harvick can appreciate that.
Doug Demmons is a writer and editor for the Birmingham News ~ he writes daily and weekly auto racing columns ranging from NASCAR to open wheel to Formula One, local tracks and more... you can read Doug's columns online at Blog of Tommorow
Follow Doug on Twitter: @dougdemmons
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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