Aric Almirola and Joey Logano had a phone conversation this week after Almirola issued a warning following the contact at Texas Motor Speedway
This is almost a carbon copy of last week’s NASCAR news cycle. Why? Because it’s the NASCAR Playoffs and drivers are upset in all directions.
Aric Almirola thought Joey Logano did him wrong in the race at Texas Motor Speedway. He expected Logano to give him space and let him roll through on the bottom.
Logano left him room, a few feet. However, Almirola expected more. Instead, he got loose and skated up the banking on a late race restart. Logano slightly clipped. each driver lost several positions but they continued.
On the caution that followed, Almirola passed several cars and caught up to Logano. With his hand out of the drivers side window, he voiced his displeasure with the driver of the #22.
“What’s his problem? He ran into me,” Logano said over the team radio.
After the race, Almirola issued a warning to Joey Logano for his championship effort at Homestead-Miami Speedway in two weeks time. This weekend, he reached out to Joey Logano to discuss what happened on Sunday at Texas.
“I think we both know where each of us stands and I feel good about it,” Almirola said. “I know a lot of people are confused at why I was upset when you look at the replay, but the reality is that as race car drivers, we both know the situation that we were in, and he knows kind of where my head was at and what I was thinking and I know where his head was at and what he was thinking, and we’ll move on. We’ll go from there.”
Logano is already locked into the championship race. Almirola was and is in a must win situation.
“I was hoping he’d cut me a break to be quite honest and that didn’t happen to be the case,” Almirola said.
“I feel like if we go to Homestead and for whatever reason I wasn’t in the championship that he would expect the same out of me. He would expect me to cut him a break if we restarted with 30 laps to go and he was third and I was 4th.”
“I feel like he would expect me to cut him a break and let him go race for a championship, and that’s kind of what I was hoping for. Whether that was wrong or right of me is beside the point. I was mad and upset, and it didn’t work out for me.”
Almirola’s post-race interview
Almirola also addressed a bit of the reaction to his post-race comments. The fans were unanimously in disapproval of Almirola’s comments.
Unsure of what he said post-race? Here’s the full clip of Aric Almirola post-race commentary from Texas Motor Speedway in regards to Joey Logano.
“These are high-pressure times and the intensity level is incredibly high, and emotions run high in situations like this,” Almirola commented. “I got cameras and microphones stuck in my face immediately upon getting out of the car and being upset, and everybody heard it.”
“If I worried about what other people thought, I wouldn’t be here where I’m at today,” Almirola continued.
“People are always going to criticize, especially on social media. It gives people that their opinions mean absolutely nothing still a platform to say whatever it is that they want. I really could care less what anybody thinks about what I said or what I did or anything about Texas or otherwise.”
“The people’s opinions that matter the most to me are (team owners) Tony Stewart, Gene Haas, all the guys on my 10 team and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing, the people at Smithfield, Ford Motor Company — the people that directly impact my life and my career. All that outside stuff is just noise.”
More
Texas Motor Speedway: Race Results (NASCAR Cup Series)
Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr make arguments for/against the bump and run in NASCAR
NASCAR reacts to the finish between Logano and Truex at Martinsville Speedway
Martin Truex Jr called the move by Joey Logano a ‘cheap shot’; Roger Penske disagrees
NASCAR community reacts to the move by Joey Logano
Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr comment after the race at Martinsville Speedway
Logano made a call to Kyle Busch after Las Vegas
Phone call to Matt Kenseth might have saved the championship hopes for Joey Logano
