In ESPN interview, Joey Logano opens up about Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart

Nine days after being involved in a last lap crash at Fontana that injured Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano spoke publicly Tuesday in an interview with ESPN.

Logano described the final lap duel as merely the type of racing you would typically see between two drivers battling for the win and stated that he did not deliberately wreck Hamlin.

“My number one goal is to go win a race,” Logano told ESPN’s Marty Smith. “So did I intentionally wreck him? No, I did not intentionally do that. If I was going to do that I would have hit him in the left-rear tire. I hit him in the door. It’s hard racing at that point.”

As for the comments he made immediately following the Auto Club 400 where he made no mention of Hamlin being hurt, Logano explained that he had no idea his rival was injured.

“I hate that he got hurt. I feel like the comments after the race that I made were taken way out of context,” he said. “My mind wasn’t straight and I didn’t know Denny was hurt. There was no way for me to know. And it got taken way out of context.”

In the interview, which aired on SportsCenter and later on NASCAR Now, Logano also addressed Tony Stewart’s remarks that he was a “rich kid who never had to work.”

Logano seemed not to take offense to what Stewart said, and feels he was simply caught up in the “heat of the moment”, no different than what he said immediately afterward concerning the accident between himself and Hamlin.

“Our sport, we don’t have time to take a deep breath, give me 15 minutes to regain my thoughts, and what the heck just happened, and let me watch a replay and see all this,” he said.

But in the same breath, Logano said he’s the same person he’s always been but will not allow his competitors to take advantage of him.

“I’m still happy-go-lucky,” he said. “I’m very competitive. That’s never going to change, you know what I mean? I’m still who I’ve always been. But I don’t get walked on.”