Martin Truex Jr. and crew chief call out Joey Logano after incident

Joey Logano may have apologized, but Martin Truex Jr. vowed to race Logano differently following an incident involving the two during Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway.

Truex was running just ahead of Logano, on Lap 151 when Logano attempted to pass Truex for the fourth position. When he was unable to complete the pass Logano pulled in behind Truex and as he did Truex’s car bobbled and bounced off the outside wall.

Replays showed Logano and Truex never actually touched, nonetheless Logano apologized post-race for initiating the incident.

“It was completely my fault,” Logano said. “I was gonna go in on the outside of him and he was gonna go in on the top as well and I just ended up being right on him. We never touched each other, but just taking the air off these cars makes them uncontrollable. I didn’t mean to do that. I was gonna try to go to the top and I just got a little bit close to him and got him free, so I’m taking the hit on that one.”

The contact with the wall caused considerable damage to the right rear of Truex’s car, effectively ending what had been a strong run. He finished 32nd after spending the majority of the race running in the top five, one of the drivers able to keep pace with Kevin Harvick, who led a race-high 142 laps.

“We had a good run going until (Logano) put our car into the fence,” Truex said. “There was a lot of right-side damage to the car, and we were pretty much toast after that incident.

“Not sure what he was thinking about at the time, but that hit spoiled our day. We went from being a contender to the back of the field. Really frustrating to have a good car and not have anything to show for it.”

Cole Pearn, Truex’s crew chief, vented his displeasure with Logano via tweet: “I guess @joeylogano can’t see through his squinty douchy eyes,” he posted.