Kurt Busch calls out Joey Logano’s aggressiveness on final lap at Daytona

Neither Kurt Busch nor his crew chief, Tony Gibson, left any doubt on who was to blame for Busch spinning on the final lap of Saturday night’s NASCAR race at Daytona International Speedway.

Both Busch and Gibson pointed the finger at Joey Logano, who they cited for being too aggressive in going for the win as Logano tagged Busch’s rear bumper off Turn 4 causing him to slide through the frontstretch infield. At the time, Busch was running third behind eventual winner Brad Keselowski and second-place Kyle Busch, Kurt’s younger brother. Logano was fourth as the field sped towards the checkered flag.

“You can’t drive other people’s cars for them,” Kurt Busch said. “I think that (Logano) made an aggressive mistake. You can’t go from fifth to first. There’s just no shot at it. It’s a shame that we ended up spun around and wrecked. We could have come out of here with the point lead.”

Instead of leaving Daytona with a top-five finish, which would’ve vaulted him into the points lead, Busch finished 23rd and dropped a spot in the standings. He is now ranked third, with Keselowski moving ahead and Kevin Harvick continuing to hold the No. 1 position.

Gibson was more direct with his criticism of Logano, expressing his frustration on Twitter: “‘Stupid is as stupid does!!! #22”

Adding to Busch’s frustration was that once again he failed to win on a restrictor-plate track despite being a former Cup Series champion and a 28-time race winner. Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 was his 63rd race at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway, the two venues where NASCAR slows speeds by limiting airflow to the engine. His best result is second (three times).

“I hope to be right there where I was tonight on a green-white-checkered and one day the chips are going to fall in my direction,” Busch said. “There’s no way that it can’t. It’s almost two rotations around a roulette wheel for how many times we’ve been here and haven’t won. But we’ll keep trying.”

Logano, a teammate of Keselowski’s at Team Penske, accepted responsibility for the accident post-race, calling it a byproduct of the craziness associated with restrictor-plate racing.

“I hate that I got into Kurt there at the end racing to the line,” Logano said. “I had a run to turn up underneath him and when you do that the cars get free and then I was there and he tried to catch it and I was there again.

“The last thing I want to do is hit someone like that. Unfortunately, it happened.”

Logano’s aggressiveness has drawn the ire of several drivers over the past few years. The most notable is Matt Kenseth, who took umbrage with Logano spinning him out to win last fall at Kansas Speedway, a move that essentially cost Kenseth a shot at the championship. That ignited a bitter feud between the two, culminating with Kenseth intentionally crashing Logano two weeks later at Martinsville Speedway.

Team owner Roger Penske defended Logano during Keselowski’s post-race winner’s press conference. Penske said Logano’s reputation creates a perception that he’s at fault even when he may be blameless.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m behind (Logano) 300 percent, and I’ll talk to Kurt,” Penske said. “He didn’t do it on purpose. It could have been a big mess down there tonight, too, and at the end of the day, that’s racing as far as I’m concerned.”