In addition to the penalty that stripped Austin Dillon of his playoff eligibility, NASCAR also hit Joey Logano with a $50,000 for his post-race actions on pit road Sunday at Richmond Raceway.
Logano was drilled from over four car lengths back by Dillon. This was before Dillon then turned hard left to right rear hook Denny Hamlin all in the name of getting to the finish line first and winning his way into the Cup Series playoffs.
After the race, driving down pit road for post-race staging, Logano came across the celebrating Richard Childress Racing No. 3 crew and responded by breaking traction with a burnout in front of them with industry people all around him.
It was a safety violation with an easy $50,000 fine call from the sanctioning body, which is exactly what was handed down on Wednesday.
“I mean let’s face it what I did was probably not right. I had complete control of my vehicle, I was never going to hit somebody,” Logano said during Saturday media availabilities. “That’s never gone through my mind that I should run somebody over with a vehicle.
“I don’t just see red and think I’m going to hit somebody. I was very frustrated at the moment, I think there’s, you know put some things into perspective a little bit, from the in-car camera I’m rolling down pit road, they pointed me to the left, to go to, you guys know the top-10 cars and big story cars, and obviously I was a storyline.
“And there was no way for me to get there. I stopped, got aggravated, somebody put their hand in the car, I dumped the clutch. Like I said, never going to put someone in trouble and hurt somebody with that, and I understand the optics of it and if you’re on the other end of it, know that I’m not going to hit somebody. So, I understand the penalty. I wired 50 grand over to their bank at PNC and off it went. I’m not a robot, I’m a human.”
Point blank, Logano felt like he was robbed last weekend and just wanted to express that dissatisfaction.
“The best comparison I can think of that can help people relate. It’s like your house got broken into and they took all your stuff, and about a minute and a half later you saw them all dancing in your yard with all your stuff,” Logano said. “What would you do, right?
You kind of have to put a little bit of it into perspective. I obviously was not going to do anything to hurt anybody, but obviously, I’m not a robot and I was emotional about it, and rightfully so. But still doesn’t mean I should have done what I did. Like I said, I wired it over to their bank and off we go.”
