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A year ago Joey Logano was basking in the glory of capturing the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series championship, his second title in five seasons. This season was dramatically different, his performance resulting in an early playoff exit and finishing a disappointing second on his own Penske team behind champion Ryan Blaney. Adding insult to injury, the 33-year-old has recently come under fire for his remarks suggesting that NASCAR fans are spoiled.
Logano appeared as a guest on the December 21 episode of The Morning Drive on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and addressed the criticism head-on, including returning fire at one of his harshest critics.
“When I hear what Brett Griffin said on that (Door Bumper Clear) podcast, attacking my character, just made me say, ‘This guy does not know and he has a microphone.’ And it’s a bad feeling to hear all of that,” Logano candidly admitted. “That somebody will make up things to get attention.
“And that’s really frustrating from my perspective, but it also is the world we live in a lot of times these days. How do you make money if you’re in media? People gotta listen. And how you going to get people to listen? You got to put some edgy stuff out there to get clickbait and get people to listen. Unfortunately, I was a target of that because of a comment that was taken out of context. That was the frustrating part.
“Bottom line is, I care because obviously someone attacked my character but I also understand that some of it is just life and if people don’t really know you, you kind of just got to move on.
“But also wanted to clarify here that I love my race fans. And I love all of the race fans, right? Love me or hate me, I’m only here because we have race fans. And that’s why we give them the great access.”
Joey Logano Calls Fans ‘Spoiled’
The firestorm of controversy for Joey Logano started during one of his final regular weekly appearances on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio in 2023, where he typically revisits the previous weekend’s race and previews the team’s expectations for the upcoming event. However, this time, the two-time champ offered some pointed words when discussing fan access.
“Our fans are spoiled,” Logano said during his ‘Behind the Wheel’ segment on TMD. “And I love our race fans but think about other sports for a second. Think about it. When are you going to meet an NFL player. Can you access an NFL player? Anytime like three hours before a game. No.”
“Well, maybe if you’re Taylor Swift,” show co-host Mike Bagley joked.
“OK. Maybe if you’re Taylor Swift,” the driver agreed. “But you can meet me 20 minutes, 10 minutes, five minutes before I get into the race car. You can take a picture with me. I am there. And all the other racers are the same thing.
“We walk down the red carpet. And there is people on both sides of us and all of the drivers stop and sign autographs, or at least try their hardest to, right? It’s hard to get everybody but you try your hardest to. That is the norm in our sport. That doesn’t happen in any other sport, at all.”
Brett Griffin Responds to Logano’s Original Remarks
After Logano’s “spoiled” comment, which unsurprisingly became a hot topic of conversation in NASCAR circles, Door Bumper Clear podcast co-host and veteran spotter Brett Griffin addressed the subject and didn’t hold back, taking direct aim at the Team Penske driver in the December 11 special Christmas episode, which included Tyler Reddick as a guest.
“I’ll say it. Joey Logano is full of s***. He’s full of massive s*** because what he’s saying isn’t true,” Griffin started. “Fans eight years ago, pre-Covid, pre-recession in 2008, they were accustomed to Tyler Reddick — no offense to you because you’re young or you don’t remember these days — but Tyler Reddick’s caliber of driver would be 60-plus public appearances a year.
“And he would be doing them in grocery stores for Monster. He would be doing them in Hooters restaurants. He would be doing them all over the place that the public can get to. Now the sponsors are not spending the money to fly the drivers in because the return, the analytics have changed. What’s important to a sponsor? It’s not getting 500 people into a grocery store anymore. It’s completely different.
“Like, for Joey to sit here, who grew up rich as hell in the northeast, who raced his whole life, who came down here, races here, he said NASCAR drivers make a little bit more money. The f*** they do. How much money does Landon Huffman make a year racing? How much money does Joey Logano make a year racing?”
“So Brett,” podcast co-host Casey Boat interrupted and started to ask a question. The spotter continued.
“I’m not done bitching yet,” he replied. “So don’t tell me that our fans are f****** spoiled because they are not spoiled. They are accustomed — a fan my age is accustomed to being able to meet Bill Elliott at McDonald’s at University Area by UNCC after qualifying from 6-8. That’s what they’re accustomed to.
“Joey Logano, how many times does he go to Planet Fitness a year to sign autographs? How much money is he making doing that? Good for him. He’s not doing it as often as he was when he got here. Once he signed his seven-year Pennzoil Penske contract, Covid hit, he went missing.”
Both Are Right
The interesting part about Griffin and Logano firing shots at each other is they’re both right. NASCAR fans do have more access to the athletes compared to the other stick-and-ball sports, as the driver suggested.
However, as the podcast co-host mentioned, that amount of access has declined in recent years because, as he described, the business model has changed and sponsors aren’t as keen on driver appearances as they were in the not-so-distant past.
Times have changed, and in more ways than one. Who would have guessed a two-time Cup Series champion would be defending his name against a spotter firing repeated shots at his character on a podcast, and all of it happening in the middle of the holiday season?
Bah humbug.
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