Bubba Wallace (or, depending on how you want to look at it, his PR team) has since apologized for his incident with Kyle Larson at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But, that hasn't kept NASCAR's finest from weighing in on the issue.
Fresh off his win at the South Point 400, Joey Logano appeared on the Sirius XM NASCAR Radio show The Morning Drive to give his blunt take on Wallace's retaliation. Simply put? Bubba is lucky he didn't end Kyle's career. Or worse.
? "That could've been the end of Kyle Larson's career. That, to me, was what was on the line. Or his life."@joeylogano shared his strong thoughts on the incident at Las Vegas involving Bubba Wallace and Larson ??? #NASCAR
? "There's no room for that. You can't do that." pic.twitter.com/yGQXoJpc3E
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) October 18, 2022
"The retaliation is not okay in the way it happened," Logano said.
"If he spun him to the infield, maybe it's a little better, but right-rear hooking someone in the dogleg is not okay. I don't know if everyone realizes how bad that could have been. That could have been the end of Kyle Larson's career. That to me was what was on the line. Or his life. That is the worst spot to get right-rear hooked into a corner. The dogleg is pretty sharp. When you come in and hit the angle that he hit, in a way, he was lucky to hit (Bell) a little bit to soften it a little bit."
"(Larson) might have flush-hit that thing in the side. And then game over. There's no room for that. You can't do that. If it's under caution and you're banging doors. I don't know that that's okay, either, but at least you're not putting someone's life at risk. I don't like using cars for a weapon."
"If you're that mad, just get out and fight him. That's fine if that's what you really want to do and that's how you want to handle it. That's fine. You can make someone's life hell if you want to racing them, but do I think just straight up blasting them into the wall is okay? No. Because the consequences are way bigger than just a race, and you'll live with regret the rest of your life. That's the bottom line. If you seriously injured somebody in retaliation for something that wasn't huge, I don't think you can live with yourself after that. I don't want to take that risk."
Unlike Kyle Larson or Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano has a lot to be excited about, having just clinched his spot in the Championship 4 with his win at Las Vegas. Driving the No. 22 Ford Mustang for Team Penske, is gunning for his second NASCAR Cup Series championship.
"It"s a clutch team. Everybody raises their game. I love the playoffs," Logano said in a post-race interview. "It's just the attitude that we bring to the table as a team is that you love this part of the year because you have the opportunity to just do something great and ultimately win the goal that you set back in February, to win the championship."
"I can't help but get excited and love the opportunity to do something great like we did (Sunday), to have the moment, to do something big and really change the outcome of your season possibly. There's no better feeling than that, and I guess I'm always in constant search for that feeling."
"When there's this much on the line, there's nothing like a playoff victory all the way through. But when you get it in the Round of Eight, it's the second biggest win of the year."
The first biggest win of the year? The Cup title race at Phoenix Raceway, of course. And, Logano more than likes his chances heading into the last few playoff races. Of course, having already survived the Round of 8 cutline, Logano is locked in on the title race in Phoenix on November 6.
"I was so focused in on these three races in this round. Now that we can take our focus off of those next two and really focus in for the one that really matters, it's a great place to be. I think it definitely puts us in a good spot," Logano continued.
"We've got a one in four chance now. I feel like our chances are way better than that."
