@nascarcasm: Ranking the top 10 Joey Logano beefs

Joey Logano is many things. He’s a NASCAR Cup Series champion, A Daytona 500 champion, and a future NASCAR Hall of Famer with 28 Cup Series wins. He’s also a fellow who seems to find himself in the occasional kerfuffle with a fellow driver. This has happened so often that we have decided to power-rank Logano’s many beefs through the years.

One of the first. Ryan Newman was mildly perturbed by how Logano raced him and let him know. Luckily for Logano, there was no actual fight. It’s not like you can get Ryan Newman in a headlock.

2020 was bizarre for all of us. But this masked argument at Bristol helped make things feel somewhat normal again. Logano is very strategic and knew that the safest time to confront the most popular driver is when there are no fans in the stands. He can say, “Hey, I didn’t hear any boos so clearly people agreed with me.”

The most recent one and the reason we’re power-ranking these incidents. It got Joey up to a solid 10 incidents. Thanks so much, Joey. We were afraid we were gonna have to power-rank nine of these. Ten is just a much better number.

Joey Logano was not going to be denied at Martinsville in 2018. This move nabbed him a spot in the championship race, but not necessarily the adoration of the crowd (which, by the way, is not something that fazes him). Martin Truex Jr. wasn’t happy, and promised that Logano wouldn’t win the war. (SPOILER ALERT: Logano won the war and the championship. Martin’s take went cold.)

It’s heartwarming to think that Logano’s beef with Denny Hamlin is nearly a decade old. Logano, unhappy with a nudge from Hamlin, tried to get into Hamlin’s face through Hamlin’s car window like an enraged Sonic Drive-Thru server. And don’t worry – the sequel is rarely better than the original but it was. Read on.

He’s not afraid to give another driver a piece of his mind. He’s also extremely quotable, which is good. This dust-up with Kevin Harvick led to Logano’s famous declaration that Harvick’s wife, DeLana, “…wears the firesuit in the family.” This statement was placed on a women’s T-shirt which became a huge seller, a.k.a. the Alex Bowman Fool-Proof Profit Strategy.

Martinsville Speedway is like taking 36 guys who dislike each other and sticking them all in the same elevator. Close quarters makes the tempers hotter. And part two of Logano vs. Hamlin was MUCH better than the original. Hamlin did not like that pat on the shoulder, although Hamlin should have made sure Logano wasn’t killing a spider on him before retaliating. Oh well. That’s just short-track racin’.

It is unfortunate that Smoke had already started to throw hands before someone was able to warn him, “WATCH OUT, JOEY’S GOT AN EMPTY PLASTIC WATER BOTTLE.” It’s a crude weapon capable of immense physical harm. This fight also led to Stewart’s famous “Thank YOU” interview. There are so many great quotes we have thanks to Logano. He is our poetic muse.

The playoffs just turn up the heat. Logano had already advanced to the next round of the postseason, but whether deliberately or accidentally, spun out Matt Kenseth for the lead of the race. There would be no further incidents between the two.

The masterpiece. The fisticuffs to end all fisticuffs. Kyle Busch was displeased with Logano. Therefore, Busch walked a long way down pit road in order to toss a wicked right hook at Logano’s face. Then the pile formed, from which Kyle was extracted with blood on his face. Not only was it intense, but we have amazing footage of it. Couldn’t have been better if Kyle strapped on a GoPro before throwing the haymaker.