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A late run-in between Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. led to some pointed post-race discussion Sunday at Auto Club Speedway.
The fallout: A warning from Truex that the two will race against each other on different terms from now on, and a jolting insult from the Twitter account of Truex’s crew chief Cole Pearn, who would later issue an apology.
Truex, who led 21 laps and spent most of the day among the top five, was in a close contest with Logano in the 150th of 205 laps. Both ran the high groove entering Turn 1 on the 2-mile track, and Truex’s Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota wiggled into the outside retaining wall — the driver claiming contact from Logano’s Team Penske No. 22 Ford.
Truex drove on, but faded before making a pit stop four laps later. A caution flag emerged while he was on pit road, catching him out of cycle. After absorbing a pit road-speeding penalty and damage to his No. 78 entry, Truex limped to a 32nd-place finish, one lap down.
“How did the air get taken off if he was behind me? He just ran me over,” Truex told Motor Racing Network in his post-race interview. “It’s ridiculous. We had a great car all day and (I) hate for my guys we’ve got nothing to show for it. I don’t know why he was trying to fake me out. Just pass me. He just screwed up. He knows he screwed up, and I’m going to race him differently from now on.”
Logano finished fourth, leading twice for three laps. During the race, Logano’s spotter apologized to Truex’s spotter; afterward, Logano accepted his share of the blame, though he claimed the two cars did not make contact.
“It was completely my fault,” Logano said. “I was gonna go in on the outside of him and he was gonna go in on the top, as well, and I just ended up being right on him. We never touched each other, but just taking the air off these cars makes them uncontrollable. I didn’t mean to do that. I was gonna try to go to the top and I just got a little bit close to him and got him free, so I’m taking the hit on that one.”
The post-race discussion between the two drivers didn’t escalate further, but the debate took a scalding upturn after a tweet from Pearn, the No. 78 crew chief. Pearn returned to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series garage this weekend after serving a one-race suspension for technical infractions.
Well I guess you shouldn’t tweet when you’re mad. My apologies for being over the line.
— Cole Pearn (@colepearn) March 21, 2016