MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Martin Truex Jr. hasn’t forgotten about that heated last lap with Joey Logano at Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 28.
He said he’ll race him differently than Championship 4 drivers Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick in Sunday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). But the question remains, would he move Logano out of the way for the lead with the title on the line?
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“Absolutely,” Truex said on Thursday at Championship 4 Media Day. “I have a free pass, he already told me that. Told me it’s fair game, so here we go.”
The two may have different interpretations of their conversation following Logano’s bump on Truex that awarded Logano’s No. 22 the race win and an automatic Championship 4 berth.
“I didn’t tell him that,” Logano said with a slight laugh when asked if Truex had a pass to knock him out of the way for the lead.
“I said, ‘Hey, I expect to get raced the way I race people and I’m a hard racer and I expect to get raced hard,” he continued. “I’ve said it before, we didn’t crash each other, I didn’t crash him. I moved him up enough to have a drag race. … there’s so much on the line in these situations and if you don’t make a move like that, you’re going to go back to your race team and I know if I worked on that car, I’d be mad.
“I’d say, ‘Why didn’t you at least try to win?'”
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The Logano incident is not at the front of Truex’s mind heading into the weekend, as he looks to defend his 2017 title. But with the chaotic nature of the NASCAR Playoffs, it may end up playing a role.
“I’m not approaching this race any differently because of that,” Truex said. “… But I’ll still remember what happened and I’ll use it to my advantage this weekend.”