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Joey Logano said Kyle Larson “did wiggle below the line” on his last-lap charge to win at Talladega Superspeedway, and may have forced Austin Hill below it too, but said NASCAR made the right call by letting the win stand because Larson gained no advantage.
Logano spoke in a video interview with FOX Sports’ SPEED channel posted after Sunday’s YellaWood 500, in which he flipped onto his roof in a crash with five laps left.
‘He did wiggle below the line’
“Gosh, that’s such a tough call,” Logano said. “I mean, that’s tough, right? Like he kind of wiggled below. He did wiggle below the line, right? I mean, he did, but did that make the difference of him winning the race? No, right.”
“I think that’s kind of where NASCAR has got to use a little bit of common sense. And they did.”
“We’re like, did he go below the double-yellow? Well, it’s pretty clear to say he did, right? There’s pictures that say he did, but was he able to pass the car because of that? It did not create an advantage.”
NASCAR’s view differs from Logano’s on that point. NASCAR told The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck that Larson’s left-side tires were on the yellow line but never below it.
The Austin Hill move
Logano also raised the same second question Denny Hamlin did: whether Larson forced Austin Hill below the line off Turn 2 on the final lap.
“I mean, you can make the same argument off a Turn 2 with the 33,” Logano said. “Did he force a 33 below the yellow line? Kinda, right? You can kind of say he might have, right.”
“He kind of forced him below it, but he was wiggling and trying to catch the car. And then they kind of were just trying not to wreck. So sometimes the black and white rule isn’t so black and white in racing.”
‘I think they got it right’
Logano said a strict reading of the rules would have gone against Larson twice, but that neither move was intentional.
“I think NASCAR got the calls right. Being clear, I think they got it right. But if you wanted to be the person that was black and white, you’d say he went below the double-yellow. He forced someone below double-yellow. You would say that. But I don’t think it was like a malicious thing, and it wasn’t trying to gain an advantage in any way.”
Logano’s own race
Logano, who drives for Team Penske, won Stage 2 but finished 34th after he spun off Carson Hocevar’s bumper in the tri-oval, hit the outside wall and slid across the start-finish line on his roof. He climbed out after safety workers turned the car over. He is fifth in the Chase standings, 100 points behind Larson, with races left at Martinsville Speedway on November 1 and Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 8.
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