During Sunday’s Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, Joey Logano voiced his displeasure with teammate Austin Cindric over the radio following a mix-up in the draft during the conclusion of Stage 2. As the field approached the green-white-checkered flag, Cindric appeared to hesitate in giving Logano the push he was expecting, resulting in a heated exchange from the defending champion.
“Way to go, Austin. Way to go, you (expletive)!” Logano exclaimed over his radio, clearly frustrated with the situation.
The incident unfolded as Logano pulled out of his line and in front of Cindric after exiting Turn 4, seemingly anticipating his teammate to file in line in the top lane, allowing both to ride back to the start/finish line past Bubba Wallace, who had been leading for most of the final lap. However, Cindric lifted as he approached Logano’s bumper, moving closer to the wall and disrupting their momentum. This left Logano scrambling to find help to score stage points, ultimately resulting in Wallace capturing his second stage victory of the season, while Cindric settled for third in the middle frame.
Reflecting on the incident post-race, Cindric explained, “I felt like I kind of just got pinched. I was trying not to wreck the cars in front of me, including Joey. It was a messy end of the stage that I feel like between myself, the 21, Joey could have probably done better. We let one slip there.”
He continued, “I can understand his frustration without kind of seeing the whole picture. These are the types of things that when you’re expecting someone to have your best interest, those are the challenges, right? We have a lot of meetings centered around that. I feel like it requires constant maintenance. It’s not always pretty. The conversations aren’t always easy.”
While Logano did not provide further comment on the incident after the race, he expressed satisfaction in seeing a Team Penske car ultimately end up in Victory Lane, as Cindric powered through in the final stage to secure his third career Cup Series win. However, Logano’s own result was marred by a disqualification due to spoiler violations, which negated what would have been a fifth-place finish and his best result so far in the 2025 season.
Michael Nelson, president of Team Penske’s NASCAR operations, acknowledged the challenges of maintaining strong teamwork, stating, “I think our team has done a really good job of working together as a team over the years, especially at these races. But when you see that, you realize how difficult it is behind the scenes. I guess it again proves these guys that we have, they want to win the races, right? They want to win for their team.”
Nelson emphasized the importance of addressing issues internally, comparing the situation to a family dynamic. “At the end of the day, it’s just like a normal family. We have to go in and close the door when we’re not in front of everybody else and work through the issues that we have.”
