Two-time NASCAR Cup champion Joey Logano doesn’t seem to catch a break in the NASCAR unofficial season opener, the LA Clash at the Colosseum. Logano has come out of the race for the second straight year to beef with one of its fellow racers. Last year, it was Kyle Busch, and this year, it’s Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs.
Logano, who won the inaugural LA clash, was one of the contenders for the win on Saturday alongside Ty Gibbs, who had the best car on the day. The duo shared some battle throughout the race, with Logano outsmarting Gibbs on a restart in the first half and Gibbs returning the favors in the second restart later.
But with just ten laps left in the race, the duo lined up for another re-start, and Gibbs committed a rookie mistake this time. He ran Logano off in the first corner and, in the process, lost the position to teammate Denny Hamlin, who went on to win the race, holding off a charge from former teammate Kyle Busch with RCR.
Logano went to Gibbs’s house after the race to publicly confront him and insisted on doing it outside despite being asked to discuss it privately. The veteran had a heated discussion with the No:54 Toyota Camry driver, and they couldn’t end it with an agreement as Logano wasn’t buying the points made by the Team Penske racer. At the end of the confrontation, Gibbs even reminded Logano of his hyper-aggressive race style from the past.
Ty Gibbs discusses what went wrong at LA Clash
The young JGR driver who won the Rookie of the Season award addressed the media to discuss the confrontation. He pointed out that Logano was mad at him for the incident but insisted that it was just hard racing. Gibbs described the incident as Logano coming over and saying different words to him.
Just mad that I ran him up. But if you go back and look at the replay, the 12 kind of chucks him out of the way too. So, it’s just hard racing at the end. This place is really hard to get your tires warm once the caution comes out as we see everybody sliding around. I just got in there deep and washed up on them and we just kind of got all tangled up after that. So he just came over and said that to me in a bunch of different words.
Ty Gibbs told Fox Sports.
The TRD driver’s performance on Saturday proved that he will be a contender for wins in many races this season and will be a driver to look up to. Logano has also confirmed that the veterans won’t go easy on Gibbs in the 2024 season if he makes such errors.
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