Joey Logano blasts ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith for comments critical of NASCAR drivers as athletes

Stephen A. Smith made some enemies in the NASCAR world recently when he claimed that racecar drivers are not athletes. His take quickly hit the industry airwaves, and the sport at large fired back in various forms.

For driver Joey Logano, this was nothing new. He’s seen the ESPN personality make the claim before.

“Yeah. Yeah. I wasn’t surprised,” Logano told Frontstretch. “He’s said it before. Listen, I think people like that have to make comments to stay relevant, right? I mean that’s part of their game. They’ve got to make big moments and things so people watch. So he got exactly what he wanted, right? He got you talking about, he got the whole industry talking about it and now he’s relevant.”

The comments from Stephen A. Smith blew up across the Internet this week. Just about everyone in the sport seemed to get in on the action, clowning him in various ways.

Front Row Motorsports mocked Stephen A. Smith’s signature delivery and issued a challenge to the ESPN star. Come get in the racecar and see what it’s like.

On Sunday’s broadcast of the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega, FOX Sports broadcaster Mike Joy got in on the action. He didn’t even name Smith.

“Earlier this week a well-known online pundit said racecar drivers are not athletes,” Joy said. “I want to send him this sequence and ask him to think about it.”