Joey Logano discusses lashing out at teammate Austin Cindric, Chipper Jones' criticism

"Way to go, Austin. Way to go, you (expletive)!"

Those were some of the comments Team Penske's Joey Logano made following the conclusion of Stage 2 in Sunday's Cup Series race at Talladega. The Austin he is referring to is teammate Austin Cindric, who went on to win the race, while Logano dropped from fifth to 39th after a post-race disqualification for a spoiler violation.

The frustration from Logano stemmed from the way the finish to the stage played out. As Logano pulled out of line exiting Turn 4, Cindric instead chose to lift and pull to the outside of his teammate. 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace won the stage, while Cindric was third and Logano scrambled to salvage any points he could.

After the race, Cindric said, "I felt like I kind of just got pinched." He also said he could understand Logano's frustration "without kind of seeing the whole picture."

On Tuesday, Logano made an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. While he said the two have spoken and moved forward, he discussed the manufacturer and team rules that are in place on superspeedways and what made him so frustrated in the moment.

"The rules that were set in place weren't followed, and that ticked me off quite a bit because I feel like I've always done the right thing and I try really hard to do that," Logano said.

The defending champion took issue with Cindric's move, saying, "It wasn't the first offense kind of situation." He continued, "Should I have hit the button and spouted off so much? Probably not. It probably blew up into a litter bigger situation than what it needed to, but the conversation either way needed to happen. Like I said, I care about this stuff. This is my life. Racing is everything."

Another storyline that emerged from Logano's radio outburst was what former Atlanta Braves star Chipper Jones had to say about the situation. Among other critiques of Logano, Jones said, "Good teammates are hard to come by."

Logano first heard of the comments on Tuesday during his appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio as part of his busy schedule that also included a trip to North Wilkesboro Speedway — the site of the All-Star race on May 18 — to promote the event.

While at the track, Logano said, "I have no clue" regarding what started the backlash and that the two have never met before. Logano made it clear that he was "surprised" by Jones' actions.

"It's surprising to me. All I can think is he's just trying to be relevant still or something like that. I don't really know exactly why. Like I said, I've never met him. I don't have a reason to dislike him outside of now, but oh well. Guess I'm not rooting for the Braves anytime soon. I don't know what to tell you."

As frustrating as the stage 2 conclusion was for Logano, his post-race DQ certainly did nothing to lessen the emotions. Before the penalty, Logano moved up to eighth in the standings after scoring his second top-10 finish of the season. After the post-race issue, Logano lost 40 points and fell down to 11th in points, compounding what has already been a lackluster 2025 season.

Logano and the Cup Series field head to Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, where the series will tackle its third 1.5-mile track of the season. After the fallout from Talladega, a solid, mistake-free day would be a step in the right direction for the three-time champion.