Larry McReynolds enters Joey Logano, William Byron debate, sends warning

William Byron was not happy with Joey Logano following this past Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Larry McReynolds believes it’s a bit of misplaced frustration from the Hendrick Motorsports star.

The Charlotte native led 283-of-400 laps, but then he was beaten to the checkered flag by Ross Chastain. Lapped traffic made his life difficult, especially when he came up on Logano. The three-time champion moved all around the racetrack, refusing to make it easy for Byron. That allowed Chastain to get a run coming out of Turns 3 and 4 and make the race-winning pass on Lap 395.

Afterwards, an obviously frustrated Byron stated his belief that Logano might have cost him the race: “He [Logano] was doing the usual,” the Hendrick star said, via Frontstretch. “What I didn’t like was he just kept moving around [Turns] 3 and 4. I don’t know what he was doing. Really, I think, was in traffic a lot that run. The 45 [Tyler Reddick] was running hard, and we lost a chunk there. It all just kind of added up.”

That comment didn’t sit well with McReynolds. The NASCAR personality let Byron know that hard racing is more than fair on the racetrack, even if Logano was fighting to avoid going another lap down.

“You don’t want to get me started on this. I’ll take you off the air and I’ll have to come back next week,” McReynolds stated, via Door Bumper Clear. “Maybe it’s because I’m old school. Maybe it’s because of how long I’ve been here. Maybe it’s because of the drivers I worked with, like Davey Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Ernie Irvan. I have zero tolerance when I hear a driver talk about another driver racing him hard.

“Really, he raced you hard? That’s a shame, he shouldn’t do that, should he? Joey Logano did nothing wrong. He was trying to stay on the lead lap because you know what? If the caution comes out, then he’s able to come in, get four fresh tires and he maybe can get a much better finish than he had.

“Remember, Denny Hamlin was in the mix too, because he came out right in front of William. He was right there with Joey Logano. With that said, Joey Logano did nothing wrong. But the next time somebody’s out front of Joey Logano in the same situation, I don’t want to hear Joey Logano complaining about it.”

As you can tell, this is a topic Larry McReynolds is passionate about, and he’s using it as a teaching moment for William Byron. What he said was in the heat of the moment, after a crown jewel win slipped out from under him. We’ll see if he changes his tune as cooler heads prevail in the future.