NASCAR insiders question Joey Logano frustration towards Christopher Bell after All-Star Race

Tonight, following the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, Joey Logano was not happy with how Christopher Bell raced him. But why? Bell appeared to be racing cleanly as he used his four fresh tires to get the advantage over Logano, who stayed out at the last caution.

Christopher Bell went on to win the race tonight after the promoter’s caution allowed him to pit. With Kyle Larson getting into the wall and nursing an ill-handling car, that final caution was likely going to come out for cause or, as it actually happened, by Marcus Smith’s hand.

Whether he was actually mad at Bell for how he raced him, or was upset about the promoter’s caution, or just upset about losing the race remains to be seen. But Logano had a few interesting comments after the race that had a few people scratching their heads.

Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic talked about the three-time champ’s comments. Was Joey Logano out of line?

“Logano gets out the car and he’s like, ‘Oh, he was going to go around. I was going to send him. The move he did,’ all this stuff,” Gluck said on The Teardown podcast. “It was like Logano was outraged or incensed, it seemed like, that Bell had done this. … I’m just like, what? I don’t understand what I’m watching here. Did I miss something? Because I feel like Logano raced him plenty hard, moved him up the track. And like, Bell, I thought Bell raced totally fine. Am I missing something? What happened here?”

“No, I didn’t understand that either because I walked over to Logano and I heard the end of his comments and I’m like, ‘What did I miss? What did I miss?’ Like, Bell didn’t do anything,” Bianchi responded. “Honestly, I think Bell raced pretty darn clean, all things considered. In a non-points race where it’s kind of excused of you’re going to move people around, and it’s okay to spin somebody out. I don’t think Bell did anything wrong. Bell, all things considered, raced him fairly clean, and let’s be honest, if the shoe is on the other foot, Logano would have done the same exact thing as Bell.

“There’s a long enough history to suggest that, and that’s not a criticism. That’s who Joey Logano is; that’s why he’s a three-time champion in a lot of respects. Like, I don’t know how you can be critical of how Christopher Bell raced. He raced you fair, he raced you hard, but he didn’t do you dirty. He didn’t push you into the wall, he didn’t spin you out. Like, he didn’t just move you up the race track aggressively. All things considered, that was very on the up and up.”

Honestly, it did look like a clean pass from Christopher Bell. Other drivers were much more aggressive when attempting passes and leaning on each other in the corners. Joey Logano lost the race, he’s going to be upset about it. But I think if he watches this race back, he will see that it wasn’t as dirty at the end as he may have thought.