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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Drivers Race Too Hard - Bristol Notebook
Joey Logano and Ryan Newman had some hard feelings last weekend...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted August 20, 2010   Bristol, TN
Ryan Newman and Joey Logano tangled during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Carfax 400 at Michigan International Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
DRIVERS RACING TOO HARD? — Joey Logano raised some eyebrows last weekend at Michigan when he accused Ryan Newman of “racing him too hard.” Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway, several drivers addressed Logano’s comment, saying it’s a matter of etiquette: Early in the race, if a car is much faster than the car ahead of it, it’s considered bad form for the slower car in front to hold up the faster one. In the last quarter or so of the race, it’s every man for himself. It’s a concept easily misunderstood by those outside the sport, drivers said.

“What Joey was saying is it's one of those things where you can think it and you can talk to your friends about it; you don't say that on camera,” said Jeff Gordon. “And the reason you don't say that on camera is because people don't get that. You know, fans don't get it, media don't get it. You can't say, ‘He's racing me too hard.’ What? I thought you guys were out there and supposed to race one another hard every single lap. But there's like code. It's like driver code. And what that is, is ... five laps into the race it's not very smart to go out there and chop a guy, run a guy up the race track, take a guy three-wide, and all these things.”

“It doesn’t seem right when you say it. It just sounds like you’re whining,” agreed Kyle Busch, Logano’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing. “It’s no different than when (Tony) Stewart and I got into it I think it was 2007, when he was real upset about me racing him all through the Vegas race. There was like 15 laps to go or 20 to go, and he ended up putting himself in the fence, and then after the race he was mad at me for racing him too hard. At the point in time which I raced him was the end of the race, it was after the final pit stop. You gotta get anything you can get. ... You gotta know when to race and when to race isn’t in the first half, definitely.”

Busch added that the further up front a driver is, the more courtesy others

“When you’re back 15th on back, you’re fighting for everything you got,” said Busch. “Your tongue’s hanging out every lap. But when you can run in the top-10, guys are more generous and race you a little bit better because they don’t want to take a chance in screwing your day up.”
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TWO WAYS TO LOOK AT IT — Two years ago, Carl Edwards won eight races, including three of the final four of the season. Since then, Edwards has gone winless, a streak of 59 races. And, yet, he’s prouder of what he and his No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing team have accomplished this season than what they did in 2008. In the last six NASCAR Sprint Cup races, Edwards has had an average finish of 4.00, earning more points than anyone else, despite leading only six laps all season long.

“In a way, I’m more proud of our performance these last six races than if we had a dominant car and we were out winning races, but not scoring as many points,” said Edwards. “I say that because in 2008 we won more races than anybody else. I know what that feels like. I know how the car has to be. And for us to do what we’re doing and potentially do what we could do this year, if we were to win the championship without winning any races, in a way that shows you that you’re making a lot out of maybe a car or situation that isn’t a race-winning one.”


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