Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano has said there is not a fix for the issue that forced his retirement from Saturday night’s race at Atlanta.
After receiving contact whilst racing in a tight pack, Denny Hamlin catalysed a huge wreck at EchoPark Speedway, collecting almost half of the 40-car field and forcing several drivers to retire with damage.
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Amongst those drivers was championship leader William Byron and defending champion Logano, who was more philosophical than the Hendrick Motorsports star on the incident.
Speaking post-race, the Team Penske star felt it was part and parcel with speedway racing and that such wrecks cannot be avoided when cars are running so close.
“I mean, it’s one of those things that you know when you are out there in the pack, you have no idea how we don’t wreck more often,” Logano told FOX Sports.
“It’s incredible we don’t wreck more often, but it’s just part of it [speedway racing] sometimes.”
“There’s no way of fixing it, it’s just part of everybody being on top of each other.”
Joey Logano eliminated from In-Season Challenge
In the end, Logano was officially classified 36th in Saturday’s race, but the result has had an impact on his chances of success this season.
Having previously made it clear that he was one of the drivers who valued the In-Season Challenge and the $1 million prize that came with it, he suffered a first-round elimination as a result of his DNF on Saturday.
Prior to the action in Atlanta, he said: “If there’s something to win, you want to go win it.”
The challenge pairs up two drivers on a knockout basis over the course of five races, with the field reduced to 16 for the next race in Chicago.
Logano lost out to Alex Bowman in round one, who managed to escape the lap 69 chaos and claim third place on Saturday night.
