To the surprise of no one, the fallout from Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano's scuffle last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway dominated the news cycle Friday at Texas Motor Speedway.
Logano took exception to a late-race incident in which Hamlin pinched him into the wall. After discussing the matter on pit road following the race, Logano shoved Hamlin and started to walk away. When Hamlin went after Logano, crewmen stepped in to restrain him. One of Logano's crew members, tire specialist Dave Nichols Jr., was suspended for this weekend's race for slinging Hamlin to the ground.
Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin battled hard on the track.
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 27, 2019
Then, they got into each other on pit road. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/V8cl2QSwtI
"He really breeds those type of things. He's got into it with a ton of people," Hamlin said Friday. "I don't know what it is, but I certainly don't agree with it for sure."
Hamlin also blamed Logano's crew chief, Todd Gordon, for lacking control over his team, escalating the incident. And when asked if he ever thinks that Logano knows he can ruffle him, Hamlin replied: “No. He’s not that smart.”
Logano seemed to be amused by Hamlin's remarks.
“I am sure he will turn it in that way,” Logano said. “Here are the facts: I think Todd has great control of our race team and is a great crew chief and does a great job leading all of us. I said it after the race to TV that I probably shouldn’t have gone down there looking for an apology for something (Hamlin) probably wasn’t going to apologize for, and I let my emotions get the best of me. That was a mistake on my part. I probably didn’t handle that correctly.
“It doesn’t make what he did on the race track right, but I think at the same time he will probably play that card as much as he wants. He can run his mouth as much as he wants. I am going to run my race, and we will see who ends up ahead.”
Logano concedes that the fallout from such feuds can boost the sport.
“There are probably pros and cons to it either way,” Logano said. “It’s probably good for the sport. It gives lots of people things to talk about. As long at it doesn’t affect you and your race team I don’t think there are many negatives to it. I think our team is strong enough to withstand this media storm or whatever you want to call it. We can’t let something this small get to us. We all know better than that.”
The AAA Texas 500 kicks of on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.