Joey Logano holds back to avoid leaking ‘private information’ amid the Austin Cindric saga

During Sunday's 'Jack Link's 500' event at the Talladega Superspeedway, Joey Logano let the expletives fly towards the final lap of stage two, after his teammate, Austin Cindric, didn't back him up and help push him to win the stage. Speaking on his podcast, the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series champion revealed that he spoke with his teammate later, and cleared things up between them.

In the final lap of Stage Two of the Talladega event, Logano was battling Bubba Wallace for the stage win, and he headed into the top lane. The driver then expected Austin Cindric to push him, but the eventual race winner had to lift, abandoning his teammate. This allowed Wallace to secure the win of stage two and caused the #22 driver to go off on his teammate on the radio.

Speaking on his podcast 'Behind The Wheel', Joey Logano shared that he spoke with his fellow Team Penske driver later and explained his side of things.

“I explained my side, he understood, we move on," Logano said. "That’s pretty much all there is to it. There’s no sense of airing our dirty laundry, and airing out what the actual rules are, cause that’s private information and that doesn’t need to be out to everybody. But, the facts are that what we set in place wasn’t happening. That’s why I got frustrated.”

His battle with Bubba Wallace and subsequent radio message weren't the only problems facing Joey Logano. After he crossed the line to score a fifth-place finish, a post-race inspection revealed that his #22 car was missing a spoiler bolt. This caused an immediate disqualification, sending him into 39th-place in the race results, which marked the fifth time that he has had a last-place finish in his Cup Series career.

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"I can understand his frustration": Austin Cindric speaks out on Joey Logano's frustrated radio message

Austin Cindric (2) and driver Joey Logano (22) during the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, February 20th 2022- Source: Imagn

After he crossed the line to take victory at the Superspeedway, Austin Cindric shared that he can sympathize with Joey Logano's irritation after losing out on the stage win. Cindric explained that his teammate's reaction was understandable since he was expecting the #2 driver to support him during the battle with Wallace.

"I can understand his frustration without kind of seeing the whole picture. These are the types of things that when you’re expecting someone to have your best interest, those are the challenges, right?"

On the Team Penske front, Cindric also divulged that these situations are always talked about in internal meetings.

“We have a lot of meetings centred around that. I feel like it requires constant maintenance. It’s not always pretty. The conversations aren’t always easy.” [via Crash.net]

Joey Logano's season has been rocky as the defending champion, scoring a single top 10 finish so far, he is currently No. 11 in the standings with only 36 points between him and being eliminated from playoff contention.