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Joey Logano Gets Candid About NASCAR Fans: I’m ‘Misunderstood A Lot’

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
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Joey Logano

A native of Middletown, Connecticut, Joey Logano naturally considers New Hampshire Motor Speedway his home track.

After all, among current NASCAR Cup Series tracks, NHMS is by far the closest to where the Team Penske driver grew up. How far away is it from Logano’s old stomping grounds?

Try not even three hours.

So, it came as little surprise on Saturday when Logano received an overwhelmingly warm reception from the fans in attendance after winning the pole for Sunday’s race. Logano, though, isn’t accustomed to such broad-based support.

In fact, the three-time and reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion has quite a few haters out there. And he addressed that reality moments after Saturday’s pole run.

Joey Logano Opens Up About People Who Don’t Like Him

No different than Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt before him, Joey Logano is despised by a segment of NASCAR fans for simply winning too much.

And from pretty much the first day he joined NASCAR’s premier series in 2009, Logano has never shied away from controversy. The list of drivers he’s feuded with over the years is a long one. It includes current Cup Series drivers Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. It also includes former stars of the sport like Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman.

These confrontations, coupled with Logano’s aggressive driving style and sustained success, make it not too shocking that some fans of the sport love to loathe him. Logano, of course, is well aware of this.

But unlike Hamlin and Busch, who seem to relish not being everyone’s proverbial cup of tea, Logano would rather not be reviled by a significant chunk of the NASCAR fan base.

“I don’t understand it, because I don’t know why,” Logano, speaking Saturday at NHMS, said of the animosity he often gets from fans. “I wish I understood why a little bit more.”

Continuing on that same subject, Logano bore his soul a bit.

“I feel like I’m misunderstood a lot of times,” he said. “I think the industry knows me really well and the kind of person I am.”

For Logano, fan perception — at least most of the time — tends to be different, however.

“I don’t know if all the fans understand the kind of person I am or don’t understand how you can race one way and be happy all the other times,” he said. “It doesn’t add up.”

Reigning Cup Series Champ Tries Not To Let Haters Drown Out Supporters

On occasions like Saturday at New Hampshire, Joey Logano is reminded that fan sentiment toward him is not all negative. He has plenty of supporters, too.

“There is a lot of 22 fans out there,” the driver of the yellow No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil-sponsored Ford said after capturing the pole. “As a society, we focus too much on the haters. We just do that in general. And a lot of times it’s just louder than cheers. But when you look at whatever it is — sales in the merch haulers or if you just look in the grandstands — there’s a lot of yellow stuff out there. There’s a lot of Shell/Pennzoil stuff out there.

“Although we do talk about about the haters too much, there’s a lot of 22 fans out there. And I’m happy to have every one of them.”

Logano feels especially embraced at New Hampshire, a track he knew very well long before going Cup racing.

“It is neat when I do come to Loudon, because I am representing, I feel like, everyone who lives around here,” Logano said. “I feel like you’ve got to root for the hometown guy. You’ve got to do that. And it’s fun to enjoy that piece of it.”

Logano then joked that when the Cup Series shows up at New Hampshire, he can relate to 15-time NASCAR most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Before retiring from full-time competition in 2017, Earnhardt received fan approval just about everywhere. So it is for Logano whenever he’s at New Hampshire.

Unfortunately for him, though, NHMS has just one annual date on the Cup Series schedule.

“It’s the only time I ever feel a little bit like Dale Jr.,” Logano said. “Just a little bit.

“It’s super-cool. It’s really neat to be Dale Jr., I’ve learned.”

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
Jared Turner is a motorsports writer who has covered NASCAR for 20 years. He has interviewed over 20 NASCAR Hall of Famers and around 100 drivers, crew chiefs, and team owners, both past and present. He has also covered the sport for FOX Sports (where he was a two-time recipient of the FOX “X” Award for “Xtraordinary” job performance), NASCAR.com, Sporting News, NASCAR Pole Position Magazine, the SPEED network, and plenty of other online and print-only publications throughout his career. Notably, Jared has penned dozens of articles for NASCAR souvenir programs, including several featured prominently in Daytona 500 keepsakes. A Virginia Press Association award winner and former member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Jared has racked up accolades both for his writing and his academic work. He studied both Communication and Psychology at Virginia Tech, where he was permanently enshrined in Phi Beta Kappa — the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. Jared excels at feature writing and opinion writing, much of which stems from his dedication to all levels of racing.
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