The past week, Joey Logano has been juggling the mental effects of being in the limelight for the wrong reasons.
Last Saturday, NASCAR discovered that Logano and Team Penske illegally used a fully webbed left glove during Cup Series qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway in an attempt to block the air coming through the window net.
Despite qualifying second, Logano was sent to the rear of the field and had to serve a pass-through penalty during the Ambetter Health 400 to make up for the competition infraction.
On Tuesday, NASCAR also delivered a $10,000 fine as the webbed glove was not SFI approved and thus was a violation of NASCAR’s standard for safety equipment.
“It was hard to go through and embarrassing for sure, but the fact we got through it, we can just move on and focus on the next week,” Logano said. “As a driver, you work with the team and, hey, I’m gonna take a portion of responsibility of that too, obviously. I should. I put the glove on. I didn’t build the glove or make it on my own.
“I can’t sew, but that’s what it was. We had conversations about it.”
Logano has not confirmed whether or not the team used the webbed glove during qualifying at the season-opening Daytona Int’l Speedway, where he earned pole position in his No. 22 Ford. The altered glove first popped up on NASCAR’s radar during a review of in-car camera footage at Atlanta.
During media conferences at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon, Logano maintained that use of the glove was not an unsafe decision.
“I would never have put myself in a situation where I feel unsafe. I have kids. I have a wife. I have a family that I care way more about than race cars, so, no, I didn’t feel concerned about what we did. I didn’t race with it,” Logano said.
He also shared that, at the end of the day, he didn’t believe the glove’s webbing provided much of a competitive advantage — which made the penalty all the more frustrating.
“It isn’t even worth it. It didn’t do anything to speak of. It’s directionally an area that everybody goes to try to block that hole. You see everyone put their hand there. We just tried to cover more space,” Logano explained.
Whether it made a difference or not is unknown.
Following the conclusion of the glove saga, the 2022 Cup Series champion shook it off and landed on pole position during qualifying as Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday. He will start this weekend’s Pennzoil 400 on the front row.
“I really didn’t think after the first round we had a chance of putting it on the pole, so I’m proud of the adjustments that we made there. We’ve got some work to do tonight, for sure, but the first pit stall is nice,” Logano said.
The Pennzoil 400 will commence at 2:30 p.m. (ET) on Sunday.