Logano accepts fairness of Talladega penalty: ‘We still have to own up to what happened there’

Joey Logano understands that while it was a mistake that caused his disqualification last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, the team needed to accept the penalty.

Logano crossed the finish line to place fifth in the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega, and originally earned 41 points. He had scored points in the stages and through his overall finish. It would have been Logano’s first top-five finish of the season.

But his No. 22 Ford Mustang was found to have a missing nut on a bolt that secures the spoiler in post-race inspection. Because he was disqualified, Logano was moved to last in the running order, 39th, and only given one point for competing in the event.

There are “a lot of bad things” that come with the penalty, the reigning series champion said this week. And all of them will have an impact as the series moves to Texas Motor Speedway (Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET) and beyond.

“Team Penske, we’re not the people who blatantly are going to go out there and cheat,” Logano said. “It’s not who we are. It was a mistake that essentially, the nut came off the bolt back there on the (spoiler) brace, and the bolt was still in there. It does cause a little deflection, I’m sure, on the spoiler. Does it give you a competitive advantage? I’m sure it does a little bit. Did it change where we finished in the race? No, because everyone is locked down too wide, so it doesn’t make a difference.

“But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s not by the rule. So, you’ve got to accept the penalty.”

Team Penske elected not to appeal. In a statement, the organization emphasized it was not an intentional act and the nut had come off during the race.

Logano, off a third Cup Series championship in 2024, is winless and statistically struggling. Although the team has had speed, particularly on the superspeedways, he has one top-10 finish in 12 races. His average finish is 19.7.

The penalty dropped him to 11th in the overall championship standings. Logano would have been eighth leaving Talladega Superspeedway had the disqualification not happened.

“The penalty, it hurts. There’s no doubt,” Logano said. “It’s a 40-point penalty, the way I look at it. That’s what we got for points … Not to mention the financial impact as well for (going from) fifth to last. So, there’s a pretty big impact there. And the image of it is not good either. So, you’ve got to navigate that, too. It’s not ideal by no means.

“I had the analogy earlier (on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), it’s the same thing if you were to wreck someone and say you’re sorry. It makes it a little bit better, but it doesn’t change the result. The same thing here. We made a mistake — the nut came off, we’re sorry, we didn’t mean to — but it doesn’t change the result. We still have to own up to what happened there. All we can do now is understand the process of how it happened, create a new process to make sure it doesn’t happen again, and move forward. That’s all we can do.”