By Jeff Wolf
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Joey Logano stomped down pit road Sunday at Pocono to voice his anger to Kevin Harvick. He thought Harvick shouldn't have clipped him at the end of the Sprint Cup race at Long Pond, Pa.
It was good to see Logano, a baby-faced 20-year-old, stand up to the veteran racer. It's just too bad he first was prodded and then propped up by his father, Tom Logano.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
It was good to see Logano, a baby-faced 20-year-old, stand up to the veteran racer. It's just too bad he first was prodded and then propped up by his father, Tom Logano.
Were it not for the elder Logano behaving like an overbearing Little League parent, the only bad thing that could have happened would have been for Harvick to smack the angry young driver. But even that wouldn't have been so bad for Logano. It would have made him a sympathetic figure.
Logano, the second-year Cup driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, is talented and a good guy. Very likable. The only tarnish on his resume has been his father's behavior. For the second time in a year, Tom Logano stalked onto center stage and cast his son into the shadows.
The Logano Old Enough to Know Better seemed to encourage his son to confront Harvick. He pushed a TV reporter and a member of Joey's crew to help Joey get to Harvick. In October, the senior Logano confronted Greg Biffle after a Nationwide Series race because he didn't like the way Biffle raced his son.
Family members should not be allowed on pit road during a race unless they have working roles with a team. And that role shouldn't be instigator or defender.
Joey's only mistake came moments after the pit road flare-up, when he quipped in a TV interview that, "It's probably not (Harvick's) fault. His wife wears the firesuit in the family, tells him what to do, so it's probably not his fault."
Logano should be more concerned about who wears the firesuit in his family.
DeLana Harvick, Kevin's wife, does wear a firesuit when sitting with her husband's crew chief atop the pitbox. All wives or girlfriends sitting in that spot probably should, too, for safety reasons and to get sponsors a couple of more hits instead of simply looking fashionable.
DeLana Harvick is an active partner in the Kevin Harvick Inc. racing operation that fields teams in NASCAR's Nationwide and truck series. The teams have won 30 races and two championships.
DeLana responded quickly on Twitter to Logano's comment.
"With age comes wisdom & respect...Enough said," she tweeted.
She followed up Monday and drilled an intended brush-back pitch for a home run. She turned Logano's flippant comment into a fundraising effort by offering T-shirts emblazoned with "I wear the firesuit in this family" for $15 at KevinHarvick.com. Proceeds will go to charity.
Logano needs to learn that before he was born, DeLana Harvick was attending NASCAR races with her late father, John Paul Linville, who competed in the Nationwide (then Busch) Series from 1982 to 1990.
As the daughter of a grass-roots racer and one who learned the sport through osmosis, she understands it as well as anyone else her age -- male or female.
She has earned -- not been given -- a position as one of the most successful women in NASCAR.
She has forgotten more about the inner workings of NASCAR and racing than Logano's father knows.
Logano, the second-year Cup driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, is talented and a good guy. Very likable. The only tarnish on his resume has been his father's behavior. For the second time in a year, Tom Logano stalked onto center stage and cast his son into the shadows.
The Logano Old Enough to Know Better seemed to encourage his son to confront Harvick. He pushed a TV reporter and a member of Joey's crew to help Joey get to Harvick. In October, the senior Logano confronted Greg Biffle after a Nationwide Series race because he didn't like the way Biffle raced his son.
Family members should not be allowed on pit road during a race unless they have working roles with a team. And that role shouldn't be instigator or defender.
Joey's only mistake came moments after the pit road flare-up, when he quipped in a TV interview that, "It's probably not (Harvick's) fault. His wife wears the firesuit in the family, tells him what to do, so it's probably not his fault."
Logano should be more concerned about who wears the firesuit in his family.
DeLana Harvick is an active partner in the Kevin Harvick Inc. racing operation that fields teams in NASCAR's Nationwide and truck series. The teams have won 30 races and two championships.
DeLana responded quickly on Twitter to Logano's comment.
"With age comes wisdom & respect...Enough said," she tweeted.
She followed up Monday and drilled an intended brush-back pitch for a home run. She turned Logano's flippant comment into a fundraising effort by offering T-shirts emblazoned with "I wear the firesuit in this family" for $15 at KevinHarvick.com. Proceeds will go to charity.
Logano needs to learn that before he was born, DeLana Harvick was attending NASCAR races with her late father, John Paul Linville, who competed in the Nationwide (then Busch) Series from 1982 to 1990.
As the daughter of a grass-roots racer and one who learned the sport through osmosis, she understands it as well as anyone else her age -- male or female.
She has earned -- not been given -- a position as one of the most successful women in NASCAR.
She has forgotten more about the inner workings of NASCAR and racing than Logano's father knows.
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