Corey LaJoie, Ryan Preece weigh in on Joey Logano, Ricky Stenhouse wreck in Daytona 500

Joey Logano took plenty of heat coming out of the Daytona 500 after he was involved in a crash that sidelined multiple competitors, including Kyle Busch.

Logano tried to make an aggressive move to get by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and a late block sent both drivers slipping across the track. They collected multiple other cars, including Busch and Ryan Blaney.

“Joey’s getting really hammered. Joey’s getting really hammered for his portion of this wreck,” Corey LaJoie said on the Stacking Pennies podcast. “I think, OK, kind of a missed block. It’s racing, man. There was a hole. Joey poked it. And this is a little bit just kind of indecisive on the 47 too.”

Few have pinned much blame on Stenhouse for the wreck, with Joey Logano taking the lion’s share of the blame. But LaJoie seemed to give Logano some leeway.

He thought Stenhouse should have been more assertive.

“That’s one thought that I generally have is like every move you make has to be intentional, and you can’t soft-hand it,” LaJoie said. “If you’re throwing a block, you’ve got to throw it. If you’re covering a lane, you’ve got to commit to covering it no matter if you get turned or not. It seemed like the 42 (John Hunter Nemechek) was like a little bit indecisive. (Stenhouse is) kind of looking off at the 42, debating on covering the top and then the 22 had his nose in there and it’s just, you crash, man.”

Other drivers weren’t as sold that Joey Logano wasn’t at fault.

For one, the crash occurred with more than a dozen laps remaining in the race.

“Fourteen laps to go, man. It’s aggressive,” Ryan Preece said on the podcast. “I don’t know, not too aggressive, but I think like what do you expect? At that point I feel like when we’re racing in that race, you don’t expect the wreck to happen in Stage 1, you certainly don’t expect it to happen in Stage 2. But Stage 3, in the last 15… it’s typically going to happen in the last five like it did, but eh that happened a little early. But everybody’s setting themselves up to get in position for the last five.”

Even Preece offered a defense of sorts for Joey Logano.

“Joey knew that if he got there, he was going to take control of I think it was Austin (Cindric) or whoever it was in the front row,” Preece said. “Because if you’re that second car, you’re in the cat-bird seat. You are the guy that’s going to be pushing him out to be able to clear yourself and get down, it just opens up your options. If you’re in Row 3 or Row 4, you’re along (for the ride), you’re part of the band. You’re in back.”