Elton Sawyer remarks on Joey Logano penalty: 'He knows better'

Following the NASCAR race at Richmond last Sunday, Joey Logano made a poor decision to go on pit road and burn his tires at Austin Dillon’s pit box. The big issue, his wrecked race car was within feet of Dillon’s family and friends, including small children.

Pit road should be respected regardless of who is on it. Children shouldn’t be on a hot pit road, and no one who isn’t a crew member or driver should either. However, in this case, there were people on pit road.

Joey Logano went around other cars, came close to pit crew members, and then got close enough to Dillon’s group that they jumped back away from his car. Logano was in a wrecked race car, didn’t know what was working or broken on it, and made a dumb move.

NASCAR senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer, spoke on the $50,000 penalty to Logano while on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. As a veteran and champion, it is disappointing to see Logano act out in that way.

“That’s exactly right and totally understand the emotion of what went on there, and Joey’s a champion,” Sawyer explained. “He knows better. We just had, there’s too many people out there, which is something on our side, we’ve got to do a better job of making sure we’re protecting, you know, our fans that are there, our families, the kids.

“Even with them behind the hot side, we still have security, we still have our NASCAR officials out there. So, it’s in the comms every week that goes out to the race teams that as you’re coming down pit road postrace and we’re capturing all the cars, to be careful, and obviously, this was one, and we’ve been consistent with this call on pit road and that’s why the penalty rose to the level it did for Joey.”

When Joey Logano went down pit road and did that burnout, the penalty was locked in. We have seen drivers react similarly on pit road. It’s a no-no. NASCAR does not take the safety on pit road lightly. There is too much that can go wrong.

NASCAR has rules for pit road for a reason. When driving heavy stock cars you have to know the risks. That includes the risks of your own actions.

Joey Logano knows he messed up. A NASCAR official ran to him and chewed him out immediately after he did what he did. A $50,000 penalty will have him acting better moving forward.