Joey Logano breaks down 'tricky' teammate relationships

In his Cup Series career, Joey Logano hasn’t always been eye-to-eye with his NASCAR teammates, and that happens at times. Logano is still a relatively young driver, but his career stretches back so far he is more than a seasoned vet. Not to mention you know, his two Cup Series championships.

This week ahead of the Bristol Night Race on Saturday, Joey Logano talked about teammate relationships. Right now it seems that Team Penske has a pretty solid trio of drivers. Ryan Blaney and Logano often find themselves near one another but haven’t had many, if any major run-ins.

With all of the talk about Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson’s supposed feud, hearing a Cup driver talk about the intricacies of those relationships is interesting.

Logano was on SiriusXM Nascar Radio when the teammate topic came up.

“Honestly, driver and teammate relationship could be one of the hardest things to do. Because you have to work together to be successful and you have to race each other because you still want to win, and there’s feelings that get hurt there. Are you on my side or not? That’s the question that you ask a lot of times. Are you on my side or do you just want to beat me? And it gets kinda tricky in those scenarios. At least with other competitors you know, well they just want to beat me and they’re not out there for me at all and we don’t have to work together so screw ’em all. But with your teammate it’s different.”

Logano finished his point by saying, “Everybody wants to be a top dog in their company. Everyone wants to be the top guy, so that’s part of it too. It’s really tricky.”

🗣️ “Driver and teammate relationships could be one of the hardest things to do.” #NASCAR@joeylogano speaks on the challenges involved with racing against but working with your own teammates in motorsports.

💭 “Are you on my side or are you not?” @Team_Penske pic.twitter.com/BctlS9Sq4C

— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) September 14, 2023

This weekend, Joey Logano might need his teammate’s help.

Joey Logano needs to turn things around

If the 22 wants to repeat his championship, then he needs to get into gear. Then again, I might be overreacting. Last season, Logano finished P4 at Darlington and P17 at Kansas. This season, he’s been P12 and P5, respectively. In fact, he was P27 at Bristol a season ago.

Looking at him in 11th overall just 12 points above the cutline, doesn’t give me comfort, though. His teammate Ryan Blaney is a little more safe in 6th overall, 25 points up on the line. One popped tire, one spin, bent toe link, anything, and they could be out of the picture.

The good news is that Bristol is surely going to mess up more than one playoff driver’s day. It just is. In reality, the only drivers that are “safe” are the two that have won races, Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick, and the next two in points, Denny Hamlin and William Byron. At 49 and 41 points above the line each, they should be “locked” into the Round of 12.

Martin Truex Jr. had a 32-point swing last week after being a DNF on Lap 4. So, what kind of performance can we expect from Joey Logano on Saturday? He’s won at Bristol in the past but hasn’t had the best luck as of late. He might be sweating it out by the end of the Bristol Night Race.