Kyle Busch, Joey Logano reignite rivalry ahead of 2023 season
Last Sunday during the Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum, former teammates and longtime rivals Kyle Busch and Joey Logano joined the FOX Sports booth and exchanged pleasantries ahead of the 150-lap main event.
Mere hours later, the two tangled under the primetime lights as Logano’s No. 22 Ford spun Busch in his new No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on Lap 86. Busch rebounded quickly in the closing laps to land on the podium with a third-place finish, but it didn’t stop the 37-year-old from speaking his mind on the incident.
“It’s really unfortunate to be raced by guys who are so two-faced,” Busch said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “We were in the TV booth earlier in the night together and when we were all done with that he was like ‘hey man, good luck tonight.’ I’m like ‘OK, great. Thanks. Yeah … whatever,’ and then lo and behold, there you go, he wrecks me. Don’t even talk to me if you’re gonna be that kind of a–hole on the race track.”
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On Monday, Logano took the blame for the incident, saying that he overdrove the corner and got loose, but said it was an accident and that he accepts being called “two-faced.”
“Am I sorry? Yes, I am. Am I two-faced? Yes, I am. Do I think anything’s wrong with that? No, I don’t.” Logano said on SiriusXM’s “Behind the Wheel” show. “That’s where I’m at with it. I’ve heard Kyle say it before that I’m two-faced and that’s fine. I have a switch that I flip when it is time to go racing. I am out there to win and yes, I have to do what I gotta do to win. I made a mistake. I didn’t want to do that [in reference to Busch spin] but I’m still gonna be an intense racer no matter what.
“Luckily, I know how to shut that off when I get out of the race car and in Kyle’s words, ‘I’m not a complete a-hole all the time.’ That’s better than being an a-hole 100% of the time. At least it’s only when I’m in the race car. I have a job to do. I’m representing a lot of people that work really hard on my race car and they expect me to go out there and win.”
Their incident last weekend wasn’t the first time the two have disagreed on the race track.
In 2017, Logano spun Busch in Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, leading to their infamous post-race brawl that left blood streaming down Busch’s forehead.
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As the only active multi-time champions in NASCAR’s premier series, Busch and Logano own bragging rights over the rest of their racing counterparts. Come the 65th running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 19 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), however, the two rivals are sure to be in the mix again in their quest for Cup title No. 3.
