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Dustin Long

From Daytona to California, Dustin Long covers the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Read all of his stories on PilotOnline.com's Auto Racing channel. He also writes a regular column for SportsIllustrated.com. Follow him on Twitter.

Harvick calls out Logano's dad in feud with Joey

Kevin Harvick said there's two sides to a story and explained his issues with Joey Logano and said that they include Logano's father, Tom.

 

Harvick cited a number of incidents on and off track with Logano since the spring that has elevated a feud with Joey Logano to what it became at Pocono last weekend where they had contact in the final laps and then Logano parked his car near Harvick on pit road after the race and tried to get to Harvick but couldn't.

 

Here's Harvick detailing what's happened between them that played a role in how things played out at Pocono:

 

"Let me break all of this down for you,'' Harvick said. "We had the issues at Bristol (Harvick spinning Logano). He was fired up. We raced for 40 laps. Chop, chop, chop,chop, chop, chop. That's the way that one ended up. We go to Nashville and we get done with Bristol and his dad has physical contact with one of my PR people. I go to Nashville, I tell him, "Alright Joey, the best thing you can do is get your dad under control,' and he turned around and laughed at me and said, "Do you really think that was a big deal?

 

"Obviously now it's a pretty big deal. So at that particular point, I said, he doesn't want to take any advice and doesn't want to talk about things any further then what he thinks is right. We go to Phoenix. (In the Cup race) he crashes into the back of me and tries to spin me out down the straightaway. Blow it off. Go to Richmond (in Nationwide race) last restart, he dumps me out of the way and I lose four or five spots. At that point, I get out of the car and tell him how I feel. We go to Pocono, race hard and things happen. That's how you've got to race him from my standpoint. I tried to break the ice at Nashville at driver intros and he basically turned around and told me that his dad having the problem with my PR person was not a big deal and pretty much laughed in my face. So at this point, it's up to him, I'd love to work it out. In this garage, normally you would have every opportunity to work it out with anybody in the garage. I feel that I can go to pretty much anybody in the garage and work something out. It's just at that particular stage where it's up to him as to what he wants it to go into and how he wants to play the game. I'm fine with the game.''

 

Harvick goes on to say: "Joey Logano is a good race car driver. He deserves to be here. He's going to have a long career at this level. The hardest part to figure about this sport is how the politics work, how the on-track stuff works and how to handle yourself as a race car driver and unfortunately he's 20. So, there's a big step that has to be taken from obviously shedding the dad, obviously that was the biggest issue last week. After the race same thing, dad is up in the motorhome driver''s face chanting and hollering and those things don't need to happen. At this particular point, (Joey) is responsible for his own career and everybody's actions around him. He can either fix it and go about things the right way and in my opinion he gets bad advice on how he needs to race. He's not Tony Stewart. Now he's getting pushed it's very evident as to who is pushing him the most and that's the dad.

 

"His dad shoved him into a pile like a dog chasing after a bone last week to go over there and want to fight and that's OK too. The good thing is my guys did a great job of handling it. That could have escalated into something that it didn't really need to be.''

 

More Harvick on Joey Logano's father, Tom Logano: "His father has no place in this. His father needs to step back and act like the rest of the dads and be happy that his kid is here. This isn't Little League Baseball any more. He just needs to stay away and act like a 50-year-old man or however old he is.''

 

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The last two times Jimmie Johnson has raced at Michigan International Speedway, he ran out of fuel in the final laps while leading. Frustrating, for sure. Yet, there's another time when Johnson ran out of fuel that is just as memorable.

 

Let him explain:

 

"Between the span of the last two races here last year, I wasn’t paying attention to my Tahoe—I guess I ignored the bell or buzzer telling me that I was low on fuel and we were late going to the airport trying to get to a race.  We were riding along and the car shuts off.  It was out fuel.  I heard about it from my wife then, and I still hear about it today. 

 

"I’m pulled over on the side of the road, and I had to call someone from my office to help us out, get some fuel and bring it over, and we were pretty far from a gas station unfortunately.  It’s amazing how many people were angry that I was out of fuel on the side of the road.  I had an old lady shoot me the bird, which I just couldn’t believe.  She was behind me and just honking, so I walked back and said, “Man, I’m out of fuel, what am I supposed to do?”  She just shot me the bird.  I was like, “Wow.  This is great!”  [laughs].  My wife still reminds me of it today.”

 

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# No date set on Front Row Motorsports' appeal of its peanlty earlier this week for improper valve stem caps on the No. 38 car at Pocono last weekend. NASCAR docked the team 150 points and driver Travis Kvapil 150 points. Crew chief Steve Lane was fined $100,000 and suspended for 12 Cup races, along the with the team's crew chief and a tire specialist. ... Lane is not at the track this weekend to attend his daughter's graduation. The car chief is at the track, while the tire specialist is not with the team -- he was a one-week replacement for the team's regular tire specialist, who had a family emergency. An internal investigation continues with the team. They are unsure how the bleeder valve stems (meant to relieve tire pressure as it builds, thus maintains tire consistency) found their way on the car.

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Longo fits right in

What does anyone expect from a driver for Joe Gibbs. All American traitor who sold out his countrymen to the Japanese. A dollar means more to Joe than his country. He will end up like his last attempt at coaching the Redskins. A complete failure. Gibbs might be a hero to some but not all.

With Longo, Hamlin and Busch driving for him, he has all the makings of a disaster.

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