Does Joey Logano Think Hocevar Is Similar To His Younger Self?

Hey everybody, I'm Dillon Hart Jr. and this is The Dirty 30, the best highlights from all of our podcasts this week, 30 minutes every single Friday, The Dirty 30, coming at you. Let's get right to it. This episode of The Dirty 30 is presented by Arby's new Meat in 3 Box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. All right, we've got Joey Logano calling in on the Dale Jr. Download. Joey, thanks for giving us some time today. I know winning races, everybody wants to talk to you, especially with everything you've done over the course of the second half of this season. I think at one point you were 20th or so in points or somewhere back there, and Russell with Racing Insights told me you had a 70% chance of making the chase, and I said, there's no way that could be correct. Not only have you made the chase, but you're sitting just a couple of points out of the points lead, and I don't think that there was anyone in the world who thought this was possible. I thought that they had made a point system that would make that impossible, but you've done the rarest of things, man. You've basically taken a spot in the backside of this chase, and you've driven your way all the way up into the front of this thing with a real, real shot of winning the championship. I know that you are very proud of that, but honestly, aren't you even a little surprised? I thought we can get there. I did not think we'd get there this quickly. When the chase started, I thought, okay, we can win the championship. It's going to be very, very hard to make up 70 points on these guys, and I thought, gosh, if we do that, it's going to take all the races to do it. The facts are, man. You can score so many points with the stages now, and then the race win being 20 more than anybody else. You stack up a few of those days, you're right there. You can still make it up. You can get there as quickly as we got there. Equally, someone else can do the same thing. All we did is stack together a 10th place day at Darlington. A good stage points day and a third place finish at Gateway, and a first and a third on the stages and a win at Bristol. That's achievable stuff for a lot of teams to do. We're there, and that's great, but long, long ways to go. Definitely further ahead than I expected to be at this point. I'm really captivated by the chase. I'm captivated by the points. I thought that we all had an understanding of how the points might go, how they might work. What we've learned is we underestimated stage points and the value of stage points. They were important. They always have been, but they're even more so important now. I think NASCAR did an incredible job working with a lot of people to create a points system that's entertaining, and it's also rewarding for the drivers who go out there and get the job done. Pretty impressive stuff. When you look back at what went on with Blaney and Josavar, I've got to ask you, man, I don't think that you and Josavar are in any way similar, but early in your career, you were kind of poked and prodded by some of the veterans in the sport. You were kind of targeted at times, and so you know a little bit about what it's like to unwillingly or willingly be drugged. You were kind of drugged into some of those scrums and be a part of the media conversation and be a bit of a lightning rod in the sport. When you see what Josavar has going on, does it kind of bring back some of those memories of what it was like to be kind of pissing off a veteran here and there every other week or every few weeks and trying to figure out how to navigate yourself into a better space in the sport and finding your lane? Yes and no, a little bit. I mean, I think Karsten and I are quite a bit different people and go about things quite a bit differently, and sure, I had some run-ins earlier in my career, but there still were far less in much different ways, too, but the world was different, too, then, right? Like, the things that I did then are 100% acceptable to go do today. Like, it's normal. You know how much the racing has changed. It's his next-gen car. The aggression level is crazy, right? Tony Stewart wanted to whoop my ass because I blocked him. Yeah. Like, that's all it took, right? Yeah. Today, blocking is, like, that's part of the game. It happens all the time. It doesn't even make anyone mad. It's just like, oh, that's part of it. So it's just the game has changed a lot, and yeah, I mean, I look at it and I get just, like, there is moments of some things that I remember, right, of, gosh, like, I look at it and go, I lost a championship because I didn't handle things correctly off track, and that forever eats me up inside more than anything, and I think you've got to eventually choose a lane and decide what are you here to do. Are you here to, and I had to do this, right? Am I here to be fiery and build a brand and do all this stuff, or am I here to win championships? Which one do I want? And I would trade. I would trade popularity all day long for championships because that's all I'm here to, that's all I want to do, right? Like, I wanted to be a race car driver to win. That's it. Like cool cars, sure, but really just want to win, and sometimes you have to adjust the way you go about things to make sure you have a chance to win, and like I said, I didn't, the whole thing, like, if I go back to Kansas, right, that's the scenario I'm talking about. When that all happened in Kansas, I could have handled everything post, so much better to where I could be sitting here possibly with four championships right now shooting for a fifth, but instead I'm here with three going for four because I didn't handle things correctly, and it still pisses me off because it's my own fault. There's no one else to blame but myself, and I'll never get over it, but it is what it is at this point. Do you think that we're trying, you know, we're all sitting here today kind of talking about where does this go? Where does this go? What is the end result for Carson? What is his objectives? What drives him? What motivates him? And it's, I get this feeling or this sense that, so in most cases, all through the decades of racing, you know, the veteran drivers would grab the guy around the neck and have a conversation with him, and he'd have a hand, you know, get a handful of those conversations. You start making different decisions. You start kind of falling in and trying to do things differently, but it doesn't seem like that that's what motivates Carson. It doesn't seem like that that's what he's after. He's not after to gain the respect of his peers or to the other drivers on the racetrack. And so, how do you guys coexist? You know, if he's going to stay in this lane and kind of be this way, how do you guys race on the racetrack with him? I mean, I don't know. I don't know. That's up to him, right? Yeah. I mean, it's all fixable, right? Like, I feel like, for me, you know, sure, early in my career, was I known as the aggressive guy? Sure. But over time, like, you start to kind of figure out where you want to be, and the whole, like, in the garage, right, the people you're racing against, that narrative changes over time, depending on how you race people. And over the last 10 years, I've been racing against a lot of people. And over the last 10 years, I've only really been in the middle of much at all, right? And then I feel like I'm one of the most respected drivers on the racetrack. Like, I feel that around me. I feel like I have, like, a lot of respect when I'm racing against other cars. And I'm treated fairly, right? Like, if I race someone hard, yeah, sure, I get it back. But in general, I have a lot of respect on the racetrack. And that's earned over a long, long time, right? Like, I'm almost 20 years into it. It takes a long time. And I had to make up for some stuff in the beginning. But it's all reversible. And it's all reversible. It's just kind of, again, though, what's your goals? Like, what are you trying to do? Everyone can have different goals. You can win in different ways, right? Like, whatever you're trying to do. But for me, it was always, I want to win the championship. Well, I'm dying to get to spot on, spot off. Are you guys ready? Topic number one, Carson Hozavar wrecks Ryan Blaney. No, he didn't. Twice. Spot on, spot off. No, he didn't. He did, but it was Ryan's fault. Yeah, yeah. It's, uh. I don't, how do you, as either side. I know it wasn't his fault on the racetrack, but I'm just glad somebody finally walked down there and at least tried to knock the s*** out of him. For what? He didn't do anything. Just because? Like, he was just fed up. He wanted to do a punch. Like, finally, like, just fed up. For what? You taught Ryan a lot of things in his career. You need to teach him something else. The only. After that, the only. I mean, Hozavar said, I never threw a punch. punch anybody that I hurt, but Ryan, I can tell you the only people he's ever fought is his two sisters, right? I mean, that poor kid's never thrown a punch in his life. And, look, it's just I don't know of the frustration. You know, Ryan Blaney does not race like that, right? He always gives people room when they're passing, when it's happening. I don't know what happened. I don't know if he just said, you know what, ah, you know, and just took a shot. But it was Ryan's fault. At the end of the day, he's the one that came down on him. And there's two grooves, right, especially there. And, look, I counted, you know, I got like 12 guys on my list that, in all reality, you don't make those decisions on these guys, right? Because they're not going to lift, right? You got the Stenhouses, the Zane Smiths, the Ty Gibbs. I mean, you got this 12 of them, right? And Jose Forrest is another one of them. He's probably the top of the list. Well, I would say Stenhouse is the top of the list of that, of not giving anybody an inch when you're pulling him. That's just because he wrecked your 20s. 25 years ago. No, no, it happens a lot. And it's not like, I'm not saying anything bad about Ricky. It's just like, you should know. You should know better. And listening to the audio from the spotter, I mean, he said, crossover, inside, inside. You know, I mean, he gave him, yes, things happen fast. But I've been watching Ryan Blaney race his whole life, right? He's never done that before. He's never, you know, he's always passed people clean. People always give him the respect. I feel that when you're racing Ryan Blaney, and you tell me if I'm wrong or not, it's easier for you to let him go because you know when you're racing to get him, he's going to let you go, right? He's probably the easiest guy on the track to race against, right? Of not feeling the pressure of, man, this guy's going to give me a hard time. Or, you know what I'm saying? And so, I just feel that he made a mistake. And I don't know why he was mad. Was he just figured he was just going over there and going to fight for everybody? Well, maybe it wasn't, like, particularly just about last night. Like, maybe it was just, like, compounding from all the issues that everybody's going through. And you're just, like, you're just over it. And that was the time that he chose. Was it the greatest choice? Probably not. But that, I mean. No, still, it's just. Real quick. Go ahead. Have you ever been in a race car? Yes. When? 2000. Figure eight, man. He's figuring it out. When was the last time you drove a race car? 2002. I never drove a race car. There we go. Okay. Have you driven one? Yeah. There we go. Yeah, that's right. Mike Rose and a few others. She flipped all of them. So, you know. There's a lot going on in your head in those moments. And when I watched the three laps before and Ryan was running the top, went to the bottom. Carson tried to run the bottom in three and four. He missed it because it was, you had to be really disciplined. Ryan got under him and then they raced through one and two. He cleared him in three. In four, coming off, got up. And then, you know, that was where Carson, you can make the decision as a driver to say, okay, he just passed me clean. I'm probably not going to hold him off in all reality. Like the 12 and the 54, I thought were the fastest cars that night. He's going to drive away unless you start knocking them around or doing things. But with that long, you know, when the race left, you're just not going to. That's the racer sense. Like that's the smart part, right? Carson. Crossed them. And yeah, Ryan, Ryan started coming down, but there's, there's like a both sides thing. There is, there is both sides. Hold on, Tommy. Calm down in your Long Island. Put it down for a second. I know, but it depends on who you're racing, Ryan. It depends on that. Like I said, there's a certain amount of people that, you know, you can't do that. Right. I'm just talking about it in general. If you're treating everybody. You can talk all in general you want, but there's a, there's a group that you can't do that. Carson could have lifted. Ryan could have not come down. To me, it's just, it's, it is what it is. That's, that's racing. That's frustrating. The difference is how many times has Carson been in an incident this year? Quite a bit. So the benefit of the doubt, it's like, you know, if I don't know if whoever does it, you're probably not as pissed. So I don't know. I'm not really gonna speak a whole lot on it. Other than that was probably one of the most racing incidences that I've seen to this point. It's just. It was Bristol. That's one of the most, the hottest races that we go to one of the most physically demanding for sure. And, um, you know, I think it's just like you said, Tommy, I think it was just a poor decision. Cause I think if Ryan just goes and runs the top, like he gets him off. It's it's all gone, right? I mean, it's just, and I think it was just, and that's not like Ryan doesn't race like that. That's what I'm saying. And I, and I don't know if he, you're, you race him harder because that's how he races everybody else too. You know, like he, it's just, it was a, it was a bad decision on Ryan's part. It, it's gonna probably cost him a shot at the championship, honestly, unless he goes on a hell of a run here. Like it's that's gonna, that's made derail his whole season. Hey, this is Dale and Hart Jr. And for all the latest Dale Jr. Download gear, including the, I'm old drink, some beer t-shirt we've been talking about here around the office, head over to shop.dirtymomedia.com for all the latest merch. We ran maybe a lap and a half, two laps side by side, trying to clear and got clear off a four. Um, and I left like half a lane to the wall when I did get clear, cuz I wanted to shade to try to stay on the bottom and he just had a big run and crossed over and, you know, looking back on it, uh, you know, I'd say it's a 50, 50, you know, I was wanting to protect the bottom. He was wanting to get to the bottom and was, you know, there late by a little bit. And neither of us wanted to give, you know, I wanted the bottom, he wanted there and, and I ended up, you know, getting turned. So really I'd put it on both parties. Like, I don't think, you know, he's not 100% to blame. I'm not 100% to blame. I think it was just two guys like fighting for the bottom at Bristol. Yeah. And I think that I, I think I actually went through this with you at, at Loudon, right? I was in your way at Bruce at Loudon. And, you know, you shucked me off the bottom there and it was like, well, that's, that's pretty normal short track racing, right? When someone's gotta feel like you gotta go, somebody's in your preferred lane, you try to work them over for a few laps. It doesn't happen. It's like, all right, I gotta, I gotta take this space from you, you know? Yeah. And so, uh, what you're talking about is pretty normal as well. Like when you, when you want to run a certain lane, you typically shade that way. If someone's come with a run, you shade, which way you're kind of going on the straightaway. Based off of like where you want to be. So you're naturally going to run a little bit lower anyway. Um, you know, my thoughts on it was that I thought Carson had two options. One was the nuclear option, which is the, okay, if you're going to come down when I'm got my run, I'm not lifting. That's, that's one option. That's the nuclear option, which is, you know, the outcome that is, that guy is going to wreck. Um, the other option in my head. My opinion is that you check up slightly and then when you get into the corner, he probably should shuck you. Then, you know, you just kind of get you off the bottom, you know, that's, he's probably going to clear you once you get knocked off the bottom there at that racetrack. And so that's, that typically is where it's the 50, 50 thing from my standpoint, where, um, I, I think personally, and I'm not here to. Jump on Carson at all. I, again, I've had no issues with them. Uh, he spun us out at, at, at, um, Sonoma. I gave him the benefit of the doubt there. Hey, you had somebody behind you kind of shoving. And so I feel like I've been objectively pretty fair on that. Um, but I felt like, you know, there's always been two options and there's always two options you have when someone kind of chooses to block you. One is to just plow through them and whatever that happens to them happens to them. The other is okay. I'm going to lift, but then I'm going to give you the business once we get into the corner. And that typically will lead into something that doesn't escalate a whole lot further. The person knows, Hey, I, I pulled the block. So I'm not going to probably give anything back to you. So my, my thing was that he always chooses the nuclear option, which is, well, I'm, I'm there, so I'm not lifting. And so that's, that's the, you know, the racing part of it. That definitely is, is tough. And, um, You know, but everyone has a way of doing it and, and everyone's codes a little bit different. Right. And we know that, you know, when you're racing with me, you got to watch for X, Y, and Z. And if you're racing with another guy, you know, there are tendencies. And so I think that's, um, I think that that's something that in my opinion, you know, there could have been another option there if he really didn't want to get blocked there. Um, but I mean, the, the end result was the end result. We all, you know, we all make. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We all make decisions. Right. And you see up there, it was one with Chase Elliott, uh, at Martinsville and, and one where I was like thinking, okay, I'm just going to get them off the bottom here. Well, you can't expect the guy to control his car when, when he got his tires lifted up on the entry. Right. So we just, there's certain mistakes that, uh, we make through our careers that certainly we learned from. And, um, yeah, that sucks that you ended up wrecked in that situation. Yeah. It was, you know, it's stuck. And, you know, I agree. what you said, there's a couple of options there. And, you know, everyone's different, right? Everyone has. has their own code and you know and if it was a case of you know the second option like you said if you know hey i you know i protected and i just got shucked you know middle of the corner or as we landed and i'm up a lane like all right you know that's right i probably deserve that i didn't think i deserved to just get absolutely trashed right you know like we didn't we're kind of the same thing like i haven't had a problem with carson in a while like he turned me around atlanta a year or so ago but other than that we haven't been you know haven't had any problems right um you know but but yeah i mean that's just what happened ended up i mean it's it's one of those things where you know people ask me like why didn't you just run the top there it's like well like i didn't want to be there like i just passed them on the bottom my car was the best there i was trying to protect our spot and second that was an extremely spot good spot to get and trying to run tie down for the win and um yeah we're inside 40 to go right or 50 to go yeah inside 50 to go so it's like man i i need to you know try to establish myself in second to have a shot to win this race and you know and hindsight's 2020 it's like well if you just don't get crashed and you go on third it's a great points day but yeah you know hey we're trying to win the race at bristol and trying to give ourselves the best chance we've just come from the back like twice and uh and those things happen unfortunately so you had like a you then you got to do the infield care center thing you have an interview afterwards and you're you know you're you get hassle and and you say something something's going to happen like what tell me what's kind of going through what's going through your head so for the for the next 20 minutes i didn't tell any of my guys what i was doing i you know hasler was standing there my crew you got to do that i mean you always have to have to me it's different if you go to find it's different if you go to find it as opposed to if someone comes to you then i think you have the cavalry but in my mind i'm not going to go walk over there with six of my guys like right because because then they're probably that event immensely probably thinks to them all right but these guys are looking for a fight right it's like okay i'm gonna need to do this myself okay so i i just very admirable of you by the way yeah i mean i you know i think that's kind of a rule to me um so i just handed has for my phone i just said hold this and i and i left and he had no idea what was going on what that meant hold my phone he had no clue yeah it's not as cool as rc hold my watch but you know so i i walk over there and and you know there are things that you regret but you know i didn't really have a huge plan really the only plan of mine was you know i'm going to have a stern conversation with carson i wasn't planning on throwing anything i just really wanted to grab him and just kind of pretty much yell at him you know um and and show my displeasure but i look at it as well if someone comes up to me and granted i kind of grabbed him by the and pushed him at the chest and kind of grabbed him pretty aggressively um that you're probably going to defend yourself and you know and he rightfully did uh so you know so first thing i know so he landed a pretty good right hand uh the one that knocked the hat off that i thought it just clipped the hat no no it got me yeah it got me pretty good uh and it the hat just kind of flung off my head okay um so that one got me pretty good and so when that happened i was like okay well i should probably return fire at this point and so i had that prepared and then alan the security guy he got the guy in the green shirt yeah alan he he uh he subdued that pretty quick and so so he's got me kind of here and my right arm is i saw that you're you had one arm here the other is here but the the green shirt had yeah had you by the the the torso to where you couldn't go anywhere with the right so he got me and then by that time this other spire guys are kind of closing into sure and so for the second right like i i see the second one coming and i'm kind of immobilized and in my mind i'm like all right i'm just gonna eat this thing and and continue to yell at him and stare at him while i just eat this other right and i'll give it to him he tagged me in the same exact spot that he got me the first time right right here in my cheekbone i'm like all right but i was like the best way i can just i just got to eat it and just continue to talk my trash that i'm talking sure and so then yeah we we go to the ground his guys kind of alan got tackled by some of his guys and brought me down um and so i got back up which was the funniest part of this thing was and then like no everyone forgot about me that that was what's the most shocking thing to me 10 seconds later you sneak your way in there like like a like a running back getting a touchdown untouched like there was no resistance whatsoever yeah i was like i got to get back in like i was you know and these things happen right when you re-watch it back it's like all that stuff's a blur right because it happens all quick and really quick and you know you don't really have time to think or you're just doing these things yeah and so i got back in there and you know kind of tackle this one and then tried to jab a left kind of missed um at that point then and then really it was over so you know there are things that i regret i try not to i try to set a good example for kids who are watching who are fans their parents who are allowing these kids to watch races and root for their driver and i try to act a certain way to what a kid would want to look up to and i look back on those things and i definitely regret the way i acted you know that's really unlike me and i'm like i'm not gonna do it again i'm not gonna do it again i'm not gonna do it again um but i was just you know it's just frustrating you just do these things that usually your rage is just on the radio yeah and then i and then you become very calm yeah outside you're a jekyll and hyde you are the most jekyll and hyde person i've seen i know when it comes to voice and displeasure in the car but then when you get out you're the most composed person i think i've ever met i know and i and then because there's been many times where i've run you up the track or ran you in the and i and i know i gotta go to you and i'm like god he's gonna be pissed he is gonna be so pissed when i get over there and you just you listen and you're like well and then you you probably come at me with a well why'd you do that or you know something like that and i try to explain but i always try to empathize with listen i i just did this dude wrong so i gotta yeah whatever he's willing to say i gotta be willing to listen to it was like martinsville deal in the spring yeah you got kind of tied together and in the fence and our conversation afterwards was was fine yeah it's just um so that's why it was weird to me because i was the i was opposite of what i normally was like i was calm initially and ramped up after the race and where i'm usually kind of ramped up initially and then calm after the race but yeah i uh man i i just i wish i wouldn't have done that i wish i would have gone about it a different way you know just from people watching and i don't ever want to set a bad example and and i'll be honest with you yeah i got over that i went over there and i got my ass kicked for sure i got i got i ate a two-piece and you know got got you know tagged pretty good but you know i just wanted to show my displeasure all right that was another episode of the dirty 30 presented by arby's new meat in three bucks get more meal for your money at arby's we have the meat you