If you look at what happened between Joey Logano and Ryan Newman Sunday at Michigan, you might see where Joey’s youth and enthusiasm have gotten him in trouble. He might have been trying too hard late in the race to make something happen.
Many want to blame Joey but you also have to ask how much “give and take” could there have been from Ryan as well? I mean it truly was two guys going at it simply trying to hold a position that the other one didn’t want to give up. Unfortunately the end result was Ryan coming up the big loser.
Joey was just doing his job. He’s hired to drive that race car as hard as he can for as long as he can. Joey had nothing to lose and everything to gain. You wonder if Ryan recognized what was at stake. Maybe Ryan should have realized that and forced Joey to make a mistake and not the other way around.
Now, if Joey were a lap or more down, should he have yielded? Sure he should have. When you are racing for a position on the track however, those points mean just as much to you as they do for the other guy.
Joey’s not going to make the Chase. That doesn’t mean he stops trying to win a race or prove to his owner, his team and his sponsor that he can still get the job done. So we have to be very careful when we say you should move over and give a guy that position. Where’s that written? It’s not. It’s an unwritten code and when you choose to go against the code, well you have to be willing to deal with the consequences down the road.
I talked to Jeff Burton Friday and I was asking him where things were with him. He told me they were trying to get his car faster while at the same time more comfortable. As you know, if the driver is comfortable with his car, he will drive harder longer. He told me he runs hard every lap, but when it gets close to the end, he runs harder than he has done the whole race.
He was also saying that you had to make your moves on the restarts and stick your nose in there to make something happen because at a place as big as Michigan, that’s the closest you are to your competitors all day. His point was you have to take advantage of getting around them while you can.
I liked Kevin Harvick’s post-race comments where he talked about how he has learned to be patient on the race track. He talked about how he pushed the envelope too early in the California race with Jimmie Johnson.
This is the point of the year where you have to realize the big picture no matter what side of the equation you are on. How hard do you want to push the envelope? Are you willing to deal with the consequences of your action?
