Remembering when Joey Logano went ballistic on Morgan Shepherd
Joey Logano can rest easy about one thing entering this Sunday's New Hampshire 301 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
Morgan Shepherd is not entered in the event.
It was two years ago almost to the day when Logano went ballistic after getting wrecked by Shepherd, then 72 years old, in the Camping World RV Sales 301 Sprint Cup race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
"I feel like there should be a driving test before you get out in a Cup car to make sure you know how to drive before you drive one," Logano said. "I don't know. I guess there isn't."
Shepherd was making just his second Sprint Cup start of the season when he made contact with Logano, who was running second to Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski at the time.
Logano was furious, but ultimately said he would not lodge a formal complaint about Shepherd with NASCAR.
"It's not NASCAR's fault he slid up and is the slowest car on the track," he said. "If you can't control your stuff, don't even be out there. If you're 10 laps down, what are you even doing?"
Actually, Shepherd was 16 laps down at the time of the incident after being way off the pace in what appears to have been the final NASCAR Premier Series event of his career that first began in 1970.
Shepherd has not entered a Sprint Cup race since that day, although he remains very active in the XFINITY Series and plans is entered in this Saturday's second-tier series event at New Hampshire.
Shepherd, now 74, still hasn't taken any NASCAR-mandated driving tests to make sure he's still capable of getting behind the wheel of a race car. But he's made 12 of 16 XFINITY starts this season after making 20 of 33 starts in the series last season.
Maybe that's why Logano isn't entered in this Saturday's XFINITY race.
