Roger Penske vigorously defends his driver after Martinsville (Video)

Roger Penske is normally a pretty stoic sort of guy. The famous team owner and member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame seems to let nothing faze him, and it would be hard for anyone who knows him to hear him raise his voice, even slightly.

That all changed Sunday evening at Martinsville.

His driver, Joey Logano, had just won and locked himself into the final 4 at Homestead. That win came after a wild, and somewhat controversial finish that involved a last lap bump and run and an angry Martin Truex Jr. On the final lap Logano was able to move Truex up the track and the two came out of turn 4 side by side.  Both touched and nearly spun with Logano able to slide across the finish line for the win.

“They won the battle,” Truex said. “But he didn’t win the damn war.”

As for revenge Truex did not hesitate to let it be known.

“I’m just not going to let him win it,” he said referring to the 2018 Cup championship. “I’m going to win it.”

“He’s a racer and should know better than to say that,” Penske said.  “That’s as clean a shot as you can have in a race like this.  I didn’t hear Kyle Busch or the 42 have any kind of conversation after that race.

“To me, I’m really looking forward.  We want to go to Miami.  Joey ran a great race.  As far as I’m concerned, that’s just a comment that I don’t think we deserve.  We’ll race him day after day.”

“Stirring some controversy that he’s trying to spread” Penske added.  “From my perspective, Joey drove a great race.  The team won on pit road.  You can see that, how many times he got out front.  Leading the number of laps shows the job that Todd (crew chief Todd Gordon) and the team did.  That’s my position.”

Greg Engle