- [Narrator] In 2012, Joey Logano was at a crossroads
in NASCAR's Cup Championship Series at just 22 years old.
The highly-touted young driver had struggled
to win consistently on NASCAR's biggest stage
and was dropped by Joe Gibbs Racing.
Once Logano resurfaced at rival Penske,
he found success on his own terms,
but Logano's racing redemption bred a fierce enemy
in former teammate, Kyle Busch.
(orchestral classical music)
Even if you don't watch NASCAR,
you might know the name Kyle Busch.
He's become auto racing's boisterous,
undisputed number one villain,
and he's both loathed and loved
for the character that he's become.
Despite growing up in an auto racing family
and winning the sport's biggest prizes,
Busch acts like an outsider,
carrying a long, long streak of feuds
and a pension for fearlessly
and publicly talking shit about other drivers,
even his own brother Kurt.
In that particular spat, their grandma had to break it up.
So take it from the man himself, he is an asshole.
- I'm an asshole.
Are you an asshole? - I am.
I have been known to be quite the big butthole.
Yeah, absolutely.
(both laugh)
- [Narrator] Off the track,
Joey Logano is the absolute opposite
of the Kyle Busch experience,
although his career began a lot like Busch's.
They're actually kinda similar.
As a teenage driver in Connecticut,
Logano was hailed by veteran Randy LaJoie
as the greatest thing since sliced bread.
When Logano was ready to compete full-time
in the Cup series, he started with Busch at Gibbs Racing.
Together, the teammates cooperated on the track
and worked a ton of publicity off of it
to push a younger image of the sport to fans.
But Logano struggled to live up to the substantial hype
and was dumped by Gibbs after the 2012 season,
despite protests from Busch
to keep Logano at Joe Gibbs Racing.
The only team offering Logano
a full-time Cup Series driver spot was Penske,
a bitter rival to Gibbs,
thanks in large part to Penske driver
Brad Keselowski's ongoing feud with Kyle Busch.
Keselowski once called Busch an ass
over a PA system before a race.
Logano reinvented his career
working with Keselowski and Penske
and suddenly NASCAR's clean cut, nice, quiet kid
was racing ruthlessly,
so much so that Logano found himself
pissing off the NASCAR legend Tony Stewart.
After Logano blocked the cantankerous veteran
on the track in 2013, Stewart attacked Logano
in a kind of middle school lunchroom-type of brawl
that's more hollering than punches connecting,
but it's still a big deal.
Logano's Cup Series driving started to match his debut hype,
giving way to a baby-faced Jekyll off the track
and an absolute Hyde behind the wheel,
which was the kind of character perfectly designed
to drive the sports' premier asshole nuts.
A clash between the former teammates felt inevitable
and in 2017, everything exploded.
With two laps remaining at the Cobalt 400 in Las Vegas,
race leader and Logano teammate Keselowski
suffered a part failure
and began to drop from first place into the pack.
As Keselowski's car failed,
Busch moved to the bottom of the track to avoid a collision
and made light contact with Logano's car in the process.
As they entered turned three of the final lap,
Logano's car got loose and hit Busch,
sending his car spinning into pit row.
A determined, silent Busch went straight for Logano
on pit road and took a swing on him
right in front of Logano's entire crew.
Once Busch was pulled out of the scrum,
he was bleeding from his forehead.
After that fracas a fairly calm Logano gave his version
of events on the track to the live broadcast, even noting-
- You know, Kyle and I usually race really well together,
usually never have any issues.
- [Narrator] And when asked
if any blows landed in the fight, he cheery replied-
- None to me.
- [Narrator] Once a pit reporter caught up with Busch,
the man nicknamed Rowdy and Wild Thing
by rivals for his own driving style, he complained-
- I got dumped.
Flat out just drove straight in the corner and wrecked me.
That's how Joey races, so he's gonna get it.
- [Narrator] According to Busch, tension had been building
since Logano's departure from Gibbs to Penske,
where, according to Busch,
the young Logano had started behaving like Keselowski,
that bitter rival of Busch's.
"There were some other instances
"where he and I were kind of rough on the track.
"We weren't really disrespectful,
"but it was starting to get to that point
"where it was like, all right, man,
"that probably went a little too far."
Four years later on the I Am Athlete podcast,
Busch gave greater detail to his side of the scuffle,
insisting Logano had wrecked him on purpose.
- Wah, boom!
Just doored me, drilled me in the door
and I spun all the way down the pit lane.
I knew he wrecked me, so I was pissed.
- [Narrator] He also disputed Logano's claim
Busch didn't land a punch.
- I got the one hit in
because the whole rest of the fight
was just all these dudes pulling us apart.
- [Narrator] Now, fights in NASCAR aren't a new phenomenon,
considering the of American stock car racing was born
from moonshine, bootleggers, and prohibition,
but they aren't quite as common
in NASCAR's family-centric corporatized modern age.
In the wake of their pit road confrontation,
the talk of NASCAR wasn't whether or not Logano's driving
or Busch's retaliation was at fault.
It was if NASCAR would take disciplinary action
on the drivers.
NASCAR Chairman Brian France told reporters,
"it's an emotional sport"
and that NASCAR wouldn't suspend either driver,
while Motorsports Media clamored
that the fight was what the sport needed
to build back interest.
A week later, both drivers were summoned
to a closed door meeting with NASCAR officials
before the Camping World 500 in Phoenix.
Logano told reporters he'd initiated a phone conversation
with Busch that week
and told officials that the wreck in Vegas
was "an honest mistake".
"I hope he's able to see that
"and know that I was sincere about it, but time will tell,"
Logano told the media.
Busch didn't speak to the media,
but Logano clarified that the driving mistake was his.
He took ownership for the entire incident
but then immediately told reporters
he wouldn't stop his aggressive driving style.
Logano's luck would worsen throughout the season
and after four years of top 10 finishes
and two appearances in the championship round
in the previous three years,
he finished so 17th in 2017, missing the playoffs.
Busch would go on to finish as the Cup Series runner up.
Then the pair would spend the next two seasons
fighting on the track.
Logano bounced back massively in 2018,
winning his first Cup Series championship
ahead of Busch in fourth place,
while Busch finished the year tied for most race wins.
In 2019, Busch won four of the first 14 races of the season,
padding his lead in the standings.
Starting March 10th,
Busch spent eight weeks at number one,
with Logano jumping in and out of second place week to week,
before Logano and the '22 Ford overtook Busch for number one
after Busch finished 30th in Kansas.
The pair would battle for first place
for the rest of the summer and into the post-season.
For 24 of 26 weeks, either Busch or Logano held first place,
with Busch winning the regular season points championship
after the Bojangles Southern 500 at Darlington.
Both drivers would make the playoffs,
but Logano would find himself in trouble
with another driver,
just long enough to be eliminated by Busch.
After an axle repair caused him to restart in Dover
down 24 laps, Logano was criticized by driver Denny Hamlin
for racing too aggressively with lead cars,
while having no chance to win.
Two weeks later at Martinsville,
Hamlin crashed Logano into an outside wall.
After the race, Hamlin and Logano exchanged words
and Logano took a swing at Hamlin
just as Logano was walking away.
Look at that passive aggressiveness!
Kinda seems like behavior reminiscent of Kyle Busch.
After a ninth place finish
in the Bluegreen Vacations 500
in Phoenix the following week,
Logano was bumped out of the group of eight by Busch,
who would clench his second Cup Series championship
with a win at Homestead.
After trading championships
and keeping their or hatred on the track,
Busch publicly called out Logano's racing style
again in 2020.
Kyle was the defending Cup Series champion,
but winless through September,
when he almost won the Bass Pro Shops Night Race
at Bristol's famous short track.
Busch led for 159 of 500 laps,
but couldn't hold off Kevin Harvick
with just 32 remaining, finishing second.
After the race,
an angry Busch close to playoff elimination
blamed his finish on an inability to pass lapped cars
on the crowded short track,
including, and specifically, Joey Logano.
"He's nobody's friend for a reason, so there you have it."
Logano laughingly responded on NASCAR Sirius XM,
boasting that he had a lot of friends,
just not on the track.
So why is it that Busch,
famous for his short temper and villainous persona,
is so bothered by this kid?
Joey Logano's off-track character
is seemingly everything Busch isn't,
low-key, cordial, and easygoing.
And that's exactly why.
It's because Busch, an avowed asshole at all walks of life,
on and off the track, despise his Logano's public image
for not matching the man behind the wheel.
In 2021, he told the I Am Athlete podcast-
- [Kyle] The problem with Joey is he's two-faced.
He'll come in here and he's laughy
and go lucky, go with the flow, super nice guy.
When he puts his helmet on, he flips the switch
on the back of his head.
If you're gonna be a nice guy,
be a nice guy on the racetrack as well,
you know what I mean?
- [Narrator] These comments, of course,
made it back to Logano, who responded in kind.
- [Joey] I'm-two faced!
I said, he's right.
I said, he's 100% right.
And I believe it's a compliment
because he's saying that I can be a nice guy
off the racetrack
and I can be a total jerk when I go racing.
- [Narrator] Kyle Busch's entire career
has seemingly been conducted with a public persona in mind.
It's possible that as the sport has lost relevance
after two decades of a mainstream push
away from its original outlaw redneck identity,
drivers like Busch are striving
to recreate the dynamic characters that made NASCAR famous,
and characters need antagonists.
Or Busch is just an asshole
and an asshole race car driver can't stand the idea
of another asshole driver
who races even more aggressively than him
without the corresponding
stereotypical personality to match.
When asked by the media
if Busch would ever consider squashing his beef with Logano,
Busch said it didn't make much sense
until both drivers retired.
And that makes total sense
because Logano has shown no interest
in mirroring his public persona
with his on-track ruthlessness,
which drives an authentic villain like Busch nuts.
And as often as Busch baits him publicly,
Logano never really says mean things back,
which probably makes Busch even angrier.
Logano the race car driver has always been ruthless,
but over time he's evolved from kinda aw, shucks on the mic
to a very tactical troll.
Logano was in the play-by-play booth
after Busch won an Xfinity Series race in 2021
and when the announcers interviewed Busch live from his car
and informed him Logano was there,
Logano cheerly assured Busch,
"don't worry, I've got my other face on right now."
Thanks for watching.
Don't forget to like and subscribe,
tell friends and family and distant relatives
about Secret Base,
and if you like that NASCAR beef,
little rubbin', little racin',
you can check out these other beefs
because beef is universal.
(dramatic orchestral music)