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Joey Logano on where things stand with Martin Truex Jr.: ‘Time will tell’

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Joey Logano said Martin Truex Jr. texted him recently to discuss the incident at Martinsville and alleviate some of the friction that existed between the two.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Joey Logano isn’t sure if everything is good with Martin Truex Jr. after last weekend’s finish, noting “I think time will tell.”

Truex and Logano exchanged texts last Sunday after Logano bumped Truex out of the lead on the last lap to win at Martinsville Speedway and secure a spot in the championship race later this month in Miami.

“I can’t say I was surprised that he texted me,” Logano said. “I am glad he did. It kind of broke the ice. I was planning on waiting a couple days to let things settle. It got a lot of things out of the way. We both know where we stand. We know where it is at. It is what it is and we move on.”

Truex said Friday that he texted Logano to “tell him how I felt.”

Asked if it was any different from what he said on NBCSN’s broadcast after the race, Truex said: “It was a little different.”

He admitted he used stronger language.
“I wanted to get his point of view,” Truex said. “I wanted to get what he was thinking, the way he thought about it and now I know.”

Asked Friday at Texas Motor Speedway about where things stand with Truex, Logano said: “I think time will tell. I think he was a little frustrated and that is part of it. I also think it is short track racing. I think we both understand that there was so much on the line and that is what happens sometimes.

“Like I said, it is short track racing. That bump-and-run move, although that was probably the most popular one of the whole race because it was for the win on the last lap, probably happened 10 or 15 times before that and it didn’t get covered. It is a classic move in NASCAR that happens a lot, every time we go there, whether it is on lap 20 or lap 499.”

One of the questions that has been raised about Truex this week is if he’s too nice on the track, noting how he passed Logano without using a bump and run. Truex doesn’t apologize for how he races.
“I try to do things the right way,” Truex said. “I try to race the way I want to be raced. Sometimes I clearly get taken advantage of because of that, but at the end of the day I know that when I beat a guy it’s because I out-drove him it’s not because I took a cheap shot and ran into him. That’s my way of thinking. Some people disagree with it. Some people think it’s perfectly fine to knock somebody out of the way to get a win. In my opinion, it’s not. … It’s just not the way I’ve ever done it, whether it’s go-karts when I was a kid or raced in modifieds, it doesn’t matter what it was, it was the way I was taught to race.

“You race fair. You race clean. You race as hard as you can. You try to beat the guy straight up. I can say that every single win I ever had I earned it. That’s just the way it is.”