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MLB Hall of Famer Chipper Jones Shades Logano After Talladega Tirade

Joseph Srigley|
Brett Davis-Imagn Images

UPDATE: Joey Logano doesn't really care about what Chipper Jones has to say.

That's pretty much the gist of it, but on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Tuesday, the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion responded to the comments from the MLB Hall of Famer, after hearing them for the first time live on the air.

“Has Chipper Jones ever driven a race car at Talladega? That would be my first question. I’m pretty certain he hasn’t," said Logano. "That's like me saying something about baseball, I know nothing about baseball, that's like me saying something he did in baseball was wrong, it doesn't matter."

"You care about what people say, their opinion, if you know them, and they know you. Everyone is going to have their opinion if you know them, and they know you, and they understand the scenario and the situation. Everyone is going to have their opinion on how they see things from the outside. Nobody else, Chipper Jones, no race fans, nobody is in the room when we come up with how we race at superspeedways, except the drivers, the team principals at Team Penske, and the crew chiefs, that is it. That's the only opinion that matters. The only one."

"So everybody can go off and talk about whatever they want; they don't know the situation, they don't know everything that goes into it, so it doesn't matter what they say. So that's probably why I never saw it, or really care about it, even after you told me about it."

"Chipper Jones seems like a cool dude, and he's done a lot, and he's a popular baseball player, but he's not a racecar driver, and I know he wasn't in the room with us when we set the way how things are supposed to go. You would think someone who has been in professional sports and has been in a meeting like that would probably take a step back and say, 'Man, there's probably more to the story than what there is', I'm surprised that it went that way, but maybe he's just bored."

"I'll tell you, I don't care."

Major League Baseball (MLB) Hall of Famer Chipper Jones, a notorious third baseman for the Atlanta Braves and eight-time all-star, is throwing some major shade at Joey Logano, the defending and three-time champion of the NASCAR Cup Series.

Jones, 53, took to the social media platform X following the completion of Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega to congratulate Austin Cindric, Logano’s teammate at Team Penske, on his victory, while also dunking on Logano.

“Congrats to Austin Cindric on his Talladega win,” the post reads. “Good teammates are hard to come by, boss! Remember that one of urs MFed u on national TV, when in actuality, u did everything possible to keep from wrecking. Hate to be #dueces in the ‘team’ meeting on Monday. Some people are ‘hooray for our team as long as I’m the star,’ as every team has them. Hendrick, RCR, JGR, Penske, etc. Sometimes karma is glorious. Enjoy this one! In case anyone is confused, lemme be clear… Joey Logano.”

In this particular instance, Jones is referring to the end of the race’s second stage. Austin Cindric and Joey Logano were at the front of the pack and were in line to make a push towards winning the stage, when Cindric, with a massive run, was forced to check up.

Joey Logano was unamused, lamenting his Team Penske teammate over the radio in an expletive-filled tirade, where the three-time champion and accomplished superspeedway racer, said: “Way to go, Austin, way to go, you dumb f-ck. Way to f-cking go. What a stupid sh-t. You just gave it to [Bubba Wallace]. Gave a Toyota a stage win. Nice job. Way to go. What a dumb-ss. Put that in the book again.”

Obviously, Cindric was not trying to deliver the stage win to Bubba Wallace and Toyota, but instead the Mooresville, North Carolina-native was trying not to wreck his teammate, and the whole field behind him.

“I felt like I kind of just got pinched,” Cindric said after the race. “I was trying not to wreck the cars in front of me, including Joey. It was a messy end of the stage that I feel like between myself, the 21, Joey could have probably done better. We let one slip there."

In the fractions of a second between the lift by Cindric and the end of the stage, Logano didn’t end up losing any positions (or points), while both the No. 2 and No. 21, a pair of Team Penske “teammates” (the No. 21 is a defacto Penske car) had lost multiple.

“I can understand his frustration without seeing the whole picture. These are the types of things that when you’re expecting someone to have your best interest, those are the challenges, right? We have a lot of meetings centered around that. I feel like it required constant maintenance. It’s not always pretty. The conversations aren’t always easy.”

Cindric went on to win Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, his third win in the NASCAR Cup Series, while Joey Logano survived the remainder of the afternoon to cross the start-finish line in fifth – before being disqualified for a rear spoiler infraction.

Michael Nelson, President of Team Penske’s NASCAR program, said in a post-race press conference that the organization operates like a family, and like in most families, will handle the matter behind closed doors.

"I think our team has done a really good job of working together as a team over the years, especially at these races. But when you see that, you realize how difficult it is behind the scenes. I guess it again proves these guys that we have, they want to win the races, right? They want to win for their team. At the end of the day, it’s just like a normal family. We have to go in and close the door when we’re not in front of everybody else and work through the issues that we have.”

While the incident didn’t really impact the outcome of either Cindric or Logano’s events, it did leave a lasting impression on Jones, who continued on social media with additional Tweets throwing shade at Logano.

“Couldn’t even congratulate Austin Cindric in the post-race,” Jones said, quote-posting a video of Logano’s post-race interview. “#teamplayer. At least he mentioned being selfish in the interview. Credit!”

Then, once inspection had finished up, and NASCAR confirmed that Logano had failed post-race inspection, Jones finished the night off with a simple post, saying: “My day just keeps on getting better!”

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Joseph Srigley
JOSEPH SRIGLEY

Joseph Srigley covers NASCAR for TobyChristie.com, Racing America, and OnSI, and is the owner of the #SrigleyStats brand. With a higher education in the subjects of business, mathematics, and data analytics, Joseph is able to fully understand the inner workings of the sport through multiple points of perspective.

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