It was a good day for Joey Logano. The Penske driver was running second in the Camping World RV Sales 301 (seriously NASCAR, these race names are awful), behind his teammate Brad Keselowski. It was looking like a one-two finish for Team Penske. Then, Logano (above) was out; the victim of a wreck with 72-year-old Morgan Shepherd (right).
The 24-year-old was, understandably, upset following the incident.
"The slowest car on the track took us out," Logano said in an interview, following the wreck. "Go figure. I felt like we could have had a one-two for Penske. I feel like there should be, like, a driver's test before you get out in a Cup car and make sure you know how to drive before you drive one."
Shepherd has had a mostly unsuccessful racing career, despite its extreme length. His first race was in 1970, 20 years before Logano was born, and his last win was in 1993, when Logano was just two years old. He's registered just four wins in 517 Sprint/Nextel/Winston Cup stars, while yesterday's race in Loudon, NH was just his second start of the 2014 season. For his part, though, Shepherd doesn't really seem to think he was at fault.
"I was giving everybody room and then I'd fall in on the end of the line and start back running, and we weren't the slowest car there," Shepherd said during a post-race interview on satellite radio. "When the leaders come, I go to the bottom of the track and let them all go by."
"Joey more or less caused the wreck," Shepherd said, adding that because Logano came so close to his front end, he robbed it of its aerodynamic grip, causing him to understeer into Logano.
NASCAR, meanwhile, attempted to diffuse the situation between one of its oldest veterans and one of its rising stars.
"Joey was half-kidding. I understand that. Nobody wants to be [taken] out of [the] race because of an accident," Vice President of Competition Robert Pemberton told USA Today. "[Shepherd] was above minimum speed. He pulled over to let Joey go by. Everybody has a responsibility to lay off each other. It's an accident. Those things happen. It could happen to anybody."
You can take a look at the broadcast video of the wreck below. Take a look, then cast your vote in our unofficial poll. Finally, head into Comments and have your say on the matter – who was at fault here? Should there be an age limit on racing drivers? Let us know.
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