NASCAR on Saturday showcased the clearly modified gloves worn by Joey Logano in qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where the aerodynamic changes were so obvious that they looked like amphibious gloves. It looked like he was wearing part of a costume.
Logano’s black glove on his left hand had webbed webs of an unspecified material between every finger.
The theory is that Logano, who qualified second in Atlanta last weekend, modified his glove to put his hands out the window as an aerodynamic blocker during games. Qualifying.
A week later at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, NASCAR did not speculate about the motives of the two-time Cup champion or Team Penske, which did not appeal the penalty imposed on Logano.
NASCAR said it discovered the glove during a surprise inspection, not a tip from a rival team, as Denny Hamlin suggested, and said it did not know whether Logano was wearing the glove during the game. Obtained pole position in the opening round of the Daytona 500.
Rival driver Corey Lajoie said Saturday, unflinchingly, “yes” when asked if Logano had worn gloves during Daytona 500 qualifying that Team Penske had not yet used them on the track. He claimed that he would have done a computer simulation.
Lajoie estimated the webbed gloves were worth three drug counts to Logano.
Logano, who won the pole in Sunday’s race in Las Vegas wearing legal gloves, declined to comment on whether he wore webbed gloves when winning Team Penske’s first Daytona 500 pole. . He said his team did not force him to wear gloves.
“As a driver, I’ll be working with the team, and of course I’ll have some of that responsibility. I should put the gloves on,” Logano said. “I didn’t make the gloves myself, I didn’t make them myself. I can’t sew. We talked about it.
“What I’m proud of for this team is, yeah, it was a tough situation for us,” he continued. “It was definitely difficult and embarrassing to get through, but the fact that we got through it and focused on the next week showed that we had some speed in our race car and that we could put it into the race.” For us, pole position here is a statement type of wrap, so we’re proud of that. ”
Logano lapped Saturday’s qualifying lap at 184.357 mph, earning him the pole position for the second time in three races and the third of his career in Las Vegas.
He beat Kyle Larson, who won at Las Vegas in October in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, completing a lap in 184.225 seconds.
NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran said the No. 22 Ford was one of five randomly selected cars for post-qualifying inspection in Atlanta, and in-car cameras immediately alerted authorities to an abnormality. He said he had warned.
“Honestly, I’ve found some things that are concerning,” Moran said ahead of Saturday’s Las Vegas operation. “As you can see, the entire glove is webbed. The reason for that is obviously because it can block out more air. Drivers put their hands over the (window) opening, but the rules prohibiting this are There was no.
“This is clearly a step further, and it goes a step further because the gloves are not only a competition issue, but a safety violation.”
All equipment must be approved by the SFI Foundation Inc., a nonprofit organization that has maintained quality assurance standards for specialty performance and racing equipment since 1978.
NASCAR was unsure whether the material used to create the webbing effect was flame retardant.
Logano said he never would have used that glove in Las Vegas if he thought it was dangerous, but said, “I personally never used it.”
“I would never have put myself in a situation where I felt like I was in danger,” Logano said. “I have kids. I’m married. I have a family that I value much more than race cars, so no, I wasn’t worried about what we did. So I didn’t compete. Qualifying on the highway is very easy.”
Logano was penalized last Sunday morning when he was stripped of his second-place starting spot and relegated to the back of the field against Atlanta. He also had to serve a drive-through penalty on pit road after receiving the green flag as a competition penalty.
Logano was fined $10,000 this week for violating NASCAR safety regulations under “driver liability and driver protective clothing/equipment.”
Team owner Roger Penske twice told The Associated Press earlier this week that he “didn’t like it at all” about Logano’s violations, expressing his disappointment in the veteran Penske driver.
“That’s not good. Period. I told him,” Penske said. “He’s the leader of the team. Look, we’re under very close scrutiny, so we should definitely avoid that kind of noise happening. It’s not good for us. It’s not good for him. is.”
Reigning Cup champion Ryan Blaney, who gave Penske its second straight NASCAR championship in November, said there was no internal conversation among Penske’s three cars to try out Grove. Blaney said he did not know Logano was using modified gloves.
But Blaney acknowledged that while all teams consistently try to work within the gray area, his boss, Penske, doesn’t push the boundaries so much that he gets frustrated with the organization’s efforts and thinking.
“It was something they found and just wanted to try, but it wasn’t something they wanted to talk about,” Blaney said. “It’s always difficult, you want to be fast. But I feel like we’ve always been very close. We’ve always been very respectful – never to get into trouble. – Because that’s the Roger way, right?
“It’s really balanced because you’re always trying to find your speed, but sometimes you have to go into the gray area a little bit to find it.”
