June 8th, 2010 
Journo Bill France Sr. founded NASCAR some 60+ years ago with the outlaws and good ole boys of Southern stock car racing. It was a rough and tumble time – France Sr. was even known to carry around a sidearm to keep order. Who was in charge was never in question. And while that remains true today, some things have changed. For instance, something tells me Big Bill never had to deal with a driver’s parent. Take Tom Logano.
To his credit the elder Logano is a man who is truly devoted to both his children and their dreams. In spite of his unwavering support for his children, Tom Logano is becoming a headache for Joe Gibbs Racing and for NASCAR. In his second trip to the NASCAR hauler in eight months, Logano is proving he is not able to handle his situation.
In his latest outburst, Logano, obviously upset, appeared to encourage his son’s confrontation with Kevin Harvick, and then stormed after him, making contact with TNT pit reporter Ralph Sheheen (that interview should be uncomfortable next week). Logano, for his part, says the incident was overblown.
Whatever happened, Logano needs to be evaluating the necessity of his hovering. It’s difficult for every parent to see their children caught up in bad situations. I can’t imagine what it’s like to see your kid involved in high speed hijinks with someone nearly twice his age. That said, you don’t see Nancy Sterling (Carl Edwards’ mom) getting into it with Kevin Harvick, or Nelson Stewart (Tony Stewart’s dad) going toe-to-toe with Robby Gordon. They manage to maintain a professional at-track presence, and let their boys handle their own business (which is what Joey was trying to do).
And lets be honest, NASCAR should never call a wife, girlfriend, father, mother, brother etc. to the hauler to have a discussion with them (or to pull their hard card). When loved ones are at the track they are spectators. I would hope they would have enough respect for those they were there to support to keep their mouths shut and actions in check.
It’s a shame for Joey Logano, on a night when he was working to prove he was just one of the guys (and wasn’t afraid to express himself off the track), that his daddy again overshadowed his moment.
I respect Tom Logano for everything he has done for his children, but it’s time he step back and let Joey fight his own fights and learn his own lessons. The elder Logano’s behavior has been not only an embarrassment to himself, but an embarrassment to his son. Cut the cord and let him go Tom – for the sake of Joey.
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When I saw it happen, my immediate reaction was embarrassment for Joey. It reminded me of those people you see in the stands at a t-ball game screaming at their kid, someone else’s kid, ump, coach, or other parents. I didn’t know they were called helicopter parents. I always just called them asses.
I 100% agree, Mr Logano needs to back off. I was kinda happy to see Joey assert himself, right or wrong, for the on track mishap. Now his Dad is the story not Joey…
Bravo TNI you are 100% correct. Let the kid make his own way.
Exactly what I’ve been saying, thank you. It not only embarrasses the Loganos it embarrasses the sport. Plenty of young stars in other top level professional sports, and I can’t recall when I’ve seen their parents getting into their dispute with another professional player.
Time for dad to get off the bus if he can’t handle the ride. Joey’s a big boy now and has plenty of people on his team to take care of business.
One word: pathetic.
You all must be to young to remember Richard Petty’s Mom hitting AJ Foyt with a purse,
I’ve always preferred the term “Curling Parenting,” as in “sweeping your child’s obstacles out of the way so they have only a clear path in front of them.”
Poor Joey, though. Let him fight his own fights. Hasn’t he gotten to the point he’s proven he’s capable of doing that? And if not, why shouldn’t the other drivers continue to push him around on the track? If Daddy is going to fight his fights for him, after all…
I used to love to read this site but sadly you have become just like every other so called journalist or blogger. You read what everyone else is saying and then you pile on more of the same. Tom Logano did not kill anyone. He was backing up his son against an arrogant SOB named Harvick. My only hope is that someone knocks his teeth out for him. He is the dirtiest racer on track today. If I were Joey, I would wreck Harvick for the next 3 races and then see where his points lead is then. And to be honest, I am not even a Logano fan, but enough is enough. Reminds me of Harvick bullying Matt Crafton on pit road trying to intimidate him because Hornady could not win the championship without help. Of course it would not surprise me if you were on Harvick’s crew or payroll either.
Agreed. Brought back memories of Sam Hornish’s Dad and Tony Kanaan and then Kanaan’s thug friend shoving it out at the Watkins Glen Indy race. Pop’s needs to back off.
I will say that it was pretty lame of the 29 crew for having a sea of yellow firesuits gathered to what? ……protect Harvick from Joey. Let em talk it out.
I had to watch Jeff Burton’s interview post discussion w/ Kryle at Charlotte 10x. Just too funny as JB explained that Kryle was not making any sense, but JB understood because he was yelling at him. Kudos to JB, that’s how to handle it. Classic!
Yeah, Joey has image issues anyway being so young (he’ll grow out of them)… to have daddy there just worsened the whole thing.
Stay in the hauler and let your son- an adult- work out his issues. Joey is man enough to race 200+ miles for 4 hours, he’s man enough to show Harvick what he thinks and deal with the response.
It is about time Joey stands up for himself. If he doesnt start to he will continue to get pushed around. However, by saying this if his dad keeps getting involved he will start being called “Daddy’s Boy”. Tom I know you want to stand up for your kids but now that Joey is 20 you can let him go off the leash.
Well everyone should know that if your comment does not agree with this website, they remove it. Real objective.
I saw the whole thing and I sure didn’t see it that way. overblown by the media as usual
Bryan – Haha, wow. I’m sorry I shared my opinion on this topic. Apparently if other people are writing about stuff, we’re not allowed to broach the subject, or we’re being employed by someone. In all of my time doing this site this one of the most ridiculous comments I have read. This is a news and opinion blog site, and we do that from time to time – share our opinion. You’re more than entitled to share your opinion on the post or the subject, but the personal attacks and off topic posting on other posts will not be tolerated from here on out. We’re about creating a positive, and friendly environment for fans to come and discuss things that are happening in the sport (for instance Tom Logano’s injecting himself into situations that are not his to deal with), and this kind of vitriol is unnecessary and frankly childish.
If you have something constructive to add to the conversation, by all means join in. If you don’t, and you’re purpose is simply to attack us or someone else on the site, please don’t come back.
Bryan: On top of what Journo said, all we did was criticize Tom Logano’s actions, not Joey’s. I for one am glad Joey stood up for himself against Harvick. Maybe these guys will start getting the picture that Joey isn’t some rookie to be messed with. So before you start accusing us of being on somebody’s payroll, try reading the entire post first…
Bryan: To your second comment, your original comment wasn’t deleted. You, for whatever reason decided to leave the same comment on a post from two weeks ago, and we had responded there. It has now been moved to the correct post, where you should have left it in the first place. Disagreeing with us is never an issue; being nasty, spouting off, and not paying attention is.
And if you have such a problem with how we handle our comment section, there are plenty of other NASCAR related websites out there that you can patronize.
After watching the pit road incident several times it seems clear to me that the problem with Joey’s father is that most of the media has not accurately reported what happened. The confrontation I saw involving Joey’s father was with a Gibbs crewman who was trying to keep Joey from confronting Harvick. From what I saw and Newton’s article, Joey’s father was just encouraging Joey to confront Harvick if that’s what he wanted. I haven’t seen any pictures where Joey’s father actually got involved in the confrontation with Harvick.
The TV guy allegedly bumped by Tom L. was Ralph Sheheen and he said on Race Hub that he was not pushed, just bumped into, and that he had no problem with what happened. Sheheen said that NASCAR apparently had a problem with what they saw on TV, or on tape, and that neither he nor TNT complained.
I did find it curious the Mr. Clark from Kyle B’s team (the M&M crewman who was always between Jeff B and Kyle) showed up in the Harvick-Lagano confrontation.
I thought Joey did himself a lot of good, until he made his juvenile remark about Harvick’s wife, for which I suspect he deservedly will be paid back down the road.
I completely agree with you guys. Mr. Logano hurts Joey – it has to be near impossible to earn respect with Dad jumping in everytime you have a conflict. At the same time, I understand the urge to protect your children – but you have to let them grow up.
Bryan – You are visiting T.C. & Journo’s website, you should remember that. I disagreed with a post of theirs last week, but was treated with nothing but respect. We had a good debate, and decided to agree to disagree. Don’t take it so personally – we all have different opinions.
Little Joey has alot of dues to pay. With his championship crew chief and well sponsored team backing this entitled 20 year old with the jackass grin it seems that he has what every Saturday night driver in America dreams of. He will have to earn respect, his Daddy cant help him there.
I’m curious how Tom acted in the lower series Joey was driving in. Anybody know? I’m sure the other drivers gave Joey guff about Daddy stepping in.