Joey Logano responds to Chipper Jones’ criticism after Talladega dust-up with Austin Cindric

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NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — MLB Hall of Famer Chipper Jones is no fan of defending NASCAR Cup Series driver Joey Logano, something the former Atlanta Braves third baseman made abundantly clear in several messages posted on X following Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway. This was a fact Logano himself didn’t realize until Tuesday morning, but while he now understands, the Team Penske driver still doesn’t know exactly why.

“I’ve never met him. I don’t have a reason to dislike him outside of now, but oh well. I guess I’m not rooting for the Braves, anytime soon,” a laughing Logano said Tuesday afternoon at North Wilkesboro Speedway, site of next month’s All-Star Race where he is the defending champion.

Jones posted his first message against Logano shortly after Austin Cindric, Logano’s Penske teammate, won Sunday’s race. In the message, Jones defended Cindric and lambasted Logano over comments Logano had made about his teammate earlier in the race.

The issue between Logano and Cindric stems over the finish to the second stage, where Logano was racing Bubba Wallace on the last lap for the win. Immediately after crossing the finish line, Logano voiced his displeasure in an expletive-laden rant about Cindric not helping him — an essential factor on a drafting track like Talladega, where having another car pushing from behind can be a big boost. Penske is Ford’s flagship team; Wallace drives for Toyota-supported 23XI Racing. It’s common practice in these races for teammates to prioritize helping each other.

“Way to go, Austin. Way to go you dumb (expletive). Way to (expletive) go. What a stupid (expletive). You just gave it to (Wallace); gave Toyota a stage win. Nice job. Way to go. What a dumb (expletive).”

Sooooo … Joey Logano isn’t thrilled with his teammate right now … 👀 pic.twitter.com/hUOpcQHwk9

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 27, 2025

Jones, who was raised not far from Daytona International Speedway in Florida, is a NASCAR fan and previously served as an honorary official for the 2018 Daytona 500, NASCAR’s signature race.

After Jones’ initial post, he followed with more, including one where he called out Logano for not publicly congratulating Cindric after the race and another where Jones gleefully noted that NASCAR stripped Logano of his fifth-place finish after officials discovered a mechanical violation on Logano’s car.

Logano said Tuesday that he wasn’t aware of Jones’ comments or apparent disdain for him until that morning, when he was told during an interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. What stood out to Logano, a three-time Cup champion, is that a former professional athlete would comment about the intricacies of a sport they don’t participate in themselves.

“I’m surprised that a professional athlete would act in that manner because he’s been through it,” Logano said. “I say it all the time, I am very careful to form an opinion on an athlete by their emotions or the way they play the game because I know from being in that position. When there’s that much on the line in a competitive environment, you act a certain way because you’re out there to win. And you got to be able to shut that off. I would have assumed him being the athlete that he is, and was, that he would understand that and not mouth off on social media like somebody that’s never played the sport before or a sport.

“It’s surprising to me. All I can think of is he’s just trying to be relevant still or something like that. I don’t really know exactly why.”

Logano and Cindric have since spoken about the events that transpired during Sunday’s race, but Logano preferred not to disclose how that conversation went. Cindric said after the race that he was in a tricky situation and was trying not to wreck the cars around him, including Logano.

On Tuesday, Logano reiterated that even after going back and reviewing the sequence, his opinion that Cindric made a mistake hasn’t changed.

“I don’t think TV captured exactly what upset me, and I’m not here to air dirty laundry either or to talk about what our internal rules of going at it on (drafting tracks) are,” Logano said. “There’s sometimes a straw that breaks the camel’s back — may have been at that moment, right? We’re out there in the heat of battle and when something that was set to be a certain way doesn’t go the way that we all agreed to, maybe not the first time, yeah, you’re going to get a little frustrated about it.

“At this point, we talked, we communicated. We’re still teammates. You’re brothers. … We just have to come to some kind of common ground and move forward. Because no matter what, he’s still my brother. He’s still my teammate out there. We still got to figure it out, and we will. And we did. We went through it all. We talked about it and you move on.”

(Photo: James Gilbert / Getty Images)

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