The NASCAR Cup Series kicked off on February 3, and the season has been off to a dramatic start already!
The last few weeks have been quite exciting with the Daytona 500 held on February 19, the Ambetter Health 400 in Atlanta February 25, and the Pennzoil 400 in Las Vegas on March 3.
For Team Penske, it has been dramatic for a bad reason.
Their driver, two-time Cup champion Joey Logano, was one of five randomly selected after qualifying races in Atlanta to have his car inspected. During the inspection, NASCAR found an illegal webbed gloves that he used during the qualifying round.
According to Fox Carolina, “The theory is that Logano, who qualified second at Atlanta last weekend, had the glove altered in order to place his hand out his window as an aerodynamic blocker during qualifying.”
In Las Vegas on March 2, Brian Moran, the Cup Series managing director, showed off what the glove looked like to the press.
Joey Logano’s entire glove was webbed last week pic.twitter.com/8rbhNvplCi
— Jenna Fryer (@JennaFryer) March 2, 2024
What penalties was Logano issued?
Because the glove was altered, and not to mention illegal, there were some major penalties issued to Logano. He was fined $10,000 for “violating NASCAR’s safety code under ‘Driver Responsibilities & Driver Protective Clothing/Equipment.”
This was due to the face that all of the driver’s clothing and equipment must be approved by the SFI Foundation and it was not. Additionally, NASCAR didn’t know if the altered glove was fire retardant, which is a huge safety risk in the sport.
Logano was also moved from his earned second-place starting position to way back in the field.
Additionally, the No. 22 driver had to serve a “drive-through penalty on pit road once he took the green flag” as a competition penalty.
What did Logano say about the illegal glove?
Although he never wore the gloves again, here is what Logano said in a Las Vegas press conference.
“I would never have put myself in a situation where I feel unsafe. I have kids. I have a wife. I have a family that I care way more about than race cars, so no, I didn’t feel concerned about what we did. I didn’t race with it. Qualifying on speedways is pretty simple.”
He admitted he did not make the glove and that his team told him to wear it, but he takes responsibility for wearing it.
His team Penske teammate, Ryan Blaney, told reporters “there was no internal conversation” about wearing the love and that he was not aware Logano wore the glove during the Atlanta qualifying.
Watch his press conference about this situation below.