Joey Logano is an idiot, William Byron is a bully, and Kyle Busch plays the villain again
Darlington gave us stripes, morons, idiots and abandoned cars.
Yep, I'd say it was a successful Sunday, wouldn't you?
Take that, F1!
"He does this stuff all the time," said William Byron, just minutes after "fan favorite" Joey Logano punted him into next month with two laps to go. "He can't win a race, so he does it this way."
The usually reserved Billy the Kid wasn't done, either. Some other notable comments as he was walking from pit road to his hauler ...
"He does it to everybody ... goes in there 10 mph faster than me ... stupid."
"I don't know why he goes in so hard and knocks the (expletive) out of you ... makes no sense."
"He's just an idiot."
And, my personal favorite ...
"He's a moron."
Some start the week with a good Bible verse or song. Here in these spaces, the only hymns we need are from Billy the Kid!
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Did William Byron bully Logano?
All right, Joey. Why did you do it? Why!
"You're not gonna put me in the wall and not get anything back. That's how that works," Logano said. "I don’t know if he meant to get into me and fence me, but he did and at that point I felt like it was game-on and was able to get back to him there the last few laps."
Fine, you've both forced my hand ... let's go to the tape ...
... and, upon further review ... nope. Not buying it. Sorry, Joey.
Byron drifted up the track a tad on a late restart and barely put Logano into the wall. Barely. Frankly, by Darlington's standards, it was business as usual.
Logano retaliated with two laps to go by closing his eyes, slamming the gas, and showing Byron what a real Darlington fender-bender looks like.
Logano gets booed, but he's not alone (Earnhardt!)
And, by the way, just because I'm not buying Joey's reasoning doesn't mean I hated the move.
It's nothing a certain Hall of Fame driver (nope, I'm not saying it!) who was beloved in this sport didn't do plenty of times over the years, and we've seen that same move done by other active drivers in today's field (hello, Denny and Chase at Martinsville!).
Maybe, Joey, just be a little less obvious about it next time? At least act like you wanna get away with it!
"I've been called a lot of things," Logano said. "A lot worse than 'moron,' too. If you're willing to get the lead by running a car into the wall, you open up the door to retaliation. That's why he went into the corner low and slow, because he knew it was coming. I'm not gonna get bullied, I'll tell you that much."
Kyle Busch offends everyone. Was he wrong to leave his car?
You two work it out on your own time, because I've got to get to everyone's other favorite driver ...
Have a day, Kyle Busch!
"I had nowhere to go and just got collected up in something not of our doing. It’s frustrating," Busch said after Brad Keselowski's blown tire eventually ended his day.
By now, everyone's seen the shot of Rowdy ditching his No. 18 Toyota on pit road after the wreck, which, evidently, broke one of those unwritten rules in NASCAR. The radio folks didn't like it, and even Clint Bowyer — Clint Bowyer! — wasn't a fan on the TV broadcast.
"I just couldn't make the turn," Busch said when asked why he abandoned ship.
There. See? Everyone can relax now!
Frankly, I'm glad Rowdy did what he did. I wish he would've left it parked on the track! If you're gonna be NASCAR's villain, you better act the part, and boy, does Kyle Busch stir that pot!
Will F1 race beat NASCAR in TV ratings?
Usually I use this final section to talk about Fox's next guest analyst, but next week it's Jamie McMurray. Does anything more need to be said?
Speaking of TV ...
The numbers aren't out yet, but keep an eye on those ratings for both Darlington and the F1 show down in Miami. I don't know what they're gonna say, but the fact that F1 was on ABC while NASCAR was relegated to Fox Sports 1 could spell trouble for the Boys in Marketing in the big glass building across from Daytona International Speedway.
We keep hearing how much F1 is exploding in popularity right now, but NASCAR routinely beats it (pretty easily, for the most part) in the ratings. This one will be something to monitor.
Anyway, off to Kansas.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Kyle Busch offends everyone while Byron bullies 'moron' Joey Logano
