Byron says Logano made a "stupid" move in the final laps at Darlington...just like I made the same move on him after the restart., but he's a chicken S*** MF'er and I'm not.
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Kelly Crandall | May 8, 2022 8:22 PM ET
William Byron described Joey Logano going into Turn 3 at Darlington Raceway 10mph faster and hitting him in the rear as “stupid” but said Logano “runs everybody over.”
Byron was knocked out of the race lead by Logano with two laps to go Sunday evening. The shot to the back of Byron’s bumper sent his Chevrolet into the wall. Logano won the race; Byron finished 13th.
“He didn’t even barely make the corner,” Byron said. “I don’t know why he goes in so hard and knocks the [expletive] out of you. Makes no sense.”
Byron took the lead from Logano when the Goodyear 400 restarted for the final time on lap 268. He did so on the inside lane — Logano having chosen the outside — and the two were side-by-side in close quarters coming off Turn 2.
According to Byron, perhaps Logano “got spooked.” He felt the two had barely touched. Yeah we barely touched and I sent him into the wall first , but not hard enough to disable his car.......darn it.
“We had a pretty clean restart,” he said. “Everybody on the bottom, all day, couldn’t get through that bump very good, so it was tight. No reason for him to say [it was] retaliation. That’s stupid. He does this stuff all the time.”
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Logano admitted in his finish line interview with Fox that the contact was not by coincidence. He felt Byron had put him in the wall first during their fight for the lead on the restart and that Byron would get something back.
“That’s how that works,” Logano said. Hit me and I'll hit you back.
After gapping Logano when taking the lead, Byron saw his advantage disappear over the final few laps. The Hendrick driver admitted he was trying to manage his right rear tire because they had been an issue around the worn-out racetrack all day.
Yeah it was the worn out race track. I'm completely innocent.
“And he just run us over,” Byron said.
During his Fox television interview, Byron called Logano an “idiot” and a “moron.” Asked if he’ll race Logano the same way, Byron said, “Yeah, he runs everybody over, so I don’t see what’s different, you know? I hit him first and then He does it to me
and didn’t let us finish. He's the bad guy. All I did was hit him first. He goes in there 10 miles an hour faster. Stupid.”
Byron’s crew chief Rudy Fugle wishes they had a shot to race Logano clean for one lap.
“He took a shot at the back of us and that’s what happened,” Fugle said. “So, we’ll move on.”
Neither Byron nor Fugle felt Logano tried to make it a fight to the finish.
“Would have been great if he would have drove it there on the bottom,” Fugle said. “I don’t think we were trying to block. I think we were trying to do our thing and [trying] to get a run off the top and go race him for the final lap. I think everybody wants to be raced first and then things happen.
Oh well… We’ll move forward and I'll kick his A** just like I did when I took the lead away on the restart and put him into the wall to start with.”