Despite cleverly bagging the win at Talladega, Austin Cindric still found himself amid a brewing controversy. Cindric has been involved in a handful of controversies before, but they were often sparked directly or indirectly by his actions. However, in his most recent one, it is debatable whether he was the culprit.
His teammate, Joey Logano, was the main talking point, as the men of Team Penske had a bit of a heated moment over the radio right after Stage 2 of the race. The comments made by Logano were not well-received by the audience, and many bashed the defending champion for his actions.
After the incident, not just a handful of mighty NASCAR figures had opinions about it — an MLB Hall of Famer, Chipper Jones, also had a take on the event.
Chipper Jones Chimes In on Joey Logano’s Talladega Comments
Logano did not dominate the track from the very beginning at Talladega. In fact, he started rather slowly. Despite starting in the third position, he finished the first stage 26 spots behind the winner, Kyle Larson.
However, the No. 22 driver stepped on the gas of his Ford and quickly started moving up the ladder. In the final few laps, the Team Penske drivers, Logano and Cindric, ran in line to keep their momentum steady.
On the final lap, Cindric came close to a crash, and to avoid it, he had no option but to break the line. This completely caught Logano off guard, who, as a result, lost his pace.
Bubba Wallace of 23XI Racing took no time to take advantage of the situation and moved to the front. The No. 23 driver eventually snatched the Stage 2 win from Logano.
Logano, frustrated with Cindric’s move, had some nasty comments to make. On his radio, he said: “Way to go, Austin! Way to go, you dumb f***! Way to f****** go. What a stupid s***. You just gave it to him. Gave a Toyota a stage win. Nice job. Way to go! What a dumb. Put that in the book again!”
Jones’ Tweet and Austin Cindric’s Reaction After Talladega
After the race, Jones, a former Atlanta Braves legend, took to X to post a lengthy tweet.
“Congrats to@AustinCindric on his@TALLADEGA win. Good teammates are hard to come by, Boss! Remember that one of urs MFed u on national TV when in all actuality, u did everything possible to keep from wrecking him,” he said.
“Hate to be #dueces in the ‘team’ meeting on Monday. Some people are ‘hooray for our team as long as I’m the star’ as every team has them. Hendrick, RCR, JGR, Penske, etc. Sometimes karma is glorious. Enjoy this one! In case anyone is confused, lemme be clear….@joeylogano”
He explicitly tagged Logano and showed his support for Cindric after the turn of events. His post went instantly viral and even drew a response from Dale Earnhardt Jr., who commented, “Holy s*** Chipper!😂”
While this got several folks talking, Cindric himself had not spoken about it publicly until recently. In his recent interview, when he was asked if he knew who Jones was and if he was a fan, Cindric burst out laughing.
“I mean, I know of him, I know who he is. I don’t follow too much baseball, but to have someone like that, with eyes on our sport, a Hall of Famer, is really cool,” Cindric said.
He then tried to tone down the subject and added, “Like I said already, the rest of it’s a lot of noise, but it’s cool to have someone like that behind me. But otherwise, yeah, definitely sounds like a NASCAR fan.”
When Cindric was asked about wearing a Braves hat, he revealed that it was just his neutral hat. “It’s usually just the one, that or the [Indianapolis] Colts hat that I snag in my truck. That Braves hat stayed in the hat box out of respect for my relationship with my teammates.”
Logano and Cindric have cleared the air after a chat and have no feud following the incident.