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I’ve taken a little grief from the readers regarding my post from last week about Joey Logano needing a short memory after wrecking big at Dover.  Some of you thought I was reading too much into his post wreck comments (to be honest, Journo thought I was too), and that you thought he would be fine.  And now that Logano has raced, and won, I’ve had a few more folks call me out over the post. 

I think it’s funny that I’m catching some flack over the post, because I never said Logano wasn’t going to get it done.  I never even said I thought he was afraid, or that it was going to affect him.  All I said was that it worried me that he admitted some fear, because fear will paralyze a driver.  And I also said that he he was going to need a short memory and be able to move past it.

And guess what?

He did just that.

On Saturday in Kansas, Logano made a dramatic closing laps pass to get by his teammate Kyle Busch and score the Nationwide Series win.  He didn’t fare as well on Sunday, finishing 28th in the Cup race, but he didn’t seem to show any ill effects from the tumble he took the week before.  I even heard that he told reporters that the Dover crash made him more confident in the cars he is climbing into every week.

Moving forward, I think it’s big for Logano’s confidence that he was able to climb back into his car and prevail.  He showed that he still has that fearless mindset that teams look for in young drivers, and the ability to bounce back from a little adversity.  Chalk this one up as another learning experience for Logano in his rookie season.

Kudos to you Joey Logano.

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While doing my usual internet trolling tonight, I came across Tom Bowles’ weekly “Did You Notice” piece over at The Frontstretch.  In it, he talks about Joey Logano’s reaction to his wild wreck this past weekend at Dover.  If you haven’t seen Logano’s wreck, click here.  Bowles quotes Logano as saying:

“It just really scared the heck out of me. I’m not sure I want to see a replay. It started rolling and I was in there like, ‘Damn, please make this thing stop.’ And it wouldn’t. It just kept going and going. It just startled me.”

The main point made by Bowles is that drivers are losing some of the killer instinct made famous by some of the NASCAR greats.  I see his point, but what immediately jumps out at me is his admitted fear.  It worries me that Logano said it, and I’m interested to see if Logano lets this affect him down the road.

I wrote a post about a year ago about drivers and fear (see it here), and Logano’s comments brought me right back to it.  If they want to have any level of success in racing, a driver has to be absolutely fearless.  And on top of that, they need to have a short memory.  Remembering a previous wreck while taking to the track will only slow a driver down.

Don’t know what I mean by fearless?  How about Rusty Wallace’s horrible crash at Daytona in 1993.  He tumbled countless times down the backstretch and ended up coming to rest in a destroyed race car.  He followed that up by winning the next race at Rockingham, and then added nine more victories before that season ended.  And all this was well before the introduction of the modern, safer COT.

When Logano hits the track this weekend in Kansas, he needs to have forgotten that Dover ever happened.  His young career will be over very quickly if he harbors this fear of wrecking and holds back.  I don’t want to name any drivers here, but too many have let a bad wreck ruin what was a promising career.

NASCAR is a dangerous sport.  If a driver cannot handle that, and be able to wreck and keep digging, then he needs to find something else to do.  Here’s to hoping Logano pulls a reverse Jimmy Spencer and forgets everything.