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When it comes to racing Joey Logano, a pattern is starting to emerge with how some of the veterans treat the young driver.  And the message from the veterans appears to be that they don’t respect this kid very much.  Recent run-ins with Kevin Harvick and Juan Pablo Montoya kept Logano from good finishes at Pocono and Infineon, and it’s no secret he doesn’t get along with Greg Biffle.  Instead of complaining about his fellow competitors to the media like he’s been doing though, it’s time Logano finally took action on the track.

The most talked about incident between Logano and a veteran happened a few weeks ago at Pocono.  While running in the top five late in the race, Logano was turned by Harvick with two laps to go.  Logano charged back to finish 13th, but after the race, Logano spouted off in anger and said:

“It’s disappointing, to be honest with you.  I had a top-five run going. I was racing the 29 and he let me go in the middle of the straightaway and decided to dump me in the next turn.  I don’t know what his deal is with me. It’s probably not his fault, you know? His wife wears the fire suit in the family, tells him what to do, so it’s not his fault.”

Besides the comment, Logano also took the opportunity to get in Harvick’s face after the race and let him know he was upset about what happened.  ”Sliced Bread” was so angry, he had to be restrained by crew members.

The move ultimately backfired on Logano though.  Instead of making him look tougher, Harvick and his wife Delana turned it around and made light of the situation by selling “firesuit” t-shirts, with proceeds benefiting the Harvicks’ charity.  Not exactly what Logano was looking for.

Now that he’s gotten a taste of how this all works, I’m of the opinion that Logano needs to quit talking.  The next time he gets wrecked by a competitor, he needs to exact revenge.  Whether that means waiting for a payback track like Bristol or Martinsville, or taking out his frustrations under a caution a la Clint Bowyer at Dover, it’s time for action.  These guys won’t get the picture that Logano isn’t to be messed with until he shows that he isn’t afraid to ruin someone else’s day.  Some of these guys are messing with Joey because they know they can push him around and he won’t do anything about it.  That needs to change.

Don’t get me wrong here though, I’m not usually one for wrecks.  When I watch a race, I want to see good, hard, clean action.  I know too many drivers, and seeing somebody get hurt is the last thing I want. 

At some point though, Logano needs to stand up and make a statement.  And that statement needs to be made with action, on track, and not by complaining to a guy with a microphone.

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Two incidents, two very similar stories. Two drivers enter a turn, two wide. The one on the bottom slips up and wrecks the one on top. The one who was wrecked has his car repaired and returns to track. He goes out and wrecks the one who wrecked him. One incident ends with a car on its top, the other ends with a car in flames.

Less than two months into the season and driver payback is quickly becoming the story of the year. This weekend at Nashville, we got our second taste of on-track payback in an incident between Jason Leffler and James Buescher.

These incidents have got you guys talking. Following the race a reader sent us a question. He asked:

“Do you think the time will come when some of the drivers get the message that “It was just a racing incident” won’t work and if you get loose it is your fault?”

Is that a message that needs to be sent?

The fact is the impetus for the payback on both occasions occurred because of accidental contact. No one means for these things to happen, and more often than not drivers are more than willing to take responsibility. Unfortunately we seem to be coming to a point where this type of incident is grounds for payback.

In the case of Carl Edwards I’ll give him a bit more credit because of the history between he and Brad K. That said, the contact in that case and the most recent one is not excusable.

I don’t think payback is deserved or OK when the contact occurs accidentally (I think it should be used sparingly in any case). These things happen during the course of a race; there are 43 cars moving at high speeds on a tightly packed racetrack. It happens. Jason Leffler’s and Carl Edwards’ careers are not free of contact that was unintended. I can’t recall their cars being destroyed by an angry competitor though.

At the end of the day all of these guys are adults and they need to start acting like it. It sucks to get wrecked. It sucks when you’re the victim of an inexperienced or over-eager fellow competitor’s mistake. But as I’ve already said, this is racing, it happens. The sooner these guys grow-up the safer everyone will be.

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NASCAR policies often ebb and flow in their enforcement. In the past we’ve seen a sanctioning body that really likes to loosen things up when people start complaining; but when that inevitable watershed event occurs enforcement gets ramped up again.

In true NASCAR form, this season brought us one of those promises of lighter enforcement. They wanted to foster an atmosphere of self-policing (within moderation of course). In response to that just more than a month ago Robin Pemberton looked at the gathered media and said, “Boys, have at it.”

Well Sunday in Atlanta, NASCAR got their wish; the boys had at it. After getting wrecked early in the race, Carl Edwards returned to the track 153 laps down and quite clearly took out the guy who helped him into the wall earlier.

That guy, Brad Keselowski, has made a name for himself in his very short career of getting involved in incidents like this one. Remember the Brad K. v. Denny Hamlin feud just a few months ago? Right or wrong, being aggressive and unapologetic about it is his style.

So with that, it was only a matter of time before an incident like this one occurred and it came as no surprise (to me at least) that Brad K. was involved.

I applauded NASCAR’s move before the season began and I still believe it was a good call. I think this incident though should be a wake up call to everyone in the garage. There’s self-policing and then there’s self-policing. Everyone needs to agree this sort of thing can’t be tolerated. Obviously Carl didn’t mean for Keselowski to get airborne, or expect that happen, but the possibility always exists at 200 mph.

That said though, I have a hard time justifying a suspension, and I’d be surprised if NASCAR issued one (famous last words). Even more, of all people to be calling for someone to get suspended for aggressive driving, it’s almost laughable that person is Brad Keselowski. By all means he deserves to be angry for what resulted from the payback; he could have been seriously injured (thankfully he wasn’t). But if ever there was a situation where that old idiom ‘the pot calling the kettle black’ applies, this is it.

No question, it’s unfortunate this happened. Frankly drivers should know better than to do things like this. While I can’t say what the proper punishment should be here, Robin Pemberton has said NASCAR will evaluate the incident further. If there are additional penalties, we’ll likely hear about them by Tuesday.

So what do you think? Was the retaliation justified? What, if any, should the punishment be for retaliating on track?