{"id":242937,"date":"2025-09-21T03:03:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T03:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/242937\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T03:03:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T03:03:33","slug":"misunderstood-joey-logano-felt-like-dale-jr-with-loudon-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/242937\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Misunderstood’ Joey Logano felt like Dale Jr with Loudon pole"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joey Logano<\/a> kind of felt like Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The three-time and defending NASCAR Cup Series champion is a polarizing figure. Maybe it\u2019s because he is an unapologetic hard-nosed racer. Maybe it\u2019s because he wins a lot. Maybe it\u2019s because of how he wins.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, New Hampshire is his home track and Logano can always count on applause from this market above all others. So, upon capturing the pole for the Mobil 1 301, and being showered by cheers, Logano shouted and gave a fist pump.<\/a><\/p>\n

It was kind of uncharacteristic for a pole.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like winning,\u201d Logano said with a chuckle during a press conference afterwards. \u201cThat part hasn\u2019t changed over the years.\u00a0It\u2019s hard.\u00a0It\u2019s honestly become harder over the years, just because the field is so close and I think part of the emotion is that we\u2019re in New Hampshire. \u2026 The fans cheer me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s freaking cool.\u00a0That doesn\u2019t happen everywhere.\u00a0Like, only here, so I love that.\u00a0It\u2019s a little bit more exciting when you\u2019re able to win the pole when the whole grandstand is happy for you.\u00a0That\u2019s kind of neat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Joey <\/p>\n

Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford<\/p>\n

Photo by: Meg Oliphant \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

And sure, Logano has a healthy fanbase all across the country, but those that dislike him really dislike him and he cannot quite figure out why even if he\u2019s content as long as they feel something.<\/p>\n

\u201cI dread the day they don\u2019t say anything,\u201d Logano said.\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s the worst part.\u201d<\/p>\n

As long as they\u2019re making noise, as Dale Earnhardt Sr. once put it, not that Logano understands why his detractors are so passionate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand it because I don\u2019t know why,\u201d he said. \u201cI wish I understood why a little bit more.\u00a0I feel like I\u2019m misunderstood a lot of times.\u00a0I think the industry knows me really well and the kind of person I am.\u00a0I don\u2019t know if all the fans understand the kind of person I am or don\u2019t understand how you can race one way and be happy all the other times.\u00a0It doesn\u2019t add up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not focused on the haters<\/p>\n

Logano is famously one of the nicest humans in the garage but is infamously one of the meanest drivers once he puts on the helmet. As a result, the perception is that Logano is two-faced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess that\u2019s the only reason I can try to understand it,\u201d Logano said.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t understand it completely but there is a lot of 22 fans out there.\u00a0As a society, we focus too much on the haters.\u00a0We just do that in general and a lot of times it\u2019s just louder than cheers, but when you look at whatever it is \u2013 sales in the merch haulers or if you just look in the grandstands, there\u2019s a lot of yellow stuff out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of Shell\/Pennzoil stuff out there.\u00a0Although we do talk about about the haters too much, there\u2019s a lot of 22 fans out there and I\u2019m happy to have every one of them.\u00a0Like I said, though, it is neat when I do come to Loudon because I am representing, I feel like, everyone who lives around here.\u00a0I feel like you\u2019ve got to root for the hometown guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in this moment, he feels like Dale Earnhardt Jr.<\/a> in 2004.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to do cheer for the hometown guy and it\u2019s fun to enjoy that piece of it,\u201d Logano said. \u201cIt\u2019s the only time I ever feel a little bit like Dale Jr. \u2013 just a little bit.\u00a0It\u2019s super cool.\u00a0It\u2019s really neat to be Dale Jr. I\u2019ve learned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos from New Hampshire – Practice & Qualifying<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Shane<\/p>\n


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\"Chase<\/p>\n


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\"Joey<\/p>\n


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\"Denny<\/p>\n


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\"Bubba<\/p>\n


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\"Joey<\/p>\n


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\"Joey<\/p>\n


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\"Ryan<\/p>\n


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Read Also:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joey Logano kind of felt like Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Saturday afternoon. The three-time and defending NASCAR Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":242938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[129568,9650,1406,1420,991,11909,62,9653,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-242937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-misunderstood-joey-logano-felt-like-dale-jr-with-loudon-pole","9":"tag-joey-logano","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-nascar-cup","12":"tag-new-hampshire","13":"tag-new-hampshire-motor-speedway","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-team-penske","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115240069610437990","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}