NASCAR gathered the media to the Cup Series hauler to show the gloves it confiscated from Joey Logano last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
During post-qualifying inspection, NASCAR viewed the in-car footage of his qualifying lap and noticed an “obviously concerning” detail.
“We have our safety cameras inside all the Cup cars, and we review them quite often during practice and qualifying, and we look for oddities,” Brad Moran, series director for the Cup Series, said.
The problem? SFI Foundation Inc., which sets the quality and safety standards for NASCAR equipment, doesn’t make gloves with webbing. The webbing of the left-hand glove was so obviously modified, it looked like a frog hand. In fact, it wouldn’t look out of place on the hands of Tsuyu Asui from “My Hero Academia.”
Webbing gives a driver more room to block the air, but it also hinders their ability to unbuckle their belts and window net. Which is a serious problem, if your car is on fire.
As a result, NASCAR dropped Logano to the back of the field for the start of the Atlanta race, along with a pass-through penalty after the green flag dropped. On Tuesday, NASCAR fined Logano $10,000 for violating the league’s safety code under “Driver Responsibilities & Driver Protective Clothing/Equipment.”
Team owner Roger Penske told Jenna Fryer of the Associated Press that he “didn’t like that at all,” and expressed his disappointment with the two-time Cup Series champion.
“It’s not good. Period. I told him,” Penske said. “He’s the leader of the team. Look, we are under so much scrutiny and the last thing we need to do is have any noise like that. It’s not good for us. It’s not good for him. We’ll take our punches.”
Well, it didn’t affect Logano’s qualifying run, Saturday, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Wearing approved gloves, Logano clocked in a lap of 29.291 (184.357 mph) to win his second pole of the 2024 season.
