Truex Jr prepared to pay back Logano

Truex – paybacks are a bitch

Less than a month after Joey Logano bumped Truex out of the lead on the final lap to win at Martinsville – a move Truex called a “cheap shot" that day – the talk at Thursday’s Championship 4 Media Day is what will happen should those two race for a Cup title Sunday.

“I won’t just wreck a guy … unless it’s the 22," Truex told NBC Sports on Thursday, referencing Logano by his car number.

That wasn’t all. Truex told reporters: “I still remember what happened, and I’ll use that to my advantage.

Asked if he would drive Logano any differently, Truex said: “Absolutely."

Asked if he had would do a bump-and-run on Logano for the championship, Truex said: “I have a free pass. He already told me I could. He told me he’s fair game. So here we go.".

Logano said: “I didn’t tell him that. I said, ‘Hey, I expect to get raced the way I race people. I’m a hard racer. I expect to get raced hard. I said it before, we didn’t crash each other. I didn’t crash him. Moved him up enough to have a drag race. That’s what I explained to him.

“Just so much on the line in these situations. If you don’t make a move like that, you’re going to go back to your race team. I know if I worked on that car, I’d be mad. I’d say, ‘Why didn’t you at least try to win?’

“I wasn’t going to crash him. That’s completely different than what happened a couple years ago (when Matt Kenseth retaliated at Martinsville for their incident at Kansas). I wasn’t looking to do that. I was just looking to move him up the racetrack, then have that race to the start/finish line, which we did. We had that."