NASCAR Champ Joey Logano Caught Cheating With Illegal Webbed Gloves
Auto racing champion Joey Logano received a cheating violation for using an illegally modified racing glove with webbed fingers that was clearly against NASCAR’s rules.
At a press conference in Las Vegas on Saturday, NASCAR officials displayed the glove they had recovered from Logano’s car during a random check at the Atlanta Motor Speedway a week earlier. Logano used the glove at the time trials in Atlanta last weekend, when he qualified second. He was hit with a string of penalties for the violation, including a $10,000 fine, forfeiting his starting position at second and dropping to the back of the field instead, and serving an in-race penalty pass-through on pit road in last week’s Atlanta race.
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Brad Moran, NASCAR’s Cup Series director, explained that all racing gloves must meet safety standards set by SFI and cannot be modified in any way.
“SFI does not approve any glove with any webbing, obviously for safety reasons,” Moran told reporters.
Then he held up the confiscated illegal glove, fanning out the fingers to clearly display the added webbing between them.
“As you can see, the entire glove is webbed,” he said.
The glove constitutes a cheating violation because the webbing allows drivers to block more air from the car, reducing drag from the window opening. But officials were more concerned about the safety threat the gloves could pose than about the cheating. Moran said the extra fabric could hinder a driver’s exit from the vehicle in case of a crash, and may not be flame-retardant.
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Logano did not feel that his safety was at risk because of the illegal gloves. “I would never have put myself in a situation where I feel unsafe,” he said.
Logano described the cheating violation as “embarrassing” for the team and took partial responsibility for the infraction.
“I put the glove on,” Logano said. “I didn’t build the glove or make it on my own. I can’t sew. We had conversations about it,” he said, adding that no one from his team made him wear the glove.
On Saturday, Logano won the pole position with the fastest qualifying time in Las Vegas—this time, using SFI-approved gloves.
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