Tom Logano Sets Poor Fatherly Example
We’ve all heard of soccer moms and little league dads – you know, the folks whose fervor and belief that Little Suzy or Tommy Junior are better than the rest of their teammates oftentimes collides head-on with reality and natural born talent … or lack thereof.
But Saturday at Auto Club Speedway of Southern California, we saw something NASCAR rarely sees – nor needs: a racing dad.
What’s more, and worse, a racing dad who went way too far over the line, making it understandable why NASCAR pulled his season credential as punishment.
I’m talking, of course, about Tom Logano, father of racing phenom Joey Logano. Instead of celebrating Joey’s win in the Nationwide Series race that afternoon, Tom took it upon himself to first mosey on over to Greg Biffle’s pit stall, allegedly mouthed a few choice words that we can’t print here and then allegedly gave Biffle a hand gesture … I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a “We’re No. 1”, either.
Okay, as a father who also has a 19-year-old son, I can kind of understand why Tom would be a bit incensed. After all, the Biff did put his son into the wall earlier in the race, yet Joey was able to rebound back to win the race, perhaps the sweetest revenge of all for Biffle’s actions – be they intentional or inadvertent.
But one thing I learned a long time ago when my son was in Little League: never, ever interfere with the manager, the umpires or players on the opposing team. It’s just not kosher, not to mention you really present a poor example of sportsmanship to your kid and other kids on both teams.
You may criticize a move in private, but never try to show someone up in public.
Yet, that’s exactly what Tom Logano did. He tried to show up Biffle, instead of celebrating his own son’s accomplishment, and in the process made himself look like a spoiled kid, not Joey.
Let me point something else out: Joey Logano is a frickin’ adult. He’s 19 years old. He doesn’t need daddy to go fight his battles for him. If Joey had a beef with Biffle, it was up to Joey to settle it, not dear old dad.
But given that Joey was celebrating in victory lane, I think confronting Biffle was probably furthest from his mind at that point – although, obviously, not his father’s mind.
I’ve met Tom Logano a couple of times, including sitting with him, his wife and Joey at a NASCAR dinner a couple of years ago and sharing some very nice conversation. They’re nice people, a nice family. Tom and his wife Debbie have sacrificed a lot to get Joey to where he is today – and where he’s going to continue to go tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and the next couple of decades – arguably the sport’s next big superstar.
But what Tom Logano did Saturday is inexcusable and unacceptable. If he got carried away in his fatherly role, I can kind of understand it, but I certainly can’t condone it.
Frankly, what Tom Logano did to Biffle would be like me going over to Jimmie Johnson after Sunday’s win in the Pepsi 500 and chewing him out for ruining the story I was pre-writing before the checkered flag fell that had Jeff Gordon winning the race, not JJ.
Tom Logano needs to realize that his son is now a man in an adult’s sport and world. The days of standing up for Joey are over. Now it’s time to stand in the background and admire, instead of trying to be your son’s bodyguard and enforcer.
You would never see Tony Stewart’s father, Nelson, do something like that. Nor would you see Gordon’s stepfather, John Bickford, do the same. They know their place and leave any complaints or retribution up to their respective sons.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Joey’s face was flushed beet red with embarrassment when he eventually found out what his father did. There’s a thing like a father standing up for his kid, but this was neither the way nor the place for Tom Logano to do it.
And what he did Saturday sure isn’t going to help Tom Logano win Father of the Year any time soon.
Pulling Tom Logano’s season credential, otherwise known as a “hard card,” which allows access to every track on the circuit, is admirable upon NASCAR’s part. Officials did what they had to do not to make an example of Tom, but rather to enforce sportsmanship and decorum both on pit road and in the garage.
But having his hard card taken away really has little impact upon Logano. He can still apply for race-by-race paper credentials, as he did for Sunday’s Cup race, so there’s really little punishment other than a slight inconvenience with the actions NASCAR took against him.
Since I don’t believe in spanking or physical abuse of children, what I would rather have seen NASCAR do to Tom is something I’m sure he did to Joey when he was growing up and misbehaved: stick him in a chair in the corner for a “timeout” so he could mull over the wrongness of his ways.
Maybe even put a repentant Logano in a chair in public, for the whole NASCAR world to see, to further shame him for his foolish action – and which hopefully will be the last time we see such an outburst.
After all, if you’re going to act like a child at a racetrack, you deserve to be treated and punished like one.
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