Motor sports: Logano caught wearing amphibious-like glove in cheating violation

Las Vegas — NASCAR on Saturday displayed a clearly altered glove that Joey Logano wore in qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where aerodynamic-deflecting alterations were so obvious it looked as if he was wearing part of an amphibious costume.

The black glove for Logano's left hand had webbing made of an unspecified material in between every finger. The theory is that Logano, who qualified second at Atlanta last weekend, had the glove altered in order to place his hand out his window as an aerodynamic blocker during qualifying.

At Las Vegas Motor Speedway a week later, NASCAR would not speculate on the motivation of the two-time Cup champion or Team Penske, which did not appeal a penalty imposed on Logano. NASCAR said it discovered the glove during a random inspection – and not, as Denny Hamlin suggested, in a tipoff from a rival team – and that it did not know if Logano was wearing the glove when he won the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500.

Rival driver Corey Lajoie didn't flinch when asked Saturday if Logano was wearing the glove in Daytona 500 qualifying – “yes,” he said – and insisted Team Penske would have done computer simulation on the glove before using it on the track. LaJoie estimated the webbed glove was worth three counts of drag for Logano.

Logano, who won the pole for Sunday's race at Las Vegas wearing legal gloves, declined to comment on if he wore the webbed glove when winning Team Penske's first Daytona 500 pole. He said he was not forced to wear the glove by his team.

“As a driver, you work with the team and, hey, I’m going to take a portion of responsibility of that too, obviously. I should. 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.

“What I’m proud about with this team is, yeah, that was a tough situation for us,” he continued. "It was hard to go through and embarrassing for sure, but the fact we got through it and just move on and focus on the next week, we showed that we have some speed in our race car and to be able to put it on the pole here, to me, is a statement type lap, so I’m proud of that.”

Logano turned a lap in Saturday qualifying at 184.357 mph to win his second pole in three races, and the third of his career at Las Vegas. He beat Kyle Larson, winner at Las Vegas in October, who turned a lap at 184.225 in a Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.

Brad Moran, NASCAR Cup Series managing director, said the No. 22 Ford was one of five cars randomly selected for post-qualifying inspection in Atlanta and the in-car camera immediately alerted officials that something was amiss.

“We spotted something that was honestly concerning,” Moran said ahead of Saturday activity at Las Vegas. "As you can see, the entire glove is webbed. The reason for that is you can obviously block more air, the drivers do put their hand up against the (window) opening, which we've never really had a rule against.

“This obviously goes one step further, and that glove becomes not only a competition problem but it goes one step further because it becomes a safety violation.”

All equipment must be approved by The SFI Foundation Inc., a nonprofit organization that has administered the standards for the quality assurance of specialty performance and racing equipment since 1978. NASCAR was unsure if the material used to create the webbing effect was fire retardant.

Logano said at Las Vegas he would never have used the glove if he thought it was dangerous, which "I personally did not."

“I would never have put myself in a situation where I feel unsafe,” Logano said. "I have kids. I have a wife. I have a family that I care way more about than race cars, so no, I didn’t feel concerned about what we did. I didn’t race with it. Qualifying on speedways is pretty simple.”

Logano was penalized last Sunday morning when he forfeited the second-place starting position and was dropped to the back of the field at Atlanta. He also had to serve a drive-through penalty on pit road once he took the green flag as the competition penalty.

Logano this week was fined $10,000 for violating NASCAR’s safety code, under “Driver Responsibilities & Driver Protective Clothing/Equipment.”

Team owner Roger Penske earlier this week twice told The Associated Press, “I didn't like that at all,” about Logano's infraction and expressed his disappointment in the veteran Penske driver.

“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."

Reigning Cup champion Ryan Blaney, who in November gave Penske back-to-back NASCAR championships, said there was no internal conversation among the three Penske cars to try the glove. Blaney said he was unaware Logano was using an altered glove.

But Blaney acknowledged all teams are consistently trying to work within a gray area – but not push the boundaries to the point that their boss, Penske, is irked with the efforts and optics of the organization.

“That was something they found and they just wanted to try, but that wasn't something they tried to talk about,” Blaney said. "It's always tricky, you want to be fast. But I feel like we've always been very good. We've always been very respectful – like we never get in trouble – because that's Roger's way, right?

“So it's a real balance because you are always trying to find speed, but sometimes you have to kind of get a little in that gray area to find it.”

Nemechek ends Chevrolet's early dominance

Las Vegas — John Hunter Nemechek ended Chevrolet's early dominance by winning the wind-swept Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday in a Toyota.

Chevrolet started the year with seven consecutive victories across NASCAR's three national series, including back-to-back Xfinity Series wins at Daytona and Atlanta by Austin Hill of Richard Childress Racing. But on a day in which teams battled 70 mph wind, Nemechek ended Chevrolet's streak.

Nemechek led five times for a race-high 99 laps to win for Joe Gibbs Racing, which is fielding an Xfinity Series car for Nemechek part-time this season. It was the 10th Xfinity Series win and first at Las Vegas for Nemechek, who now drives a Toyota in the Cup Series for Legacy Motor Club.

Cole Custer started from the pole and the reigning series champion finished second in a Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing. Chandler Smith in third after leading 74 of the 200 laps – making Saturday a total Toyota domination.

Hill was fourth, the highest finish by a Chevrolet driver.

Josh Williams of Kaulig Racing tried to win the race with strategy and stayed out on track as long as possible to inherit the lead when the contenders pitted. The strategy might have worked had there been a late caution, but the yellow never came and Williams had to pit with 11 laps remaining.

That put Nemechek back in the lead with a nearly five-second cushion over Hill, who was running second at the time they cycled back to the front. Nemechek's margin of victory was 4.360 seconds over Custer.

The high wind forced Fox Sports to reduce the number of cameras it used for the race. It was unable to shoot from high vantages, including the speedway roof.

Verstappen wins Bahrain Grand Prix

Sakhir, Bahrain — The ongoing drama around Red Bull had no effect on its three-time reigning world champion as Max Verstappen routed the field by 22 seconds in the season-opening Formula 1 race on Saturday.

Verstappen started the Bahrain Grand Prix on pole position and was never seriously challenged on his way to a commanding one-two win for Red Bull with teammate Sergio Perez. Embattled team principal Christian Horner was joined before the race and during the podium celebration by his former pop star wife, Geri Halliwell.

“Today went even better than expected," Verstappen said. “It was a lot of fun."

Carlos Sainz Jr. was third for Ferrari after fighting hard with teammate Charles Leclerc.

At the start of the longest ever F1 season at 24 races, Verstappen already shows signs of repeating his near-perfect record from 2023, when the Dutch driver won 19 of 22 races.

Bahrain was the eighth win in a row for Verstappen going back to last September. He set an F1 record of 10 consecutive wins last season.

The F1 paddock’s focus has firmly been on Horner, with Verstappen saying on Saturday his boss was “probably a little bit distracted.”

“Obviously, it’s not been pleasant, some of the unwanted attention, but the focus is now very much on the cars,” Horner said. "My focus has very much been on what’s going on on track and the result today, I think, demonstrates where the whole team’s focus is and we move onwards."

Horner arrived on race day hand in hand with Halliwell, also known as Ginger Spice of the pop group the Spice Girls, and they celebrated together as Verstappen received his trophy. The race came after FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem said the turmoil around Horner was “damaging the sport,” in comments to the Financial Times.

On Wednesday, the team’s parent company dismissed a complaint of alleged misconduct by Horner toward a team employee. A day later during practice in Bahrain, a file alleged to contain evidence against Horner was emailed to nearly 200 people in the F1 paddock, including Liberty Media, F1, the FIA, the other nine team principals, and multiple media outlets.

The authenticity of the files has not been verified by The Associated Press; the file came from a generic email account.

In another sign that Red Bull is significantly faster than any other team, Perez climbed from fifth on the grid to second and faced little challenge after that.

Sainz’s third place was his first podium finish since the United States GP in October as a challenge from George Russell’s Mercedes faded.

After qualifying second, Leclerc talked of Ferrari making a “step forward” compared to its dismal 2023. But the Italian team couldn't get close to Red Bull on race day.

Leclerc’s challenge to Verstappen ended when the Dutch driver held the inside line at the first corner. After that, Leclerc was overtaken by Russell, Perez and his Ferrari teammate Sainz in quick succession.

Sainz, in particular, fought closely with his teammate – and then did it again after Leclerc briefly got back ahead at the pit stop. It was Sainz’s first race since it was announced he would lose his Ferrari seat to Lewis Hamilton for 2025.

Leclerc’s day went from bad to worse as he complained to Ferrari that the car was pulling sharply to the right under braking in a “dangerous” way that left him unable to defend his position. However, he later recovered to overtake Russell and finish fourth.

Russell was fifth, Lando Norris sixth for McLaren, and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton seventh after an uneventful race in the second Mercedes. Oscar Piastri of McLaren was eighth, ahead of the two Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

Sainz enjoys F1 racing again

Sakhir, Bahrain — Carlos Sainz Jr. is having fun driving for Ferrari again.

Sainz said he was relieved to be able to tap into his aggressive side with a series of overtakes, including two close moves on teammate Charles Leclerc, on his way to third place at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday.

Sainz's first podium finish since October starts his last season with Ferrari on a high. The record 24-race season means it will be an extended goodbye before Lewis Hamilton takes over his seat next year. Sainz is still seeking a team for 2025.

“It wasn’t a straightforward and an easy race, but I enjoyed it a lot,” Sainz said, adding it was his first race since the Austrian Grand Prix in July where he felt free to attack for positions without fear of his Ferrari ruining its tires while following closely behind another car.

“I love going racing, and I love going overtaking, being aggressive, attacking. And with last year’s car, it was simply impossible to do that,” Sainz said.

Bahrain is a stern test of how well the drivers and cars manage their tires, Sainz said, so to “do an overtaking, attacking race for me is a relief and it gives me a feeling that we will be able to do this more often this year.”

“It doesn’t mean we will do it every race at all, because I still think one of our strongest parts of our car is qualifying, so I think we will still qualify ahead of what maybe our true position is. But at least we’re not degrading (tires) and defending like crazy like we were doing last year.”

Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race last year, but his Singapore Grand Prix victory was all about taking care of worn tires on a rare off day for Max Verstappen. It was one of just three podium finishes all year for the Spanish driver.

It wasn't all good news for Sainz in Bahrain, though. Both Ferraris struggled with brake problems that Leclerc called “dangerous”. Even in cool conditions in the desert night, Sainz said his brakes overheated too when following other cars but he “tried not to panic”. Despite that issue, he said he made sure overtaking Leclerc was never too risky.

“It never felt close inside the car," he said. "Whenever I do an overtake on my teammate I will always try and leave as much margin as possible. I try and do it whenever I feel like I’m fully under control and I’m not putting any car at risk.”

Ferrari was the closest rival to the dominant Red Bulls in qualifying too. Leclerc set a time in the second of Friday's three sessions that would have been good enough for pole if he'd managed it in the final shootout. He started second but couldn't challenge Verstappen for the lead in the race.