In order for one to grasp its full effect, it is important, I suppose, that I preface this post with a disclaimer. As with any fan of Sprint Cup racing, I have my drivers I want to see do well. I am an unabashed Tony Stewart fan, and have been since his final full season on the IndyCar circuit. With Smoke sidelined in August, I spent the last four months of the season cheering on my second-favorite driver, Kevin Harvick. Mark Martin and Denny Hamlin are also high on my list. Beyond that, I don't really dislike anybody. I don't mind Jimmie Johnson's success - I do root for my favorites to outrun him - and our sport is full of such good folks that it is hard to root against them.
There is one driver, though, I genuinely do root against, and his name is Joey Logano. With that list of favorite drivers, I suppose that shouldn't come as much of a surprise. I didn't care for his bump-and-run on Mark entering turn one at Pocono in June 2012. Had it been employed at a short track, that would have been one thing, but any turn at a high-speed track like Pocono - let alone the one at the end of the longest straightaway in NASCAR - is not the place to be bumping-and-running, at least in my opinion. I also felt like Mark Martin is about the last guy anyone should pull the move on, adding to my furor. I won't delve into the Fontana situation beyond saying that, like Pocono, that is the wrong place to be running into other drivers, especially as a payback for getting spun at Bristol.
With all that being said, one of Logano's biggest fans also happens to be my best friend on God's green earth, Suzy DiCicco. Thank the Good Lord we both love Tony and Denny (yes, she likes both Logano and Hamlin. I'm really in no position to judge, seeing as I once liked an Allison, in my case Davey, and Darrell Waltrip simultaneously, though I do have the excuse of being five at the time), or else we probably wouldn't get along at all where racing is concerned.
See, Suzy feels pretty much the same about Kevin as I do about Joey. In fact, we were in the stands at the March 2010 Nationwide Series race at Bristol when Happy looped Logano's car exiting turn four on the last lap. Suzy's feelings on The Bakersfield Basher were solidified when the pair's cars again came together - though not in a bump-in-run scenario - at Pocono that June in the incident that led to Logano's famous "She wears the firesuit in the family" quip about DeLana Harvick.
Suzy and I give one another plenty of ribbing, bantering back and forth about "Crappy" Harvick and Joey "Lo-no-go." It's all in fun - for the most part - and when the other's respective driver wins, we grit our teeth and offer congratulations.
Just after Thanksgiving, Suzy made a request: that I tweet Joey (whom I do not follow and have not since the Pocono incident, after which I sent what remains to date my only "hate tweet" to any driver) and ask him to wish her a Merry Christmas. Oh, joy. To stick the knife in even deeper, she added the stipulation that I could not include my personal feelings for the driver of the No. 22 Fusion.
Monday night, well after the test at Charlotte Motor Speedway had been postponed, I decided to make my move and get this over with. Typing his handle into the tweet composition box (or whatever the heck we call that thing) felt quite odd, seeing as the last time I did it I was informing him in no uncertain terms that I thought his move on Mark was inappropriate, which I accentuated with a couple of less-than-kind adjectives and nicknames.
I sat staring for a moment at the box, empty aside from "@JoeyLogano" staring back at me. How was I going to word this tweet to the one driver I root against, hoping every week that his car winds up on pit road with the hood up and oil pouring from the header pipes? Would I even be able to type anything at all or would it look like The Fonz trying to admit he had been wr-wr-wr...you get my drift. I pondered what to say, and then a devilish smile crossed my face.
See, Suzy and I often joke that I never listen to anything she says anyway, so I
decided to ignore her decree. It's not like Logano would see the tweet
anyway, right? I mean come on, it's the off-season - Christmastime in
fact - and he's recently engaged. He's going to probably be busy, and my
request will be swept away, unseen, amid the sea of tweets from the
starstruck teenage girls who, best I can tell, make up 90% or more of
his fanbase.
I commenced to typing: "@JoeyLogano I don't like you - at all - but my best friend @EclecticSuzy loves you. Could you please make her holiday brighter with a tweet?"
"Phew," I exhaled. It was done. I was already wondering what sort of needle Suzy was going to stick in me for the way I worded the tweet, but I put those thoughts aside and moved onto another activity. A few minutes later, I returned to Twitter for a brief check-in, opened my mentions, and nearly fell out of my chair.
There was Logano's Twitter picture of his victory lane celebration at Michigan. To the right, his response read as follows: "I don't like you either but tell your nicer friend I said hey"
I burst into laughter, and based off her own response, Suzy did likewise. I composed myself, thanked him, and wished him a Merry Christmas. There was no further correspondence, aside from a handful of Logano fans who - like Suzy and myself - found the whole thing quite hilarious.
Talking to Suzy afterward and seeing her excitement meant the world. I love her like the big sister I never had - and she will tell you that I can be as annoying as a little brother, which we both were "blessed" with and know first-hand - so playing the butt of the joke to my least favorite race driver for the world to see was well worth it.
As for Joey, he probably didn't give the tweet a second thought after sending it. He also probably doesn't know just how much it meant to Suzy and I. Maybe he will one day, I can already picture Suzy running up to him at the Penske Racing complex or an autograph session and saying "Hi, I'm the nicer friend of that guy you don't like!"
I appreciate so much the time Joey Logano took to respond to one of his biggest detractors in order to make one of his biggest fans' year. I can't say that I like him as a race driver - that reconciliation remains distant, most likely - but as a person, his Twitter Christmas gift has given me reason to step back and give him a second look.
Maybe he isn't so bad after all...
