Kenseth, who himself was vying for the lead a handful of laps earlier, was involved in a wreck that he felt was triggered by Logano’s Penske Racing teammate Brad Keselowski.
Advertisement
Jeff Gordon won Sunday’s race and the automatic bid for a Chase driver to be one of the four drivers eligible for the championship in three weeks at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
So Gordon, who at 44 years old celebrated his ninth Martinsville win by jumping along the track like a little boy on Christmas morning, climbed into the grandstands to share the emotion with the fans.
“I don’t know what it feels like to be a rock star, but that’s as close as it can get”, he said.
Instead, everyone is still buzzing about Matt Kenseth’s move that took out Chase frontrunner and race leader Joey Logano. Just a complete coward. I’m hearing you say and I still it’s not registered because I just don’t. The leaders took the time to come down pit road, and Joey Logano won the race off pit road. For example, if NASCAR seeded the Chase so the first place driver in the standings took on the second driver in the standing and so on and so on, it would allow the weaker teams a better shot at surviving in the Chase, especially since it’s a one-on-one matchup.
Sunday’s win was Gordon’s first in a season he has admitted hasn’t been among his best.
The win was the second career victory at Martinsville for Crafton, and 10th of his career.
He was racing for his fourth consecutive victory, but there was a looming suspicion that Kenseth would get in the way. I’m not really sure why.
“He’s already invited”, Gordon said when asked if Kenseth would be invited to his victory party. Everybody is so equal here and when it’s those last sort of restarts like that you are just going for everything you’ve got – whoever’s in front of you, get them out of the way. “It looks like it’s just going to be every man or woman for themselves, and it’s going to be whoever doesn’t wreck in this Chase, I guess, who is going to win the championship”.
The act knocked Logano out of a race he had dominated and handed the win to Gordon. Being 28 points below the cut when there’s no wild card like Talladega means he’ll have to get to the front in the next two races and win. I’ll do what I’ve got to do with this race team.
Can he do it, creating what would be one of the most magical moments in the sport’s history – a driver winning a championship in his final race?
Officials reviewed video, team radio transmissions and downloadable data from the vehicle and determined the race results are official, the sanctioning body said Tuesday.
Advertisement
Harvick and JGR have needled each other since the start of the Chase, when Harvick dismissed the four-car contingent as legitimate contenders and said “we’re going to pound them into the ground”, during the playoffs. You’ve got cars coming in and out and the track always has those marbles at the end.
