Kenseth was suspended Tuesday for two races, a decision surely without precedent.
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The Cambridge native was nine laps behind when he drove Logano into a wall last Sunday at Martinsville. On that occasion, Logano had tapped Kenseth into a spin that ultimately contributed to him dropping out of this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, while Logano himself went on to claim victory. The penalties include suspending Kenseth for the next 2 races, and putting Kenseth on NASCAR probation for a six-month period. She got fined $50,000 and docked 25 not-very-important-at-this-point Sprint Cup points (and, oh yes, probation), which brings us to my final point.
The appeal will challenge the severity of the penalty which is believed to be inconsistent with previous penalties for similar on-track incidents.
According to a statement, the Toyota-based organization will have no further comment until the appeal is heard later this week.
If the penalty is upheld, Kenseth will be forced to sit out this Sunday’s race at the Texas Motor Speedway and the race at the Phoenix worldwide Raceway a week later.
Logano was leading the race at the time.
Kenseth fumed about the Kansas Speedway incident for two weeks and exacted his revenge as Logano was dominating at Martinsville. It irked Kenseth, and he responded with a move that many drivers would applaud as he righted the wrong done to him at Kansas. Logano was out front and had led almost half of the race to that point. They’re the parent figures within our organization and they tell us what the rules are.
“He’s got a couple races left, he’s got the best auto, he might get a couple of wins here and still have a shot at it,”Kenseth said”. But NASCAR said last week that in an effort to maintain a few semblance of safety, it would make just one attempt to finish the race under the green flag instead of the usual three tries.
Following Sunday’s race at Martinsville, Logano called Kenseth a coward saying “What happened at Kanas was a completely different deal”. “NASCAR sometimes gets influenced too much by the media”, he said.
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From all the NASCAR rhetoric and the actions on Tuesday apparently that line is Chase driver vs non-chase driver. “That was really what got under Matt’s skin more than anything – how Joey was arrogant about it. When you damn wreck a guy, admit it, you know?” That would have sent a clear message that it doesn’t matter if you’re a race contender/Chase contender/leader or a back marker laps down to the leaders fighting for 20-something or 30-something place, if you intentionally wreck someone with the intent to end their day, you’re going to be the one suspended… not them. “Sure, when people crown the statement that a driver’s doing what he’s got to do and they became OK with that statement, you’re just opening up Pandora’s box”.
