While Jeff Gordon’s first win of the 2015 season, his final season of Sprint Cup racing, was one of the biggest headlines coming out of Martinsville Speedway, the other big story was the return to the headlines the story of Matt Kenseth vs. Joey Logano.
Going back two weeks prior to the Contender Round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the race at Kansas Speedway ended with controversy when Matt Kenseth got spun out by Joey Logano with five laps to go while racing for the win. A war of words would ensue after the race, and many assumed that retaliation and revenge would come soon from Kenseth.
The following week at Talladega, it was not Kenseth getting revenge but Logano aggravating him further. Coming on to pit road, Kenseth felt Logano brake checked him and cut him off, adding to the frustration of a day where the #20 car would be eliminated from the Chase.
All through the early developments, NASCAR held true to their statement of “quintessential NASCAR” and “boys have at it.” And all throughout, it appeared to be a question of if not when Kenseth would return fire upon Logano. Many within the sport pointed to the short track at Martinsville Speedway as the moment it would occur. And they would be right.
Following a wreck near one hundred laps to go at Martinsville, Matt Kenseth was out of the race for the win on Sunday. Meanwhile, Joey Logano remained in control for the majority of the race, until chaos struck.
The crowd cheered loudly after the incident where Kenseth appeared to deliberately wreck Logano. However, in an interview with NBC Sports, Matt Kenseth would claim he had a tire go down, which caused the crash. Regardless of his claims, the story seems clear to viewers – Kenseth deliberately wrecked Logano.
One overwhelming question dominated post-race analysis at the track – has NASCAR lost control of the situation? The league, which touted their “boys have at it” mantra after claims that the racing had become too vanilla since the days of old in the 70s and 80s, is reviewing the incident and will likely hand down penalties on Tuesday.
Controversies like this are not uncommon in NASCAR. We look back to the 2011 fall Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, where the series would park Kyle Busch for the weekend after intentionally wrecking championship contender Ron Hornaday. With this serving as a likely precedent for the current situation, expect a similar suspension for Matt Kenseth at worst.
However, this entire situation involving the two drivers creates an overarching question surrounding NASCAR’s new formula for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. When the sanctioning body created the new playoff system in 2014, leaders like Brian France were touting the excitement and pressure of eliminations and round by round battles. This was certainly on display then, with drivers getting into fistfights and pushing other drivers out of the way to move into the next round.
But is this situation different? In the end, the drama that has created the Matt Kenseth vs. Joey Logano saga is inherently tied to the Chase for the Sprint Cup formula. Countless examples call back to this, from Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski fist fighting, to Ryan Newman pushing Kyle Larson out of the way to move on to the Championship Four.
There are those who see a problem with this, who believe that situations like these degrade the sport, and makes it more of a sideshow than a mainstream motorsport. But yet, for decades NASCAR has seen drivers race aggressively like this, including names like Earnhardt, Labonte, Waltrip, and Allison. NASCAR was certainly never degraded by those drivers’ actions, but built by them.
Of course, there’s no question about it – the Matt Kenseth vs. Joey Logano dispute is far from being settled. The drivers, the fans, and the league all still have opinions that need to be worked out. And while some will call for NASCAR to change their ways, others will say the sport has never been better. What’s NASCAR to do? Remember your roots, but remain in control.
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