Following an incident between Matt Kenseth and Joey Lognao at Martinsville Speeday, NASCAR has decided to suspend the driver of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry for two races. Joe Gibbs Racing is expected to appeal the penalty tomorrow according to a report on NBC SN.
Kenseth’s battered car was multiple laps down when Logano attempted to pass him at Martinsville. Kenseth then appeared to intentionally wreck Logano who was the race leader at the time.
The wreck followed a previous incident on a restart in which Kenseth – who was up front much of the day – saw his chances of winning ruined thanks in part to the actions of Logano and Penske teammate Brad Keselowski who were attempting to get both cars into the inside lane at the shortest track on the circuit.
It also followed a highly debated incident at Kansas Speedway in which Kenseth was leading the race before Logano made contact with him spinning him out. That resulted in Logano’s second win of the round and contributed to Kenseth being unable to advance to the third round of the Chase.
At that time Logano insisted he was just trying to win the race and had done nothing wrong while Kenseth’s comments could have been construed as one who would get payback at some point.
Following Sunday’s race at Martinsville, Logano called Kenseth a coward saying “What happened at Kanas was a completely different deal. … His was a completely cowardly move. He’s a complete coward”
The 2003 champion had a different take on the incidents “I don’t have any comments for that. …. People will say a lot of things … Some days you’re the bat, some days you’re the ball. You don’t like being the ball. … Certainly disappointed it came down to that. … Disappointing to get take out twice in the last four weeks. …. You never like to be in these situation. They really stink. But sometimes you get in these spots and you have to protect yourself in the garage. You can’t get run over.”
Jeff Gordon went to victory lane in the Goody’s Headache Shot 500 advancing to the championship race at Homestead. There are still two races left in this round at Texas and Phoenix. Logano has six wins this season – most on the circuit – while Kenseth has five.
