James: NASCAR tries to right wrongs by parking Matt Kenseth – USA TODAY
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NASCAR has suspended Matt Kenseth for the incident on Sunday with Joey Logano at Martinsville Speedway.
USA TODAY Sports
NASCAR tried to cram the genie back in the bottle Tuesday and the sanctioning body sort of got it back in there. But NASCAR started this mess.
And hopefully it will own its share of the controversy and confusion it has created about its rules and enforcement and ”Boys have at it” policy as much as Matt Kenseth — the 2003 Sprint Cup champion and a two-time Daytona 500 winner — will have to own his two-race suspension and how it affects his reputation.
Having primed the conditions for an increasingly manic Chase for the Sprint Cup and unleashing the inner hooligan of its drivers by allowing them to self-police on the track, winking at some on-track incidents while penalizing for others, series officials will deal with the backlash from legions of fans and some of its drivers who find this sort of minor-league nonsense part of the sport because it was made folklore before NASCAR became a major-league sport.
If you’re angry, maybe this isn’t your NASCAR anymore, but it probably wasn’t before Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. It’s a national – internationally aspiring – corporation fueled by billions of dollars in revenue from television networks trying to sell things to folks – many of whom dabble in the sport – who might not find what Kenseth did reconcilable with a square deal.
Yes, this is happening at your favorite short track. That doesn’t matter.
In parking Kenseth for what the series deemed an intentional wreck of race-leading and title-condending Joey Logano, NASCAR got it about half-right. Five races would have stung a little more, especially because the “behavioral penalty” – (Section 12.1, 12.8 in the rulebook) – would have curled into 2016 when points mattered again for Kenseth, who was effectively knocked out of the Chase two weeks ago when Logano wrecked him while both were racing for the win. After all, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell cited Logano’s title viability and Kenseth’s lack of it as elements of the decision.
The series had the power to make this right, just as it did in making it wrong by not parking Jeff Gordon for intentionally crashing Clint Bowyer – who was still in the title hunt – at Phoenix in 2012 or reacting with force to other on-track incidents. NASCAR’s perspective on driver retribution had become a bit revisionist this morning as chairman and CEO Brian France telegraphed a harsh response.
France said in a Tuesday morning interview on SiriusXM that the series “won’t be accepting” drivers taking “matters into their own hands.”
Was there a secret memo? Gordon vs. Bowyer, 2012, Phoenix International Raceway. Bowyer’s title hopes were dashed. Carl Edwards vs. Brad Keselowski, 2010, Atlanta Motor Speedway. Edwards sent Keselowski’s car into the air. Probation for Gordon and Edwards. Move along.
There were proclamations from France that NASCAR is a “contact sport,” that drivers would work things out themselves, and a new Chase format that eliminated drivers after each of three rounds was created to generate more excitement in an era when TV ratings and attendance were falling. Moving a foe out of the way was part of the process and when push came to shove on the track, drivers started doing the same in the garage. Witness the fight between the crews of Keselowski and Gordon at Texas Motor Speedway last year – with some instigation from Kevin Harvick – or the melee between Kenseth and Keselowski between haulers at Charlotte.
France should also know that his assertion that every driver knows the fine line of proper and improper conduct is preposterous, because his series’ constant tinkering with rules and stoking at the proverbial fire has created an environment in which drivers have reacted like subjects in a psychological experiment. Kenseth said last week that the series had lost control.
In a sport where public insubordination is rarely tolerated, NASCAR apparently tried to show him differently. He’s been punished, but he’s still right.
Logano incited Kenseth’s rage in the second race of the second round of the Chase. Kenseth was leading in the final laps when the faster car of Logano approached, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver successfully blocked him off the lead twice. Logano bumped past Kenseth on a subsequent move for the lead, sending the No. 20 Toyota sliding. Logano went on to win in a green/white/checker finish while Kenseth finished 14th. That left Kenseth desperately needing a win after finishing 42nd at Charlotte Motor Speedway the previous week. The five-race winner was eliminated the next week at Talladega Superspeedway while Logano swept all three races in the round.
Logano was in position to win his fourth consecutive race and nab an automatic bid to the series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway when Kenseth, multiple laps down, stalked and wrecked him in the corner Sunday. NASCAR parked Kenseth. Logano’s crewmen repaired the No. 22 Ford to send him back out in what was a 37th-place finish.
Gordon had been docked 25 points, $100,000 and placed on probation for the remainder of the season for a similar title-impacting intentional wreck at Phoenix International Raceway in 2012. Grinding out a top-five finish that would have given him a mathematical chance at catching eventual champion Keselowski the next week at Homestead, Bowyer was undone as Gordon retaliated for slights from earlier in the year, particularly a wrecking of him and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson at Martinsville.
Fans will decry the lack of precedent, or consistency. Seriously? You watch this sport, right?
In the sublime post-race scene on pit road Sunday, after thousands of fans had roared in unison first at the Kenseth attack, then at multiple replays, drivers were not aghast at a former champion breaking an understood code. They were aghast it had gone this far. They seemed to wonder what the new ”this far” would be. Kenseth’s teammate, Denny Hamlin, spoke of a “wild West” attitude that had become pervasive in the series. And how could he not?
After Logano turned Kenseth at Kansas, a move that was widely deemed justified because of the JGR driver’s attempts to block in the late laps, France not only deemed the move “quintessential” NASCAR racing, but went a step further. While Logano and team owner Roger Penske effusively put forth that Logano was simply racing for that day’s trophy, France went so far in a satellite radio interview to assert that if Logano had been attempting to snuff the title hopes of a potential rival later in the Chase, well that was a “very smart decision.”
NASCAR made a smart decision Tuesday. But some dubious decisions created this day.
Follow James on Twitter @brantjames
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