KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Joey Logano finally gave NASCAR the Chase for the Sprint Cup moment it wanted.
NASCAR Chairman Brian France has called NASCAR “a contact sport,” and this time, for the first time since France’s brainchild of an elimination-style Chase turned into reality last year, NASCAR had a crash among the leaders that determined the victor.
While drivers scuffling on pit road or tackling one another between the haulers makes for good video, this is, after all, supposed to be about racing.
In this boys-have-at-it world of NASCAR, the ending of the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway embodied the genesis of that NASCAR-themed racing philosophy — that if another roughs one up for a position, it’s totally fair game to return the punch.
With five laps remaining, and after Matt Kenseth took away Logano’s upper lane to force him into the wall, Logano turned Kenseth as they entered Turn 1. Not a polite jab by any sense. But a knockout blow.
And with that, Logano made maybe the biggest statement of his career, and the biggest statement of any in the 15 Chase races since this three-round, elimination-style format began.
The statements afterward reflected different views of Logano’s punt.
“He just plain wrecked me,” Kenseth said.
On purpose?
Kenseth: “Absolutely. 100 percent.”
Logano: “No. I think we both went for the same piece of real estate. We both went into that corner hard. I wanted to get position and get to the inside of him, and then he went for the same piece of real estate, as well. … I wanted to run the second lane. So did he. There was only room for one.”
Kenseth believes he had the right to the real estate as the leader.
“It’s the end of the race, and I was trying to stay in front of him the best I could and I was in front of him,” Kenseth said. “I didn’t do anything wrong to him.
“The race track is 80- or 100-feet wide down there and I was in front of him. He just chose to spin me out because he wanted to be in the top groove instead of going left and trying to race me for the win the way a man should do it.”
But others believe that if a driver throws a few blocks, all bets are off. A driver just can’t block and block and block. Apparently Logano had seen enough.
“It’s one of those racing accidents,” Logano team owner Roger Penske said. “It’s real tough when it’s in this kind of a situation, but there was no question that Kenseth was doing everything he could to keep Joey from going by.”
While Chase races have featured aggression — Brad Keselowski‘s moves at Charlotte and Texas last year as well as Ryan Newman‘s roughing up Kyle Larson for a point to advance to the final round — none were this in-your-face, turn-him-and-win moment.
Drivers know the racing code of do unto others how they do unto you, but don’t doubt for a second that they will discuss among themselves the appropriateness of this move, a winning move that could encourage retaliation but also likely will put a former champion on the outside looking in at the start of the next round.
In some ways, Logano didn’t just dump Kenseth. He kicked the door down of what drivers should expect to do in these situations.
“There is no rules when it comes to the way we race each other,” Logano said. “And the way we’re going to race [is] hard, and I’m going to race the way people race me, and I expect the same back.
“That’s the answer that 90 percent of the drivers would tell you is if they’re raced hard, they’re going to race hard back.”
If NASCAR’s lucky, there will be more of this in the Chase, which has the potential for many more of the “we both went for the same piece of real estate” situations.
This went beyond a wreck-him-for-a-win. This wreck could keep Kenseth, now tied with Logano with a season-high five wins, from advancing to the third round of the Chase. With a win Sunday, Kenseth would have locked himself into the next round, and now he sits 35 points out of the current cutoff spot needing to win at the unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway next weekend.
Logano earned more than a big check. He might have eliminated one of his biggest competitors for the title. Kenseth said part of his disappointment stemmed from Logano already having a win in this round and so he didn’t need to wreck another driver to advance.
“Part of the strategy when you go to this round or really any round is to win as often as possible to keep your competitors out,” Logano said. “You know, and everyone is fast in the Chase right now, right? … For us it’s just about winning trophies.
“We don’t have to think too much deeper than that; it’s just we want to go win the race.”
But Logano might have picked a battle with not just Kenseth. Kenseth has three teammates who likely will back him up in Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. Logano might have executed the most perfect punt — one with no fumbles and one with no chance of an immediate return — at the expense of future hostility.
“You always race people like you’d like to be raced,” Kenseth said. “That’s what I try to do until that changes and then you race them how they race you. … I’m not going to worry about [wrecking him for a win].
“I’m just going to go onto Talladega and try to do what we can there and then after that we’ll go to the next one and do what we can there.”
Logano swears he can’t sweat it. He raced within his racing code.
“If I were worried about that, I probably would have run about 30th every week, so I’m not going to worry about that,” Logano said. “I’m going to drive my race car like I do every other week.”
In some ways, it appears to be another coming-of-age moment for the 25-year-old Logano, replaced by Kenseth at JGR but who landed on his feet at Penske Racing.
Often deemed too soft while at JGR — who could blame him considering he had a Cup ride at age 18? — Logano has spent the past couple of years refusing to get pushed around. This marked another day, another step in that direction.
“If I lifted in that situation like I did down the backstretch [when he first blocked], if I did that twice, I’m not sure my team would be too proud to work for someone like that, you know?” Logano said. “I know I wouldn’t want to work on someone’s car that’s going to roll over.”
Logano will find out in the next five weeks if he executed an acceptable, aggressive move to the envy of his competitors or one that could eventually turn on him and make his life miserable.
“If it comes down to Homestead and he is one of the four and maybe somebody else isn’t, they ain’t going to make it easy on him,” Kenseth crew chief Jason Ratcliff said. “Are they going to wreck him? No. I don’t think anybody would do that. It’s just uncalled for regardless of the situation.
“But it ain’t going to be no cakewalk, either.”
