Kenseth vs. Logano: Payback Nine Laps Down

Kansas Started the Tab

Late in the race, Logano caught Kenseth. Matt blocked him once, then again, making the No. 20 Toyota approximately as wide as the state of Kansas.

That was not irrational. A win could push Kenseth safely into the next playoff round, and nobody spends 153 laps leading a race just to become generous with five laps left.

There was only so long Joey was going to keep asking.

With fewer than five laps remaining, Logano got to Kenseth’s rear bumper entering Turn 1. The cars touched, Matt spun and Joey kept going.

After a late restart, Logano won.

Kenseth finished fourteenth.

One tap had converted a likely victory into a playoff disaster, which is an efficient way to make sure the fellow you just spun remembers your name.

Matt was not impressed.

Joey Helped Make Sure Matt Remembered

There are several recognized methods for calming down a driver after taking him out of the lead.

Telling him he had been blocking you is not near the top of the list.

Logano considered what happened hard racing. Kenseth considered it something that would probably need to remain on the account for a while.

Then Joey kept talking.

That may have been the expensive part.

The disagreement followed them to Talladega, where more irritation accumulated around pit-road maneuvering. By the time NASCAR arrived at Martinsville two weeks after Kansas, nobody needed a briefing to understand that Kenseth and Logano were not exchanging Christmas-card addresses.

Joey, meanwhile, was having a magnificent month. He had won Charlotte, Kansas and Talladega.

Three straight victories.

At Martinsville, he was trying for four.

Kenseth’s championship situation had gone the other direction. That difference would soon make one of them considerably more dangerous than the other.

Then Matt Ran Out of Things to Lose

For much of the Martinsville race, Kenseth was still doing what race drivers are expected to do: race.

Then a late restart produced the usual Martinsville collection of cars occupying places already claimed by other cars. Brad Keselowski lost control in traffic, and Kenseth and Kurt Busch were among those collected.

The No. 20 Toyota was badly damaged. Matt went to the garage for repairs, and by the time he returned he was nine laps down.

Nine.

At that point, the usual list of racing priorities gets considerably shorter.

Kenseth was not going to win. He was not on the lead lap. He was no longer racing for the championship. His afternoon had become mostly an exercise in circulating a damaged race car until somebody mercifully waved the checkered flag.

Joey Logano had a very different afternoon going.

He was leading.

That is when being nine laps down begins to provide a fellow with free time for other projects.

Joey Came Around One More Time

With fewer than fifty laps remaining, Logano caught Kenseth again to put another lap on him.

Under normal circumstances, the damaged car gives the leader some room. The leader goes by, the slower car continues whatever remains of its miserable afternoon, and everybody remembers they are theoretically professionals.

Matt stayed in the way.

Logano moved toward the outside.

Kenseth moved with him.

Now, when a car nine laps down starts matching the lane of the race leader, that is usually a good sign that somebody has stopped thinking about lap times.

The No. 20 drove the No. 22 toward the Turn 1 wall.

Then Matt kept driving.

Both cars hit hard.

Logano had entered the corner leading the race and chasing a fourth consecutive victory. He left it with the front of his Ford smashed against the wall.

Kenseth’s Toyota was wrecked too.

Of course, wrecking a car already nine laps down is not quite the same bargaining position as wrecking the leader.

Suddenly Kansas seemed relevant again.

Nobody Needed a Detective

Some racing payback comes wrapped in enough ambiguity to keep fans arguing all week.

A driver gets loose. Somebody misjudges a braking point. Two cars happen to need the same patch of asphalt, and everybody spends the next six days performing courtroom analysis on six frames of television footage.

This was not that kind of incident.

Kenseth was nine laps down.

Logano was leading.

Matt drove him into the wall.

NASCAR parked the No. 20 for the rest of the race, which was not exactly a devastating blow to Kenseth’s chances of recovering those nine laps.

The crowd reacted like somebody had won.

That was one of the more revealing parts of the whole mess. A sizable piece of the Martinsville grandstands had evidently been carrying the Kansas receipt too.

Logano was furious. Kenseth offered explanations involving the condition of his damaged car and the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Race fans were invited to reach their own conclusions.

Most finished the assignment quickly.

Payback Gets Expensive When the Other Fellow Is Leading

The timing made the wreck much more than a bruised-feelings incident.

Logano had swept all three races in the previous playoff round. At Martinsville he looked capable of winning again, which would have made four straight and kept his championship run rolling with all the subtlety of a freight train.

Instead, with 46 laps remaining, a damaged car nine laps behind him ended the afternoon.

Jeff Gordon went on to win the race.

Logano’s playoff situation suddenly became much less comfortable, and he ultimately failed to reach the final championship round.

One of NASCAR’s hottest teams had finally encountered a problem horsepower, setup and pit strategy could not fix.

A fellow with a memory.

NASCAR Had to Decide How Much “Have At It” Was Enough

NASCAR had spent years giving drivers some room to settle disputes themselves. “Boys, have at it” was the handy phrase, and race fans generally understood the arrangement.

If somebody leans on you, lean back.

If somebody uses the bumper, remember where his is located.

But there is a difference between two drivers racing for the same position and one damaged car nine laps down removing the leader from a playoff race.

Even NASCAR’s fairly generous definition of settling your own arguments had a fence somewhere.

Kenseth had just found it at speed.

NASCAR suspended him for two races and placed him on probation for six months. Joe Gibbs Racing appealed.

The suspension stood.

That made the retaliation expensive for Matt. His championship chance was already gone, and now two more races disappeared from his schedule.

But Logano lost Martinsville.

And whatever anybody thought of Kenseth’s method, Joey had received the message without needing it repeated.

Two Weeks Is Not Very Long in Racing

Kansas had started with Matt Kenseth leading and Joey Logano behind him. Joey used the bumper, Kenseth spun and Logano won.

Two weeks later at Martinsville, the roles looked almost nothing alike.

Joey was leading again.

Matt was nine laps down in a damaged race car with no useful championship future left to protect.

On paper, they were not racing each other at all.

That was the mistake.

A race track has a funny way of keeping unfinished business within passing distance.

Kenseth no longer had a race to win, but he still had a driver he remembered from Kansas. When the No. 22 came around again, Matt finally discovered something he could accomplish with the rest of his afternoon.

Joey had taken a victory away from Kenseth.

Matt could not get Kansas back.

He could, however, make sure Joey did not get Martinsville.

That is the useful thing about racing debts.

You do not always have to collect them on the same lap.