|
 Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski traded paint on the racetrack
during Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor
Speedway -- and that was just the beginning.
On pit road after the race, Keselowski drove his No. 2 Team Penske
Ford into Kenseth's No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after Kenseth had
unbuckled his belts and lowered his window net.
Tony Stewart's Chevrolet was inadvertently damaged during the
exchange between Keselowski and Kenseth. Stewart backed into
Keselowski's car in retaliation, crunching the nose of the Ford.
After Keselowski exited his car and was walking between haulers in
the garage, Kenseth jumped him, and the drivers wrestled until crew
members and officials intervened.
Noting that he and Keselowski had a similar issue at Richmond in
April, Kenseth said Friday at Talladega Superspeedway that he
doesn't regret his post-race actions at Charlotte.
"I'm definitely not built for fighting, and it's not really in my
genes -- not something I ever really want to do -- but I guess
everybody has their breaking point," Kenseth said.
Kenseth thought Keselowski had run him into the wall on a restart
with 63 laps left. Keselowski said Kenseth had swerved into him and
damaged his car under caution when Kenseth took a wave-around to
return to the lead lap.
"Last week was bad enough, to run bad all night and to be frustrated
and then get two tires and get towards the front, and Brad clearly
saw me roll outside of him and he hung a right on purpose and ran me
right into the wall and ruined my night and possibly took us out of
Chase contention," Kenseth said.
"So I was mad enough about that, and then to come down afterwards
and have your stuff off and your net down and come and pull those
high school stunts playing car wars after the race was just
absolutely unacceptable. That definitely put me over the edge.
"I don't regret my actions. I'm not proud of them or happy about
them or any of that, but I don't regret them. I don't know that I
would do anything different if the same thing went down again."
And what of the earlier incident under caution. Kenseth says
Keselowski's account of damage is overblown.
"Well, Brad is greatly exaggerating that point," Kenseth said. "If
you watch video, you can see he had no marks on his right front of
his car after that. He said it tore his whole right front off.
"I did indeed swerve at him when I took the wave-around, because I
was mad he put me in the wall and totally ruined my day, but if you
look at his car there is absolutely no damage on it. That was just
him greatly exaggerating the story."
Understandably, Keselowski had a different take on the situation.
"He is always entitled to his opinion, as I am to mine," Keselowski
said. "We are both entitled to our opinions. Obviously, we have a
difference of them, or what happened Saturday wouldn't have
happened."
On Tuesday, NASCAR fined Keselowski $50,000 and Stewart $25,000 for
the actions with their cars on pit road. Kenseth wasn't penalized
for the physical confrontation with Keselowski.
""First of all, it was not a planned action, and I didn't go in
there with fists flying or anything else like that," Kenseth said.
Keselowski said of his own fine, "It isn't something that I didn't
understand."
And about whether it bothered him that he was fined and Kenseth
wasn't, Keselowski added cryptically, "I haven't really thought
about it, to be honest. I guess in some ways you could, and some
ways you couldn't.
"It is what it is. I haven't put that much thought into it."
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Kenseth's teammate, Denny Hamlin, wasn't surprised NASCAR chose not
to fine Kenseth for the impromptu wrestling match.
"You really can't see any punches or anything (on video of the
incident), so, yeah, as far as I'm concerned, they were holding
hands," Hamlin quipped.
"We saw from Saturday night, those two aren't fighters."
JOHNSON'S DAUNTING TASK
For practical purposes, if Jimmie Johnson hopes to advance to the
Eliminator Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, he has to
win Sunday's GEICO 500 at Talladega, the cutoff race for the
Contender Round.
Despite pondering possible strategies for the race, Johnson says he
hasn't come up with a definitive way to approach the make-or-break
event.
"I've put a lot of time and thought into my approach for this
weekend," Johnson said. "There really isn't a clear vision for how
to make it work. Racing for it can get you in trouble. Riding can
get you in trouble. If you ride at some point, you have to go to the
front. With this rules package, it's much more difficult to get
track position.
"It seems like, with maybe three pit stops to go, you need to have
control of the race and maintain it -- or at least be in first or
second to be at the head of the line and give yourself a chance to
win. So I don't know... I really don't. Maybe being cautious early
will buy us some time and keep us on the road. From the halfway
point of the race on, you have to fight for track position if you
want to win."
Another complication is that at least two other drivers -- Dale
Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski -- are in the same leaky boat.
Either they win or they start working on their 2015 programs.
"There are many other guys out there with the same goal, not only
from a Chase situation, but also trying to win a race this year,"
Johnson said.
"We'll get out there to work and see what happens."
SHORT STROKES
Clint Bowyer was fastest in opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
practice at Talladega, posting a lap at 200.385 mph in the draft, as
drivers prepare for the new split-field, short-session qualifying
format that will debut at the 2.66-mile speedway on Saturday
afternoon.
Two other drivers -- Aric Almirola and Jamie McMurray -- topped 200
mph.
In a second practice session that featured a lower number of drivers
choosing to participate (21 versus 46 in the opening session), Kyle
Busch was quickest at 195.205 mph, followed by Kyle Larson and Kasey
Kahne.
In eighth place, with a one-point edge over Matt Kenseth for the
final transfer position into the Chase's Eliminator Round, Kahne
likely needs a strong finish on Sunday to keep his championship
hopes alive.
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