NASCAR has decided to suspend Matt Kenseth for his actions at Martinsville Speedway in the Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500.
Toward the end of last Sunday’s (11/1) Sprint Cup race Matt was down several laps to race leader Joey Logano. It appeared that Matt used his car to purposely crash Joey’s car into the outside wall at Martinsville Speedway. You can see the incident in a video recap of the race here.
The move by Matt is believed to be “payback” for Joey spinning Matt in the Kansas race a couple of weeks earlier so that Joey could win that race. Matt also felt that Joey had “break checked” him after he cut Matt’s car off heading into pit row during a caution period the week before at Talladega.
NASCAR.com reports that Matt has been suspended for two races and put on probation for six months. NASCAR officials reviewed the video and other evidence in the incident before making their ruling and issuing the penalty.
Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer, said, “Based upon our extensive review, we have concluded that the No. 20 car driver, who is no longer in the Chase, intentionally wrecked the No. 22 car driver, a Chase-eligible competitor who was leading the race at the time. The No. 20 car was nine laps down, and eliminated the No. 22 car’s opportunity to continue to compete in the race.”
“Additionally, we factored aspects of safety into our decision, and also the fact that the new Chase elimination format puts a premium on each and every race. These actions have no place in NASCAR.”
Matt’s racing team, Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), immediately responded to the penalty announcement by filing an appeal. The JGR statement about the appeal said, “The appeal will challenge the severity of the penalty, which is believed to be inconsistent with previous penalties for similar on-track incidents.”
NASCAR has stated they will expedite the appeals process since there are only three races left in the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. The National Motorsports Appeals Panel is set to hear the appeal Thursday morning, November 4th.
Read more details about this story at here.
We will all have to see how this entire situation plays out.
By: Buck Stevens
