TALLADEGA, Ala. – Matt Kenseth says he’s been in a good mood this weekend leading up to Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
Likely because Joey Logano hasn’t called.
Five days after a controversial accident at Kansas Speedway where Joey Logano turned leader Kenseth with five laps remaining, and has put the 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion in likely a must-win situation in the final race of the Contender Round.
On Friday afternoon, Kenseth again addressed the contentious incident. Though somewhat still displeased with the outcome, Kenseth remained firm that he did nothing wrong.
“I wouldn’t have done anything differently because I didn’t do anything wrong. I did everything I was supposed to do,” said Kenseth of the late-race battle between himself and eventual winner Joey Logano. “I tried to get away. He (Logano) drove the car in the wall himself twice.
“I don’t know how you can possibly either, ‘A,’ block someone or put somebody in the wall when they’re not up alongside you – pretty talented if you can do that when somebody’s four feet behind you.”
Kenseth also refused to buy into Logano’s sentiments that he didn’t pin him on purpose. Logano insisted it was hard racing that ended with two cars going for the same piece of real estate. Even with the passing days, it’s clear that Kenseth’s beef with Logano is still as strong as it was moments after emerging from the thick cloud of smoke.
“Some day he (Logano) might mature a little bit, but, first of all, he should have stopped running his mouth,” sounded Kenseth. “Number two, he’s lying when he said he didn’t do it on purpose because he lifted your tires off the ground offset to the left, and he’s too good a racecar driver to do that by accident.”
Joe Gibbs Racing believes Kenseth did everything in his power to win the race, which would have automatically secured him into the Eliminator Round beginning at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on November 1.
Kenseth entered Kansas last weekend in a massive hole after a strong performance at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway went south, quickly.
After qualifying on the pole and appeared to have a race-winning car, Kenseth found himself in trouble after a botched pit stop put the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry mid-pack and without the coveted clean air. In his attempt to move through the field, Kenseth made contact with fellow chase contender, Ryan Newman, and later hit the wall resulting in a disappointing 42nd place finish.
Despite the frustration of the last two weekends, Kenseth knows that Sunday’s eliminating race puts him in a volatile position, but the typically cool, calm and collected driver isn’t one to break amidst the upcoming pressure of the Chase cutoff.
The key to Sunday’s race is simple. Be at the right place at the right time.
“Not a lot you can do here to make your car go faster, obviously,” added Kenseth. “It’s all about being in the right place and being positioned properly and not making just the right moves for yourself, but yet the moves that the rest of the cars make too and certainly being a race in the Chase everybody’s kind of on a different agenda or some people are locked in and are just going to help their teammates – there’s all kinds of different scenarios, so, yeah, just go race as hard as we can and hope for the best, so try to do the best we can every week.
“We had real fast cars the last two week. Do the best we can this week and if we don’t win, we’ve got four races left this year to go try to win some more races.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
