A frustrated Jeff Gordon had some harsh words for NASCAR and driver Matt Kenseth following his third-place finish at Martinsville that was oh-so-close to being his first win in nearly a year.
Jeff Gordon Pissed At NASCAR, Matt Kenseth
Gordon had inherited the lead when the top two cars, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, elected to pit with less than 10 laps remaining.
On the restart with four laps to go, Gordon held the top spot and was coming to take the white flag when NASCAR officials threw a caution for Busch’s spin behind him, setting up a green-white-checkered finish.
Had Gordon taken the white flag, he would have won the race (it would have finished under caution). But since he was juuuuust short, Hamlin got another two laps to pull off his incredible comeback and win the race.
Afterward, Gordon said NASCAR was looking to add some drama to the finish.
“It was pretty obvious to me NASCAR wanted to do a green-white-checkered finish,” Gordon said. "There were cars blowing tires, hitting the wall [and] they weren’t throwing the caution.
“One spins out, and they threw the caution in the blink of an eye. I think it was pretty obvious what they wanted.”
Gordon said the ending was something he would “laugh about tomorrow,” but he didn’t seem to be enjoying it after the race.
“Caution comes out, and we’re sitting here third, mad because we got knocked around,” he said. “Had the caution not come out, we would be over in Victory Lane.”
Gordon got “knocked around” by what he called a “cheap shot” by Matt Kenseth and said he retaliated to make sure Kenseth wouldn’t win the race.
On the final restart, Gordon said he spun the tires but got going, and then “the next thing I know, I got nailed.”
“If it wasn’t, I apologize to him,” Gordon said, adding he hadn’t seen a replay. “I made sure he didn’t win the race down the straightaway.”
Gordon drove Kenseth into the tire marbles on the backstretch, which got on Kenseth’s tires and made him slide up the track in the next turn.
Kenseth later admitted to contact with Gordon but said it wasn’t major. Clearly, Gordon thought it was.
“If somebody hits me, I’m going to hit them,” he said. “If he hit me, I’m glad I did what I did on the back straightaway. If a guy gives you a cheap shot like that, he doesn’t deserve to win the race, in my opinion.”
And what, Gordon was asked, defines a “cheap shot?”
“A cheap shot to me is when you don’t really have a shot at it, you just go and rub into the back of a guy,” he said.
See More:
