NASCAR At Las Vegas: Matt Kenseth’s Day Ruined On Final Restart

Carl Edwards might be apologizing to Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth in the Tuesday morning team meeting.

Edwards pulled a daring three-wide move down on the final restart with four laps to go in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and it put Kenseth in a precarious position. Kenseth ended up wrecking his car shortly thereafter and finished 22nd instead of a potential top-three result.

“Matt spun his tires a little bit (on the restart) and I got a run on him,” Edwards said, “and then Greg (Biffle) and I went around him, and he ended up getting wrecked. I feel terrible.”

The replay showed Kenseth may have had a slow restart, and Edwards responded by darting down to the apron to make it three-wide. But when Kenseth got back up to speed, Edwards was the slower car and impeded his teammate’s progress.

“Carl just laid back and got by me three-wide, and then it just didn’t seem like there was a lot of room getting into (Turn) 1,” Kenseth said. “And then I did get clear behind him and he just stopped in the middle of the corner. I don’t really know what happened. ... I thought I got a good start.”

At the same time, Kasey Kahne got a run on the outside of Kenseth and seemed to suck the air off the 17 car, sending him into the wall. Kenseth made contact with Kahne at the same time, and the 5 car also sustained damage.

Edwards finished fifth and, according to Speed’s Wendy Venturini, quickly left pit road after seeing the replay to try and reach Kenseth at his hauler and apologize. But Kenseth had already left the track by that time.

“I mean, you got to get what you can get,” said Biffle, who finished third. ”...Unfortunately, these days you got to race each car like you have to pass for position.

“... As long as we’re not beating and shoving on each other, I suppose anything goes, I guess.”