NASCAR Charlotte 2014: Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth fight following post-race incident

A brawl involving Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth ensued following the NASCAR race Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Upset that Keselowski rear-ended him on pit road after the race was over, Kenseth blindsided Keselowski in the garage area putting him in a headlock and setting off a shoving match between their respective teams.

“I had my HANS (safety device) off, my seatbelts off and everything and he clobbers me,” Kenseth said. “The race is over, you come back to pit road. If he wants to come up and talk about it like a man, go do that. To wreck somebody on the race track and come down pit road with other cars and people standing around and my seatbelts off and drive in the side of me is inexcusable. There’s no excuse for that.

“He’s a champion. He’s supposed to know better than that.”

Kenseth wasn’t the only driver angry with Keselowski, as Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin was also irate with the 2012 Sprint Cup champion. In a separate incident Hamlin brake-checked Keselowski on the cool-down lap after the two raced hard during the final laps of the Bank of America 500.

Provoked, Keselowski sought retaliation on pit road. As the cars were slowing to turn into the garage Keselowski attempted to swipe Hamlin’s vehicle. Keselowski missed, and instead rear-ended Tony Stewart and struck Kenseth’s car. Stewart expressed his frustration by intentionally backing into Keselowski.

Once in the garage Hamlin had to be restrained from going after Keselowski by crew members and NASCAR officials.

“(Keselowski) just ran right into us,” Hamlin said. “I just showed my displeasure on the cool down lap. Then on pit road, he ran into the 20 (Kenseth) and 14 (Stewart). Then he ran into us again. Then he was doing burnouts in the garage area. He was just out of control.

“What goes around, comes around.”

Keselowski saw things differently. He directed blame towards Kenseth and Hamlin for triggering each of the incidents.

“For some reason after the race (Hamlin) stopped in front of me and tried to pick a fight,” Keselowski said. “I don’t know what that was about. He swung and hit at my car. I figure if we’re going to play car wars under the yellow and after the race, I’m going to play, too.

“Those guys can dish it out and they can’t take it. I gave it back to them and they want to fight.”

Charlotte is the middle race of the Contender Round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Next week’s race at Talladega Superspeedway will see the bottom four drivers eliminated from championship contention. Hamlin, Kenseth and Keselowski are all in danger of being cut, attributing to the emotion Saturday night.

“That’s how intense this whole Chase is,” said Charlotte winner Kevin Harvick. “When you see that emotion out of Matt Kenseth, you know that NASCAR has done the right thing to this Chase because everybody is on offense and gouging for every single position that you can get every lap”

NASCAR met with Keselowski and members of Kenseth’s team post-scrum. Officials said they will review the incidents and make a decision about potential penalties at a later date. Any sanctions would be announced Tuesday.