NASCAR CEO hints Matt Kenseth facing stiff penalties for crashing Joey Logano

Matt Kenseth is facing a possible suspension for deliberately wrecking Joey Logano, NASCAR CEO and chairman Brian France told SiriusXM Radio Tuesday morning. (UPDATE: Kenseth was suspended two races by NASCAR).

Kenseth was 10 laps down when he pile-drove race-leader Joey Logano on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. That act of vengeance by Kenseth was in retaliation for an incident between them two weeks prior at Kansas Speedway when Logano spun Kenseth out of the lead with five laps remaining, effectively eliminating Kenseth from the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship playoff.

France supported Logano’s maneuver at Kansas as Kenseth had been blocking him for several laps, calling it “quintessential NASCAR” the day following the race in an interview on SiriusXM. But France doesn’t view what Kenseth did the same positive manner, saying the sanctioning body will be “dealing with that later (Tuesday),” suggesting the likelihood of penalties to be handed down.

“The reality is that in Kansas, what I said on this show was that late in a race we expect drivers to take chances to win races, they’ve got the skill to do it,” France said. “We expect them to race hard. Blocking is part of this game, as Matt was doing, and contact will happen in NASCAR from time to time.

“The unfortunate thing for Matt is that he had a lot on the line that day and it’s understandable the disappointment he had. Late in that race, a faster car is behind you and you’re blocking, there’s some contact and you get the short end of it and you go around. That was an entirely different situation than Martinsville.”

NASCAR’s reaction to when a driver intentionally crashes another as a form of payback has varied recently.

In 2011, Kyle Busch wrecked Ron Hornaday Jr. under caution during a Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, resulting in Busch being suspended for that weekend’s Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series races. The following year, Jeff Gordon purposefully hooked Clint Bowyer and caused a multi-car crash during the Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway. Gordon was fined $100,000 and docked 25 points, though he did not earn a suspension.

France said Tuesday there is a line drivers can cross when seeking paybacks including a lap car (as Kenseth was) turning into and crashing the leader (as Logano was).

“We don’t want that to happen again,” France said. “We don’t want any of our events to be altered in a way they shouldn’t be.

“Obviously, we won’t be accepting that. The most important thing is the way to pay drivers back is to race them hard. When someone races you hard, you race them hard. If they’re going to give you no inches late in the race, then that’s how you’re going to race them. That’s NASCAR. What happened on Sunday, that’s not quite the way we would have liked to have seen that turn out.”