Matt Kenseth’s popularity soars after intentionally wrecking Joey Logano

Not for a second does Matt Kenseth regret intentionally wrecking Joey Logano, an act of retaliation that earned Kenseth a two-race suspension.

But if Kenseth had the whole thing to do over, there is one thing he would reconsider. Instead of the obvious take out that saw him veer directly into Logano, who was leading in the final laps of the fall playoff race at Martinsville Speedway, Kenseth would have performed a more stealthy maneuver, one far less obvious.

“The way all the circumstances fell, it was something that unfortunately had to be done,” Kenseth said Tuesday on the annual preseason media tour. “If I knew I was going to be suspended, I would’ve figured out how to do it differently -- be a little sneakier about it to where you didn’t get yourself suspended.”

The hostility between Logano and Kenseth arose when Logano spun Kenseth out of the lead with five laps remaining in the Oct. 18 race at Kansas Speedway, effectively knocking the 2003 series champion out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Before the incident, the two had no animosity, but when Logano, who went on to win the Kansas race, ended his title hopes, Kenseth felt compelled to seek retribution.

Those feelings only intensified when Logano nearly clipped Kenseth getting onto pit road the following week at Talladega Superspeedway and when Logano’s teammate Brad Keselowski triggered an accident that collected Kenseth at Martinsville.

“You always hope it never comes to that and you can work things out and think the best of people and move on,” Kenseth said. “But sometimes, you get to a point, especially in this (Chase) format -- you can’t get run over and taken out of the race because everybody is watching, then will be like, ‘OK, you can run him over and he’s not going to do anything.’

“You hate to be in that spot, you hate to ever do anything like that. I wish none of it had ever happened, to be honest. I wish with 10 to go at Kansas (Logano) would have figured out a way to pass me without running into me, just like Jimmie (Johnson) did to Brad (Keselowski) the next week at Texas and just like I did to him earlier in the race. I wish we would have never been in that spot.”

The brazen wrecking of Logano along with NASCAR’s unprecedented suspension, one many drivers deemed excessive, has had a lasting upshot: Kenseth’s popularity has soared considerably both among fans and competitors.

“I’ve had more fan support in the last three months than I’ve had in my entire life,” Kenseth said. “It’s been unbelievable. Support in the garage, fans, even my sponsors, I’ve had more support than I’ve ever had. I feel like I’ve got a lot of respect within my organization, from my teammates, I feel like I’ve got a lot of respect from people in the garage.

“More fans have approached me this offseason than I ever had in my entire life. Race fans like that stuff, they really do. I don’t particularly like it, but race fans like it and they like to watch it.”