Kenseth still pins blame on Gordon
By Dustin Long
No, the driver wasn't Jeff Gordon. Might not have even been a Jeff Gordon wanna-be, but to Matt Kenseth, the driver sure acted like it.
Kenseth said a student driver rear-ended his rental car Monday morning near Indianapolis Motor Speedway as Kenseth headed there for a test session. The incident came a day after Gordon bumped Kenseth out of the lead to win at Chicagoland Speedway.
Monday, Kenseth didn't back off comments made after the race that Gordon spun him in the final laps as payback for their incident at Bristol in March.
"I think that anybody, honestly, that's watched more than two or three races in their lives and watched the replay knows that he meant to spin me out," Kenseth said in a conference call with reporters. "My car was pushing so bad that you had to hit it pretty hard to spin it out.
"The weird thing is that he would have passed me the next lap anyway, he was catching me so fast. You can clearly see when I got in the corner we both got out of the gas, and he just picked up the gas a car length or so earlier and drove me over. I think it was intentional, but it doesn't really matter what I think."
NASCAR did not penalize Gordon.
Asked if he needed to settle with Kenseth before this weekend's race at New Hampshire, Gordon said after his victory: "I don't think so. He can say whatever about payback. I'm not going to question it. Whether it is or whether it isn't, it's not an issue anymore. What happened at Bristol, it happened just like what happened here. It's a non-issue. It's racing.
"I got the bad end of it at Bristol. He got the bad end of it (Sunday). There's nothing to talk about. I look forward to racing Matt Kenseth hard and clean. I hope the same goes for him."
At Bristol, Gordon moved Kenseth out of the way in the final laps in a battle for third. Kenseth rallied. His bump spun Gordon on the last lap. Gordon shoved Kenseth on pit road when Kenseth went to apologize. Sunday, Kenseth led when Gordon's bump sent Kenseth spinning three laps from the scheduled end. Kenseth ran out of fuel during that caution and wrecked battling rookie David Stremme for 21st position as they headed for the checkered flag. Kenseth finished 22nd.
Such incidents are not unique for Kenseth this season. His year began with trouble. Tony Stewart claimed Kenseth nearly wrecked him early in the Daytona 500. Stewart ran Kenseth off the track. Kenseth spun in the grass and back up the track as the field raced by.
Kurt Busch bumped Kenseth out of the lead with five laps left at Bristol, and the Gordon duel followed. A week later, Busch hit the wall at Martinsville after contact with Kenseth as they raced for eighth place with fewer than 40 laps left.
And then came Sunday's incident with Gordon.
"Some of it this year ... has obviously been my own fault and my own doing," Kenseth said of his on-track altercations. "Other things, maybe you feel like you're a victim, but usually you have something to do with it.
"I don't like to be involved in conflicts. I'd rather just keep to myself and go out and do my job and not have any of that, but if you're going to be competitive and you're going to try as hard as you can every week and try to run up front and do all that, it's pretty hard not to ever get in a conflict with anybody. It's just part of the business."
Kenseth is concerned that some of his incidents took place at high-speed tracks where there's a greater potential for injury.
"Just because the sport has had a pretty good safety record the last few years," he said, "I don't think we should take that for granted and try to put anybody in harm's way on purpose."
From KnowYourNascar
I am LMBO over the first two paragraphs!
By Dustin Long
No, the driver wasn't Jeff Gordon. Might not have even been a Jeff Gordon wanna-be, but to Matt Kenseth, the driver sure acted like it.
Kenseth said a student driver rear-ended his rental car Monday morning near Indianapolis Motor Speedway as Kenseth headed there for a test session. The incident came a day after Gordon bumped Kenseth out of the lead to win at Chicagoland Speedway.
Monday, Kenseth didn't back off comments made after the race that Gordon spun him in the final laps as payback for their incident at Bristol in March.
"I think that anybody, honestly, that's watched more than two or three races in their lives and watched the replay knows that he meant to spin me out," Kenseth said in a conference call with reporters. "My car was pushing so bad that you had to hit it pretty hard to spin it out.
"The weird thing is that he would have passed me the next lap anyway, he was catching me so fast. You can clearly see when I got in the corner we both got out of the gas, and he just picked up the gas a car length or so earlier and drove me over. I think it was intentional, but it doesn't really matter what I think."
NASCAR did not penalize Gordon.
Asked if he needed to settle with Kenseth before this weekend's race at New Hampshire, Gordon said after his victory: "I don't think so. He can say whatever about payback. I'm not going to question it. Whether it is or whether it isn't, it's not an issue anymore. What happened at Bristol, it happened just like what happened here. It's a non-issue. It's racing.
"I got the bad end of it at Bristol. He got the bad end of it (Sunday). There's nothing to talk about. I look forward to racing Matt Kenseth hard and clean. I hope the same goes for him."
At Bristol, Gordon moved Kenseth out of the way in the final laps in a battle for third. Kenseth rallied. His bump spun Gordon on the last lap. Gordon shoved Kenseth on pit road when Kenseth went to apologize. Sunday, Kenseth led when Gordon's bump sent Kenseth spinning three laps from the scheduled end. Kenseth ran out of fuel during that caution and wrecked battling rookie David Stremme for 21st position as they headed for the checkered flag. Kenseth finished 22nd.
Such incidents are not unique for Kenseth this season. His year began with trouble. Tony Stewart claimed Kenseth nearly wrecked him early in the Daytona 500. Stewart ran Kenseth off the track. Kenseth spun in the grass and back up the track as the field raced by.
Kurt Busch bumped Kenseth out of the lead with five laps left at Bristol, and the Gordon duel followed. A week later, Busch hit the wall at Martinsville after contact with Kenseth as they raced for eighth place with fewer than 40 laps left.
And then came Sunday's incident with Gordon.
"Some of it this year ... has obviously been my own fault and my own doing," Kenseth said of his on-track altercations. "Other things, maybe you feel like you're a victim, but usually you have something to do with it.
"I don't like to be involved in conflicts. I'd rather just keep to myself and go out and do my job and not have any of that, but if you're going to be competitive and you're going to try as hard as you can every week and try to run up front and do all that, it's pretty hard not to ever get in a conflict with anybody. It's just part of the business."
Kenseth is concerned that some of his incidents took place at high-speed tracks where there's a greater potential for injury.
"Just because the sport has had a pretty good safety record the last few years," he said, "I don't think we should take that for granted and try to put anybody in harm's way on purpose."
From KnowYourNascar
I am LMBO over the first two paragraphs!
