NASCAR: For Obvious Reasons Kenseth Shouldn’t Be Suspended

Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race from Martinsville epitomized the drama that is the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. First and foremost, above all else, four-time champion Jeff Gordon not only took his 93rd Cup win, but he is now in contention for the championship at Homestead-Miami in his final season. When fans and other drivers look back on this day, that’s what they need to remember it for. It was a day that belonged to the No. 24 team.

However, the headline following right behind that is the continued rivalry between the No. 22 of Joey Logano and the No. 20 of Matt Kenseth. Dating back to the second race of the previous round of the Chase, Kenseth was turned off of Logano’s bumper while racing for the win at Kansas. To everyone else, it was a product of hard racing. To Logano, he felt justified since Kenseth was blocking him as a slower car. But to Kenseth, he was unfairly dumped. That’s what he took with him to Martinsville, and the result was both drivers being crashed out with less than 100 laps to go. But despite all the calls for Kenseth’s suspension, NASCAR would be foolish to do so.

Why is that? Well, does that questions seriously need to be asked? Take a look at Twitter following the race. Facebook too, or maybe even the Reddit.com subreddit /r/NASCAR. There are tons of people calling for NASCAR to suspend Kenseth. Jeff Gluck of USA Today penned this little gem calling for Kenseth’s suspension as well. But what isn’t clear is why no one honestly saw this coming.

The bad blood between both drivers has been painfully obvious since Kansas. With Martinsville looming on the horizon, it was obvious something was going to happen. Kenseth felt that Logano nixed his title hopes and wanted a little payback. Logano may have felt that the matter was over but honestly, to think that Kenseth was just going to let him go by without leaving a mark on him is nothing short of stupid. The No. 20 is madder than ever at the No. 22…why would he just let bygones be bygones?

Sure, that would have been the way to go. But in all the history of NASCAR how often is it that an extremely angry driver wanting payback just “decides” to let it go? These guys are racers. They’re a volatile, neurotic bunch when angry, and all Kenseth did was prove that point. But NASCAR and everyone else should have seen this coming. It became obvious the very second Kenseth spun to the apron at Kansas that he’d get his revenge soon.

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Something else that goes to reason why Kenseth isn’t going to be suspended is the ratings. Make no mistake, NASCAR oligarch (yes, oligarch) Brian France is on cloud nine with this much drama going on. Ratings are through the roof right now, and make no mistake all eyes are going to be on the sport when it hits Texas next. Two superstar drivers feuding right now, one of which has gone from dominating the Chase to scrabbling to stay in contention. NASCAR knows this, loves this, and feeds on this. The name of the game right now in NASCAR is “rivalry,” and they know this is budding into something beautiful.

Besides, they call for Kenseth’s suspenion…why not Danica Patrick’s? In all of her infinite wisdom she went from one little harmless spin to trashing her car trying to pay David Gilliland back. She’s known for pulling some incredibly stupid moves on the track (see Kansas, 2012), yet she’s never been suspended. So why drop the hammer on a driver who otherwise doesn’t cause that much trouble?

That’s not saying what Kenseth did was or wasn’t right. But it’s incredibly naïve to assume that he wasn’t going to act in a way he felt accordingly to Logano. He felt wronged and despite his claims that his right front blew out it’s obvious that he wanted to show Logano what it was like to be on the other end of the spectrum. It’s no rocket science, and considering that NASCAR had to have seen this coming, it wouldn’t be an issue of “identity” for NASCAR as Gluck claims. It would honestly be foolish move, given the amount of publicity the Martinsville incident is bound to generate for the sport, to suspend Kenseth.