CHARLOTTE, N.C. – NASCAR suspended Matt Kenseth for two races on Tuesday for intentionally wrecking Joey Logano in an act of retaliation that carried heavy championship consequences.
The penalty levied against Kenseth is fairly unprecedented. Drivers have been suspended before for on-track actions, but typically only for one race and the policy has not been uniform.
NASCAR said it punished Kenseth because he had no chance at winning and intentionally altered the outcome of the race. NASCAR also said it factored aspects of safety in penalizing Kenseth as well as “the fact that the new Chase elimination format puts a premium on each and every race. These actions have no place in NASCAR.”
NASCAR chairman Brian France earlier indicated a tough penalty was in works because the series can’t allow a driver to think the way to “pay back somebody for something that happened is take matters into their own hands.”
In addition, Danica Patrick was fined $50,000 and docked 25 points for intentionally wrecking David Gilliland earlier in the race.