(NASCAR Wire Service)
Reid Spencer ~ NASCAR Wire Service
Matt Kenseth (Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – In a move that likely speaks more to enlightened self-interest than to warm and fuzzy feelings for each other, Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano have tabled the feud that saw Logano’s 2015 championship hopes end in a hard crash into the Turn 1 wall at Martinsville and cost Kenseth a two-race suspension for deliberately wrecking his rival.
If the differences between the drivers had smoldered for the first nine races of the 2016 season, last Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway threw more gasoline on the fire. Kenseth accused Logano of forcing him below the yellow “out-of-bounds” line late in the race, dropping Kenseth’s No. 20 Toyota to mid-pack and into harm’s way.
Sure enough, a subsequent chain-reaction wreck launched Danica Patrick’s Chevrolet into Kenseth’s car and sent the No. 20 Camry tumbling toward the inside wall. Kenseth blamed Logano for putting him in a vulnerable position.
“I thought we were done with that (rivalry), but maybe we aren’t,” Kenseth said after the Talladega race.
Since then, however, the drivers have aired their differences and established a truce that should benefit both. Though Kenseth described the exchange as a “good talk,” he declined to share details of the conversation.
“If we wanted that,” said the typically droll Kenseth, “we would have made it a conference call.”
The cease-fire between the drivers comes at an interesting time — and venue. Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1) takes place at Kansas Speedway, where the feud erupted in the first place. Logano turned Kenseth for the win in last October’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the 1.5-mile track.
With both drivers winless through 10 races this season, it’s probably best they won’t have to worry about each other.
For now.
TICK, TOCK: CAUTION CLOCK ADDS STRATEGIC ELEMENT TO TRUCK RACE
In four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races this year, NASCAR’s new 20-minute caution clock rule has come into play four times, twice at Atlanta and twice in Friday night’s Toyota Tundra 250.
In the latter event, the first expiration of the clock happened to coincide with the end of a fuel run, and trucks began running out of gas as they circled under the yellow because Jordan Anderson’s truck was blocking the entrance to pit road.
Eventually, NASCAR opted to open pit road even though trucks were running out of fuel near the entrance and requiring pushes to get to their respective stalls.
Race-winning team owner Kyle Busch applauded that decision and talked favorably about the strategic nuances of the caution clock in general.
“Certainly, there were some tense moments with some fuel and with people running out and stuff like that,” said Busch, whose 18-year-old driver, William Byron, went to Victory Lane for the first time in his fifth series start. “I think if it comes down to that, where the caution clock is right on the fuel number … obviously, they kept pit road closed because there were guys stalling on the apron.
“All you’re going to do is keep getting the next guy to stall, the next guy to stall, the next guy to stall … It was a smart move just to open it up and get the guys down pit road. All in all, it’s an interesting strategy for the series. It’s different, that’s for sure. This is just a thing for the series to have to work around and make the crew chiefs’ jobs a little more stressful.”
DAVE BLANEY RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL AFTER ELDORA WRECK
Sprint car superstar Dave Blaney, father of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney, was injured during Friday’s qualifying for a World of Outlaws event at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.
Blaney’s car flipped multiple times, and after he was extracted from the vehicle, Blaney was transported to a local hospital where CT scans proved negative. He was released shortly after 12 midnight ET.
Ryan Blaney provided an update from the hospital via Twitter. “Dad is alright, got his bell rung pretty good but is up and being himself,” Ryan Blaney wrote. “Thanks for all the support.”
Though Dave Blaney is best known for a phenomenal career in the open-wheel ranks, he also has a combined 597 NASCAR national series starts to his credit, including 473 in Sprint Cup. His lone national series win came in the fall 2006 XFINITY Series race at Charlotte.
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