Opinion: NASCAR Goes Too Far with Penalty Against Matt Kenseth

There’s many things that could be said as a result of NASCAR’s penalty against Matt Kenseth for what happened at Martinsville on Sunday. But, in my opinion, I can sum up my response into three headers.

• Matt Kenseth shouldn’t been penalized for what happened
• NASCAR penalized him because if they hadn’t, they would’ve opened the endless box of opportunity
• Even if penalty is rightful action to take, NASCAR went too far in the penalty they issued

Let’s look at the facts – everything for Kenseth and Joey Logano started with Kansas. Matt Kenseth had the lead, blocked to keep the position. Joey Logano didn’t like the block and essentially dumped Kenseth as a result.

RELATED: Logano Turns Kenseth Wins Kanas Chase Race in Overtime

Referring back to that incident, Logano made the choice to not lift and get into Kenseth so hard that he essentially lifted Kenseth’s rear tires off of the ground. As soon as he did that, he opened the box to accept any future consequences of his actions. Now in that case, NASCAR didn’t penalize Joey becuase it was battling for the lead. Those types of contact for the lead – that’s part of racing. Bump and run, spin and win – that’s been part of stock car racing since the very beginning. That’s also a fundamental fact in short track racing, too.

Though once Kansas happened, Logano opened the door for future payback down the road. Kenseth is an old school racer and they say, “you live by the sword, you die by the sword”. He brought forth Martinsville on his own and can’t fault anyone but himself.

Even though he may be at fault for what happened, there’s still a lot to consider. One of the things – a key difference between the pair of incidents. At Kansas, it was a battle for the lead. At Martinsville, Kenseth was nine laps down while Logano was leading. That is where the right to be penalized comes into play for NASCAR. As NASCAR Executive Vice President Steve O’Donnell made very clear post-race at Martinsville, you cannot have drivers taking each other out like that. If both Kenseth and Logano had been on the lead lap and battling for the lead, then it’s fair game and boom, payback would’ve been even and we probably could’ve moved forward without batting an eye.

With Kenseth being laps down, that opened the door for a penalty from NASCAR right there – no questions asked. But, sometimes you need to accept whatever penalty that may come your way and stand up for yourself. This is basically fair game as Logano prevented Kenseth from advancing, so Kenseth has now hindered Logano’s chance of advancing. On the flip side if Kenseth doesn’t do anything, then Logano thinks that he is in the right and continues the actions that he has done thus far.  Welcome to “boys have at it” and drivers policing themselves.

We have seen drivers penalized in the past. However, have they been suspended for two races? Not if you look back through the history of retaliation.

1. At Phoenix International Raceway in 2011, Jeff Gordon wrecked Clint Bowyer after some incidents together. Gordon’s penalty – fined $100,000, docked 25 points and placed on probation for the remainder of the season.
2. Carl Edwards wrecked Brad Keselowski at Gateway in July 2010 fighting for the race lead. Edward’s penalty – docked 60 Xfinity Series points (under the old points system), fined $25,000 and placed on probation for the rest of the season.
3. Earlier that same year, Edwards got into Keselowski at Atlanta, only meaning to spin him but flipped instead; Edwards, laps down while Keselowski was lead lap for this particular incident, was only put on probation for three races.

The only driver that has been suspended for retaliation through the years? Kyle Busch, and that was because he wrecked Ron Hornaday under caution. So now I ask you if this – if NASCAR is consistent with the rules and not playing favourites, why was Kenseth suspended for two races? If you’re going to penalize Kenseth at all, give him one week to perhaps realize that he went too far, but anything beyond that is ridiculous

Simple – NASCAR doesn’t want to open pandora’s box any further than it has been opened.

At Kansas, Logano spun Kenseth to prevent Kenseth from getting a win to advance to the next round of the Chase. At Talladega Superspeedway, Kevin Harvick supposedly wrecked half of the field to save his Chase birth. Now at Martinsville, Kenseth’s incident prevents Logano from winning and getting an automatic advance. If NASCAR doesn’t lay their foot down this week, then the circus could perhaps continue this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

As Ricky Craven put it so politely on ESPN, NASCAR has created their own mess with how the Chase format works, and how they have policed driver’s actions thus far this season.

That’s my opinion. Now I ask you – Should Kenseth had been penalized? If so, what should the penalty be? Also, has NASCAR created their own mess as Craven instills?