NSCS: Matt Kenseth – Joey Logano: Lasting Peace Or Uneasy Truce?

REID SPENCER/NASCAR WIRE SERVICE

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.