****NASCAR in 2015****

  • Thread starter Thread starter JRS
  • Start date Start date
Wow.

So, at Martinsville a thing happened. Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano have spent most of this year mad at each other, various incidents having occurred between them. Then there was this latest one. Kenseth was off the pace and several laps down due to an earlier crash involving himself, Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch. Logano came up to put him another lap down, and....


....crashy bendy smashy time.

Now, this sort of thing has happened an awful lot in the sport. NASCAR operates a 'have at it' policy in most respects. And so more than a few people thought that Kenseth would be spoken to, but ultimately not take any punishment.

Matt Kenseth suspended for two races.

So yeah, possibly a bit of a surprise. But reading the comments that the NASCAR hierarchy made, I tend to agree with it. Logano was leading at the time. If he'd gone on to win, he'd be locked into the title fight at Homestead. As it stands, he's in a bit of a hole with points and now really needs a win to get there. Kenseth was well down the order, not in contention for the race win and not in contention for the title. And it's not as if Logano was the reason for his crash earlier in the day - Kenseth was narked about being spun by Logano at Kansas a few weeks ago.

Joe Gibbs Racing are appealing the punishment, and NASCAR has said that they'll expedite the appeals process.
 
I think a lot of it comes from racing the Papyrus sims when I was younger, gaining an appreciation of how different it was to European circuit racing. But even earlier on, when I was able to see races on TV when visiting family over in Canada, I was drawn to it. A lot of the negative comments about the sport - 'oh, they just turn left', 'oh, the tracks are all identical', 'oh, it's all so unsophisticated' - have never really entered my mind. I just thought 'wow, these cars are big, loud, fast and this is dangerous. That's awesome!' :)

I will say that much like with F1 I have more of an appreciation for the sport back in time than I do for the here-and-now. It's just with F1 the contrast to how things used to be is a bit more dismaying, whereas with NASCAR the only thing I really detest about the modern sport is the Chase format. I understand why it was brought in (not for nothing is it sometimes known as the 'Matt Kenseth Rule'), I just don't think it was a totally perfect response to the situation.

Oh, step one of the JGR/Kenseth appeal has been shot down - National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer Bryan Moss is now their last chance. He's looking at it I believe as I type this.
 
NightSt@lk3r said:
Loghead and Brat playing games on the restarts are what resulted in the crash that took Kenseth out of contention so he had every right to be miffed at Loghead for the the crash.
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It was a slowish restart, but nothing too out of the ordinary for Martinsville.

Kenseth and Logano have been chippy for ages. And I have to point out a spot of hypocrisy on Kenseth's part here as well:

NASCAR.com said:
Kenseth expressed frustration at Logano's unapologetic stance after the incident, saying he "should have stopped running his mouth, A, and No. 2, he's lying when he said he didn't do it on purpose."
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And what does you blaming this latest collision on a tyre going down count as, eh Matt? ;)

Anyway, Kenseth's final appeal is done. Penalty upheld but probation shortened to the end of the year instead of six months. No word yet on who could take over for the two races.
 
No, no, no, NO!

Chase-style championship format being looked at for Xfinity, Trucks.

*rage*

***edit***

Anyway, while the Xfinity and Truck series championships are still in a halfway sensible format....here's how the titles can be clinched.

Xfinity - Chris Buescher currently leads the championship from Chase Elliott by 18 points. If Buescher finishes 13th or better, 14th with a lap led or 15th with the most laps led then he wins the title.

Trucks - Erik Jones leads Tyler Reddick by 19 points, so he takes the title by finishing 15th, 16th with a lap led, 17th with the most laps led.

And in the Cup series it's down to a straight four-way shootout. Whichever one of Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr crosses the line first takes it.
 
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Some season stats:

sn02md.jpg
 
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