...Logano's predicament is his own fault, Kenseth believes, because the young driver could have put an end to the feud at any point before Martinsville.
Instead, Kenseth felt Logano was ''arrogant'' and his comments over the next few weeks only infuriated Kenseth more. Kenseth also accused Logano of ''doing everything in his power to try to aggravate me more'' on track at Talladega the week after Kansas.
Then, as Kenseth raced Logano for the lead at Martinsville, he felt he was intentionally wrecked by Logano's Team Penske teammate, Brad Keselowski. Had the incident been an accident, Kenseth said he would have heard from Keselowski by now but has not been contacted by him.
''There's a right and wrong way to do things, and most grown-ups would have tried to handle it better,'' Kenseth said. ''There's just dozens of things that could have stopped it, and Joey never tried to reconcile it. I think everyone in the garage knew it was coming, and you would think (Logano) would be a little bit nervous and address it.''
Kenseth also said NASCAR failed to intervene and squash the feud. Kenseth couldn't recall a time in his 16-year history that series officials didn't sit down a pair of drivers who had on-track issues, and he felt backed into having to retaliate after chairman Brian France deemed Logano's actions at Kansas ''quintessential NASCAR.''
''I felt like I was almost encouraged. I felt like the comments almost condoned it, the way Brian France said Joey was smart in the way he strategically eliminated a threat for the title,'' Kenseth said. ''I just never dreamed, ever, that I'd get suspended for going back and evening the score.''
Kenseth views his behavior at Martinsville to be ''parallel'' to
Jeff Gordon intentionally wrecking
Clint Bowyer at Phoenix in 2012. Gordon was fined $100,000 but avoided suspension, even though the payback ended Bowyer's title hopes.
Danica Patrick was fined $50,000 for intentionally wrecking
David Gilliland at Martinsville. But Kenseth earned a two-race suspension - because of the stakes Logano had at the time - and he doesn't believe the disparity in penalties is fair.
Kenseth will return for next weekend's season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and admitted the first four days after the suspension were ''were really hard on me'' and he struggled to watch
Erik Jones drive his race car. He watched Sunday's race at Texas on television, and is eager to get back to his Joe Gibbs Racing team for the finale...
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