Gordon and Kenseth point fingers over Sunday’s incident
35 Comments Quote selected text Published March 4th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Jeff Gordon denies Matt Kenseth’s charge that it was Gordon’s “laying back” on a restart Sunday that led to their crash Sunday in the closing laps of the UAW-Dodge 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Gordon was trailing Kenseth on a restart with five laps to go in the race, and when Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun the tires on his No. 88 Chevrolet, Kenseth darted to the outside while Gordon went inside Earnhardt Jr. After both passed Earnhardt Jr., Gordon slid up the track into Kenseth, causing both to spin. Gordon slammed the inside wall and was knocked out of the race, while Kenseth limped to a 20th-place finish.
“It’s disappointing, but it all started back on the restart,” Kenseth said after the race. “Jeff is kind of famous for laying back, and NASCAR has a rule that you can’t lay back more than a car length or you can be black-flagged, but it’s usually not enforced, so I saw him laying back.
“I knew he was going to get a run on me, so I laid back a little bit. [Leader] Carl [Edwards] went late and that kind of started the chain, and we were three-wide going into [Turn] 1. We came off 2, and I was up as high as I thought I could get, and Jeff just came across. Whether it was on purpose or not, it just kind of wiped us out.”
Gordon responded to Kenseth on Monday at the NASCAR test at Phoenix International Raceway by saying, “First you need to talk to your teammate who was behind me.”
“Any restart we have, I’m looking more behind me that I am in front of me,” Gordon said. “I want to see what the guys are doing behind me because I want to get a good restart, but I want to make sure somebody doesn’t get a jump on me and get me in a bad position.
“I started looking in my mirror, and Greg Biffle [Kenseth’s Roush Fenway Racing teammate] was laying back quite a bit. Actually, my spotter came on and said, ‘They’re laying back behind you.’ So I dropped back to him. Then as we rolled up there, we sort of came together a little bit more.
“I didn’t really feel like anybody was laying back a ton. The biggest issue with that whole thing is Junior spun his tires. I did get a pretty good restart but not really much better than Matt. It’s just once he got beside Junior, it stalled him out and gave me the momentum.”
ill tell ya what , Matt and Jeff are both great drivers and great people. that restart was screwed up and nothing against Dale but he spun the tires big time, so much in fact he was up on the chip, which is the rev limiter, so you cant over rev your engine. just a bad restart. cant really blame nobody for that. they will forget it by this weekend.
They were just victims of circumstance. No one was really laying back a whole lot. They were all just trying to get the best start possible. Junior spinning his tires was the catalyst for Kennseth’s and Gordon’s melee, but it wasn’t necessarily Junior’s fault. I watched him before the restart and he was trying to get his tires clean like everyone else.
Gordon and Kennseth wont be forgetting about this anytime soon. They have too much history between them already.
The race I saw, Gordon was right up on Kenseth’s ___… Plus, I dont’ really think the fact that Jr spun his tires makes the biggest difference. They were going to try and pass him whether he went anywhere or not. Gordon couldn’t run the low side (he even said that) so his car slid up the track. Purely accidental and he did himself in worse than anyone else. Like Howie says, they’ll be over it by the weekend.
well Axel maybe Matt can win that 15,000. that Gossage is handing out for the first helmet thrown this season.
I guess I just contradicted myself. I didn’t intend to post my first comment. Just the second one… Oops…
Nevermind, the other comment got deleted because I didn’t sensor a bad “butt”… Sorry Kenneth!
I agree with nost of what everyone is saying. Sometimes things just happen. However, I think it is funny that Kenseth is trying to take the “King of Whine” title from Jeff Gordon. It seems that everytime something happens he complains for way too long. Get over it and get ready for Atlanta!
i think there is much more tension and ill will between these two than they let on. they seem to really push it when they are close to one another, started at bristol when kenseth spun gordon, the chicago jeff got him back, then i think there was something at kansas last year with matt hitting gordon on a restart, now this. i see a pattern here, would not be surprised to see matt hit jeff in the next few weeks. bristols coming up, and thats where it all started.
IT LOOKED TO ME THEY CLEARED JR. WITH NO PROBLEM WAS EVEN WAY A HEAD OF JR. JEFF COULD NOT HOLD THE BOTTOM,HE SAID SO HIMSELF, DRIFTED UP AND P.I.T MATT WHEN HE SHOULD HAVE LIFTED. 3RD IS BETTER THEN DNF. DO YOU NOT AGREE?
Rodger, the Chicago incident was in 2006, and the Bristol incident was with Jarrett, Jeff has been racing with Matt for 8 years now and they all have their own personalities just like Matt and Carl but they are professionals and NASCAR steps in as soon as they see just a hint of trouble and believe me they dont want to make a trip to that trailer. you see how quick Tony settled down after Daytona they cant afford to lose the points. and Jeff or Matt are fighters anyway.
James he didnt get 3rd, he came in 20th
It doesnt matter who the other driver is Matt always acts like a baby whenever anyone ruffles his feathers.
Howie motorsports photography wrote:
Read the post he was saying that IF Gordo had lifted a little he would have came in 3rd. and no wreck
instead of not finishing the race. We know he finished 20th. You are to quick on the draw partner…
Matt & Gordon are not fighters they are both wimps out of the car. NASCAR would not have to hold them back just sit back and watch them give each other a migraine from whining at each other.
howie,
you need to do some research. “the bristol incident was with jarrett”??? are you new to nascar? try hitting up youtube, or google, or anything else. you can find the whole incident as well as gordon shoving kenseth after the race when he came over to appoligize. it was all over the media coverage for some time when it happened. it is without doubt the most hyped incident ever between the two.
howie,
and yes, chicago was in 2006, as was the bristol situtaion i mentioned. then kansas was in 2007. i do see a pattern between the two. im not talking hatred, and im not talking busch vs. stewart. but i do not think they are having dinner together anytime soon.
this is not a serious thing, this is NASCAR and its all in the fun of competion. you guys act like if you gave them each a gun they would shoot each other. i dont know of any real fighters as long as i have been photographing this sport and that has been over 15 years. the only ones i would worry about hitting me is Jeff Burton or Tony.other than them 2 i wouldnt be afraid of any of them, and thats only because Tony came after me once and so did Jeff.
Tony came after you, Lol what did you do ? something stupid like shove a camera in his face after a wreck… then expect him to smile. You probably got what most paparazzo should get.
Now Jeff is a different story. You must have really pissed him off to get a major response from him??
actually Bob, with Tony it was at IRP at a silver crown race and i was taking pictures of Dave Steele and not of him like i was suppose to and he pulled by the back of the neck. And Jeff was at Kenins Harvicks house and we were all drunk.
yeah matt kenseth needs to watch the restart then…dale jr was right on Edwards bumper and edwards brake checked him right b4 they got to the line in which caused JR to spin his tires..plus the lack of being up front here b/c of DEI also played a factor….BUT kenseth was over a car length behind dale jr when they took the green…if he wants to complain about that…he really needs to get his head out of his ARSE and just man up…
THANK YOU BOB FOR EXPLAINING TO HOWIE MOTORSPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY, WHAT I SAID. SEAMS LIKE HE CAN’T READ TO WELL. SMOKE AND JEFF SHOULD TRY TO KEEP THIS BOZO OUT OF THERE FACE. AND OF THE TRACK. I BET HE HAS TROUBLE READING THIS.
if your post made any sense we might be able to read it . “‘AND OF THE TRACK” I think your the bozo here . And my the way their boss and sponsors pay me to get in their face and they love it.
Howie, where can we see your photos?
I do corporate photography for various companies for fan clubs and advertising, like if you belong to Tonys fan club and you received a glossy 8×10 of him at his hospitality tent or in the mail it would have been mine or Bobby Labontes or Kyle Busch. I use to shoot for the publications but they only pay 25-35 dollars for a good photo but their are some many people shooting these days its not worth it. But if your intersested in buying a photo of you favorite driver shoot me an e-mail and ill send you a car or head shot to you for 12.dollars
hahah howie i cant believe u managed to piss off jeff burton lol. drunk or not lol. im sorry i had to laugh at that.
why you gotta drag tony into this. he was actually not in this one!
whine, whine, whine….lol
Darrell is right about the 99 brake checking jr,if you listen to the in car you hear jr hit the gas twice the 2nd time caused the wheel spin,but thats not what caused the problem with jeff an matt they were already passed jr.
Lee88-20 wrote:
Dale Jr. said it was his fault (not the wreck) because he wasn’t laying back behind the 99 enough and had to peddle the car that 2ond time and broke the tires loose.
Correct me if Im wrong but most everybody agrees that the wreck was caused by a combo of 3 things happening .
1. the 99 braked checked the 88
2. the 88 broke tracksion and slowed
3. the 24/17 split the 88 and the 24 couldn’t keep it down on the bottom and refused to back off
and slid up into the 17 causing the wreck that took the 24 out with the 2ond DNF in 3
races…
Jeff Gordon’s bad wreck has masked the fact the HE caused the wreck by using bad judgement and forcing a move he had no chance of making work. That is my take on it…
MODERARTOR KENNITH
Why is this post awaiting moderation !!!!
It is one of more benign posts. No bad words No calling someone out, Just a simple post on the 24/17 thread so WHY put a hold on me or are you now choosing who can post and who is not post worthy.
Isn’t that a little God Like in this situation or is that that gets you off ??
Just wondered, you know how it is.
Posts are not held for moderation by me. The software does it automatically. It doesn’t always hold the right post for moderation. I get to the moderated posts many times throughout the day. A little patience is recommended.
Thank you.
Kenneth-ARS EDITOR
I have all the patience in the world as long as the rules are even handedly applied.
Know that you say that your software is the culprit life is good once more…
Bob wrote:
You can blame who you want but Carl knew Junior had a problem with grip on restarts and that brake checking would bottle up the field. In my oppinion Carl is to blame for this one.
Bob wrote:
ON YOUR #3 Jeff was on and off the throttle, he was tight in his steering
ok if jeff had let off the brakes when he slid up he would have still caught the rear of matss car and if not the the car behind matt (biffle) would have clipped jeff gordon. it was just a racing thing that happens. i race on dirt and the best guys slip up and i was getting passed by the leader up high he spun and got me and 5 oth er cars in our main event race. so what i’m saying is the best drivers will mae a mistake and jeff admitted he pushed aND GOT MATT. matt shouldn’t cry cause he finished the race running unlike jeff did.