HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Team owner Joe Gibbs said Thursday that he is looking forward to having driver Matt Kenseth back at the race track this weekend as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season comes to an end.
NASCAR suspended Kenseth, the 2003 NASCAR premier series champion, for two races after he intentionally took out Team Penske driver Joey Logano during a race Nov. 1 at Martinsville Speedway.
Kenseth had crashed after contact from Logano two weeks earlier at Kansas Speedway. Each incident effectively ended the Chase hopes for the two drivers.
“It’s great having Matt back in there because it’s almost like you’re missing part of the family when somebody — (when) one of our drivers is not there,” Gibbs said during Championship 4 media day activities here. ” … Having him back, yeah, we’ve talked about that, and he just kind of shared some things with me, and then I shared some things with him. It’s the kind of things between the two of us, but I think he felt like the meeting was very beneficial, and I know I felt the same way.”
Kenseth is one of four Sprint Cup Series drivers competing for JGR, along with Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards. All four made this year’s 16-team Chase field. Only Busch has made it into the final round of four.
In addition to the two-race suspension, NASCAR officials also placed Kenseth on probation for six months, a move that was ultimately reduced to Dec. 31, 2015 upon final appeal.
Kenseth met with NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France earlier this week, and Gibbs also met with France separately. Gibbs said he has spoken by phone with Roger Penske, owner of the Logano and Keselowski entries.
The Martinsville incident was a product of something that “started weeks before,’ Gibbs said when asked if he approved of Kenseth’s actions.
“To be truthful, I don’t tell drivers about their relationship with other drivers and kind of what happens on the race track. I’ll leave that up to them. But I think in this case I kind of stated what I felt before, and I’m going to leave that there.”
“I think there are certain things that have happened in the past where you would say, ‘hey, this is definitely wrong.’ I know I have with drivers, and said, ‘look, this is not something we’re all about,’ and we have all those kinds of discussions. You go through some tough things.
“And then there are other times that you kind of feel like, ‘hey, it’s our responsibility, we’re a team, and we’re going to stand up for each other.'”
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Erik Jones handled the driving duties for the No. 20 team during Kenseth’s absence, finishing 12th at Texas and 19th at Phoenix.