RELATED: Watch video of the Martinsville incident
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Rivals Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano met with NASCAR officials Friday morning before opening Sprint Cup Series practice at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Kenseth, returning from a two-race suspension for NASCAR’s season-ending weekend, told a small group of reporters that the two drivers met in the hopes of moving past their escalated feud during this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs. NASCAR.com independently confirmed that such a meeting took place.
“Everything will be fine there,” Kenseth told reporters, making his first remarks since two penalties appeals were denied Nov. 5. “I wish none of it would have happened obviously. There’s probably certain things we’ll never totally agree on, but I think long term it probably will be fine, and I think we will work it all out.”
Logano, who landed the second starting spot for the season finale in Friday’s Coors Light Pole Qualifying, was brief in his comments about the meeting, joking, “We haven’t had enough of this yet?”
“It was good,” Logano added. “NASCAR had us sit down and talk it out a little bit and I thought that was good for us to do.”
Friday’s practice session marked the first time that Kenseth and Logano shared the same race track since their Nov. 1 altercation at Martinsville Speedway. During that event, a laps-down Kenseth intentionally wrecked race leader Logano in the late stages, a run-in that ended his three-race win streak and dealt a serious blow to Logano’s bid for his first premier-series championship. Logano was eliminated from title contention two weeks later at Phoenix International Raceway.
Kenseth was unapologetic for his actions during a phone interview with the Associated Press last weekend, saying he couldn’t recall a heightened rivalry in the sport where NASCAR officials did not intervene before it reached a tipping point. NASCAR Chairman & CEO Brian France touched on the topic during Friday’s State of the Sport address, just four days after meeting with Kenseth and car owner Joe Gibbs at the team’s Huntersville, North Carolina, race shop.
“What we were coming down here to a championship weekend, and I wanted to make sure that that matter was behind us with Matt, with Joe Gibbs and so on,” France said. “I’m assured that it is. We had a good conversation about what had happened and what the thinking was or whatever you want to call Matt’s actions, and we talked about that. And it was a good conversation.”
Gibbs, speaking Thursday during media availabilities ahead of Sunday’s season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM), said that he also found the conversations productive.
“I think going forward, we had good meetings,” Gibbs said. “I think we’re all in a good place right now. I think Matt is, too, and I appreciated getting a chance to meet with Brian, and I think Matt did, too, and I think we’re going to put all that behind us, and we’re going to go racing.”