FORT WORTH, Texas — Joey Logano defended his approach to how he races others and said he and his team are focused on advancing to the Championship Round of this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Friday when he met with members of the media at Texas Motor Speedway.
A week after an on-track altercation with Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Matt Kenseth left the Team Penske driver last in the field of eight Chase drivers, Logano said the resulting two-race suspension of Kenseth wasn’t his concern, or his call to make.
“That is NASCAR who looked at that in the way they needed to and made the decision they felt was right,” he said. “It doesn’t affect me. I don’t have a horse in that race.”
The message, he said, “is that you can’t do that.
“What happened has happened. It is in the past at this point; it is in the rearview mirror.
“The only way we will get in the Chase is if we keep looking out the windshield.”
Logano was leading at Martinsville when contact with Kenseth sent his No. 22 Ford, as well as Kenseth’s Toyota, into the wall. The accident occurred on Lap 454 of the scheduled 500-lap event. Kenseth, involved in an earlier wreck, was nine laps down at the time of the crash.
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“I’m not convinced it’s a bad thing,” Logano said. “Our team’s more fired up than ever. I am more focused than ever. I am pumped up about being here at the track today. What happened last week is what happened last week.
“Is it the way we wanted it to go? No, of course not. Did we get the finish we felt we deserved that day? No, but this team has plenty of confidence coming off three in a row and in position for four. There is plenty of confidence and more drive than there has ever been. I am not convinced this whole thing is a bad thing.”
Logano swept the three-race Contender Round of the Chase, winning at Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega. His six victories this season are tops for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.
NASCAR officials suspended Kenseth, the 2003 series champion, for two races and placed him on probation two days after the Martinsville race. An appeal by the team was upheld, as was a final appeal, although Final Appeals Officer Brian Moss reduced the probationary period, initially six months, to run only through the end of 2015.
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It was not the first incident between the two Sprint Cup Series drivers. At Kansas last month, Kenseth spun after contact from Logano as the two were racing for the lead. While Logano went on to win the race, Kenseth was unable to recover the following week at Talladega (where he needed a victory to advance to the next round) and was eliminated from the Chase.
Now Logano finds himself trying to climb back into contention.
“Our Chase, we are not out of it by any means,” he said. “We have plenty of time to get ourselves back in. I feel confident that we can do it.”
The Kansas incident was “hard racing.”
“I had a great race going there for the lead and there were some blocks thrown and the third time I kept my nose in there,” he said. “I was re-watching the spring race from Texas here and I was racing (Kevin) Harvick and at the end of the race … he was on the inside of me and I took the risk of blocking. I took that risk and I knew the consequences. He moved me out of the way. … I felt like in that case I was in the wrong. … I wouldn’t say Harvick and I are the best of friends, but I didn’t have a problem with what he did. … When you make moves like that, you know the risk you take.”
With Kenseth on the sidelines for this week’s AAA Texas 500 and next week’s stop at Phoenix International Raceway, JGR officials have tabbed Erik Jones to fill the seat in the No. 20 entry.
RELATED: Jones to drive No. 20 Cup car at Texas
Jones, a full-time competitor in the Camping World Truck Series, has one official career start in the Sprint Cup Series, filling in for the injured Kyle Busch earlier this season at Kansas. He finished 40th.
He also replaced JGR teammate Denny Hamlin at Bristol in April when Hamlin was sidelined with what team officials said was a “neck spasm.” Because Hamlin started the race, it was not considered an official start for Jones, and Hamlin was credited with the 26th-place finish.