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SPORTS A21
Monday 2 November 2015
Gordon wins Martinsville to earnspot in championship finale
after the accident, there a meeting that his crew
was no conversation. chief and car owner Joe
“They won’t let me get to Gibbs attended. Kenseth
him,” Logano said of NAS- eventually revealed why
CAR. the wreck happened at
Martinsville, the first of three
Kenseth tried hard to dis- races to set the champion-
miss Sunday’s accident ship field.
as a byproduct of earlier “He’s got a couple races
contact with Keselowski left, he’s got the best car,
— a wreck that sent both he might get a couple of
Kenseth and Keselowski wins here and still have a
to the garage. But he was shot at it,” Kenseth said. He
summoned to the NASCAR also indicated that pay-
hauler after the race for back had to be done.q
Jeff Gordon celebrates winning the Sprint Cup auto race at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville,
Va., Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015.
Associated Press
JENNA FRYER last in the eight-driver field maining for the rest of the
and Keselowski is sixth. final four to be set, and
AP Auto Racing Writer Gordon, though, is in after Logano has a lot of work
his ninth career victory at to do to make it back to
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) — Martinsville. the championship for the
“We’re going to Home- second year. He was rac-
Jeff Gordon earned an stead!” he screamed. ing for his fourth consecu-
The four-time NASCAR tive victory, but there was
automatic berth in NAS- champion won for the first a looming suspicion that
time this season and first Kenseth would get in the
CAR’s championship race time in 39 races. It was his way. Kenseth had been
93rd career victory and put leading in the closing laps
— where he’ll try to win a him in position to ride into three weeks ago at Kansas
retirement with the long Speedway when Logano
fifth title in his final season coveted fifth title. spun him out of the way for
One of the greatest driv- the win. Kenseth has been
— with a victory Sunday at ers in NASCAR history, he furious since, and was elim-
hasn’t won a title since inated last week from the
Martinsville Speedway. his 2001 championship. Chase.
He celebrated the win by Logano felt Kenseth’s move
He has Matt Kenseth to jumping around the front- was dirty.
stretch like a little boy on “I think what happened
thank for his spot in the final Christmas morning, then he at Kansas is a completely
jumped into the arms of his different deal. We were
four of the Chase for the exuberant Hendrick Motor- racing for the win and he
sports crew. blocks you a few times and
Sprint Cup championship. then we raced hard and
As he stood in victory lane, he blocked me the last
Kenseth intentionally his two young children rac- time and we spun out,” Lo-
ing in for hugs, he couldn’t gano said. “Here it was just
wrecked Joey Logano — contain his glee. a complete coward move,
“It was a joke, I’m coming especially for a champion-
payback from an incident back next year!” he joked. ship race car driver and
“This is the sweetest, most race team. Just a com-
three races ago — to take amazing feeling.” plete coward. I don’t have
He still had to earn the win anything else to say. It’s a
the race leader out with after Logano was knocked chicken-you-know-what
from the race. Gordon had move to completely take
47 laps remaining. Logano to chase down AJ Allmend- out the leader when your
inger and Denny Hamlin on race is over.”
had the dominant car, a restart, then hold off Ja- The two drivers have not
mie McMurray on a restart talked since Kansas, and
and Kenseth, who was in with two laps remaining. even though they were in
There are two races re- the care center together
an earlier wreck with Brad
Keselowski, came back on
the track 10 laps down and
drove Logano into the wall.
Logano had led 207 of the
500 laps and was furious.
His father, Tom, had to be
pushed into the team haul-
er by the crew chief as the
crowd cheered wildly in
support of Kenseth.
Kenseth downplayed the
incident, deadpanning it
was a result of his earlier in-
cident with Keselowski, who
had led 143 laps as the two
Team Penske teammates
were the class of the field.
Instead of celebrating a
win and a spot in the Nov.
22 finale at Homestead-Mi-
ami Speedway, Logano is
