Bubba Wallace to Make Cup Series Debut at Pocono in Iconic No. 43

Xfinity Series driver Bubba Wallace will make his Cup Series debut this
weekend at Pocono Raceway (Google Images)

While  Aric Almirola continues to recuperate from the compression fracture he suffered as a result of a vicious wreck at Kansas three weeks ago, the team at Richard Petty Motorsports has been finalizing plans for a full-time substitute.

NASCAR veteran and 2011 Southern 500 winner Regan Smith drove in place of Almirola during the Monster Energy All-Star race, Coca-Cola 600, and this past weekend's AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover.

But in an effort to shake things up, RPM, Roush Fenway Racing, and Ford Racing have teamed up to put Darrell "Bubba" Wallace Jr in the famous No. 43 car ahead of this weekend's Axalta presents the Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway.

The 23-year old Mobile, Alabama native will be the first African-American driver to start a Monster Energy Cup Series race since Bill Lester made two starts in the series for Bill Davis Racing in 2006.

"Driving the famed 43 car is an unbelievable opportunity for any race car driver," said Wallace. "With all that Richard Petty has contributed to the sport, I'm honored to start my first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event with this team. I'm incredibly grateful that Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports, and Smithfield have the confidence in me to help fill the seat until Aric fully recovers, which is the most important piece of this.

"Moving up to the Monster Energy Series is a tremendous challenge, but I am ready to represent this organization, help the 43 team get the best results possible and prove that I belong at this level."

Despite not getting a break at NASCAR's top level until this weekend, Wallace has already had success in the sport's two lower tier divisions. In two full-time seasons driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series, he totaled 5 wins, 14 top fives, 26 top tens, and three pole awards. Wallace moved up to the Xfinity Series in 2015 and since then he has six top fives, 34 top tens, and two more poles to his resume. Wallace is also a graduate of the inaugural NASCAR Next program.

Six of those Xfinity Series top tens have come in the first 11 races of this season.

"We're excited to have Bubba in the #43 car and to give him his first Monster Energy Series start," said Brian Moffitt, CEO Richard Petty Motorsports. "He has shown success in NASCAR's national series and we look forward to him continuing to display his abilities in our car. We're fortunate to have someone with Bubba's potential in the Ford Performance family who can step in for us until Aric is healed."

Ford Performance seemed to be a key player in making this move happen. RPM has had a technical partnership with the Roush Fenway team since 2010 and the sport has seen an influx of young drivers over the last several years.

Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez have made it through the Toyota pipeline, while Matt Tifft and Christopher Bell are doing well for the manufacturer in the Xfinity Series and Truck Series respectively. Chevrolet stablemates Richard Childress Racing and  Hendrick Motorsports have young guns Austin Dillon and Chase Elliott driving for their respective MENCS teams, while RCR has Daniel Hemric and Brandon Jones and HMS has  Alex Bowman and William Byron driving in Xfinity and waiting to be called up. But save for Ryan Blaney, the Ford camp has not had many stand-out drivers aside from Wallace and his RFR teammate Ryan Reed.

"We are excited for Bubba to get this opportunity to drive the iconic No. 43 Fusion for Richard Petty Motorsports," said Dave Pericak, global director, Ford Performance. "We couldn't be happier with the progress of Aric Almirola's recovery and can't wait to get him back. In the meantime, this is a great opportunity for Bubba to show what he can do at the top level of the sport, and we are committed to helping RPM win races. We are proud of the collaboration between RPM, Roush Fenway, and Ford to make this driver transition happen, and it's a great example of the One Ford mentality we have in order to make the overall Ford NASCAR program better."

Roush has scaled back this season from three full-time Cup Series cars to two with Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Trevor Bayne and RPM shuttered it's No. 44 team following Brian Scott's retirement at the end of the 2016 campaign. So that doesn't leave a whole lot of room at the inn for Wallace and Reed, especially since securing the necessary funding to start a new full-time team has proven difficult for both organizations.

So while the circumstances are less than ideal given that Almirola is nursing a broken back, this is an excellent opportunity for Wallace to prove what he can do in NASCAR's version of the big leagues.

Martin Truex Jr Hits the Jackpot, Sweeps Las Vegas Before Fight Breaks Out

Martin Truex Jr celebrates in victory lane at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
(Google Images)

Martin Truex Jr won four races last year. He also came close to winning a lot more races in 2016 too. The No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team lost races because of ill-timed caution flags, late-race accidents, and a bolt on a wheel spacer balancing perfectly on a hub to create a vibration late in the spring Kansas race. They just couldn't seem to shake the little black rain cloud that seemed to make the trip with them every week from Denver, Colorado.

After topping two practice sessions and qualifying in second place, it seemed that Truex's No. 78 Camry would be one of the cars to beat again heading into the Kobalt 400. But polesitter Brad Keselowski jumped out to an early lead and dominated the first 80 laps of the race. By lap 53, the Penske Racing driver had over a two second lead over Truex.

Keselowski's Ford might've been the class of the field early on, but Kevin Harvick's bad luck from Atlanta seemed to follow him to Sin City. The 2014 champion blew a tire and hit the wall at the start/finish line. After being released from the infield care center, Harvick, who had last weekend;s race at Atlanta in hand until a late-race speeding penalty cost him the victory, told reporters that the car "started vibrating about four or five laps before it blew out, and I was just trying to ride it to the end of the stage... the worst part was the medical response; it took forever for them to get to the car. I thought we made that better, but obviously, we haven't... it either just cut a tire, or came apart and melted the bead."

Truex came in for four tires during the caution for the Harvick incident, which enabled him to get out to a two-second lead and win Stage One. Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray, Keselowski, and Chase Elliott rounded out the top five at the end of the stage.

Following Derrike Cope's slip up in turn three on lap 152, Truex and the rest of the frontrunners made their way to pit road before the end of the second segment. The New Jersey native beat Keselowski off pit road again, using this momentum to go on to win the second stage. Keselowski and Larson would wind up looking at Truex's rear bumper again coming to the green checkered flag.

Martin Truex Jr. celebrates his first win of 2017
(Google Images)

For Truex, his team, and anyone who is a fan of Furniture Row Racing, they knew this is where something usually happens to derail their dominance. A loose lug nut, a slow pit stop, losing their clutch like the week in Atlanta. They had already captured 20 championship points and two playoff points for their pair of stage victories, so another shoe had to drop at some point.

Well, that shoe dropped late in the final stage. As Truex was being stalked by Keselowski's No. 2 Ford, he needed to make a track bar adjustment to improve his car's handling. But when he reached for the dial to make the change, nothing happened. Something had happened to disconnect the track bar from the mechanism that allows Truex to adjust it from the cockpit.

As Keselowski passed Truex with 24 laps to go, he began to stretch his lead. All Truex said over the radio was "Oh track bar, where art thou?!"

Then Danica Patrick, who had been nursing a sick Ford around the racetrack for much of the second half of the day,  lost an engine with 17 laps to go. This totally changed the complexion of the race and indicated that the little black rain cloud that normally follows the No. 78 team from track to track might not have made the trip to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

On the final restart, Keselowski passed Truex again on the high side off of turn two. Then, as quickly as he had taken the lead, "Bad Brad's" Miller Lite Ford was slowly being reeled back in by Truex's Bass Pro Shops Camry.

Something had broken on Keselowski's that caused him to lose his brakes, which enabled Truex to pass him back off of turn two with just two laps to go.

In the end, the black cloud had dissipated, the bad luck took the weekend off, and Martin Truex Jr scored his first win of the 2017 season. This was also the first win for the new 2018 Toyota Camry and the first time a driver had swept all three stages of a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race. This netted Truex 60 championship points and seven playoff points.

"We definitely had our share of races where we've dominated and gave one away, and it looked like today was going to be another one of those," Truex said after the race. "We had to run that last set of tires on that last caution longer than we did all race long. I was out of control, and Brad was really good on the long run. I hate that he had problems. He was strong and we weren't going to do anything with him, but then he lost the brakes or something. A little bit of a gift, but we've given some away, so it feels good to come out on the good end for once."

Kyle Busch (center with back to camera) takes a swing at
Joey Logano (center in black hat) (Google Images)

But unfortunately, it was the extracurricular activities on pit road that stole the show after Truex took the checkered flag.

On the final lap, Joey Logano pinned Kyle Busch behind Keselowski's slower car going into turn three while racing for fourth. Busch dove under Keselowski, bumped Logano down the track and drove off into the final set of turns. But that bumped messed up Logano's entry into turn three, which caused him to get loose under Busch and slide up into him, sending the No. 18 car sliding down the track to the entrance of pit road.

Busch climbed from his smoking cockpit, tossed his helmet onto his seat and set off briskly down pit road to find Logano's fourth-place machine. Flanked by Joe Gibbs Racing handlers, Busch approached Logano and took a swing at the Penske Racing driver.

While it was a good swing, Busch's punch didn't make contact. To make matters worse, he was promptly tackled to the ground by several members of Logano's pit crew. He was dragged away from the scuffle with a bloody cut on his forehead.

You can click here to watch a full video of the fight. The footage was captured by Jeff Gluck of JeffGluck.com.

When asked about the altercation after the fact, Logano said that Busch didn't have much to say on the incident.

“Not a lot of talking,” Logano said. “Just a lot of swinging. We usually don’t have any issues.”

When asked if any punches were landed, Logano smirked and simply replied, “none to me.”

Fox Sports pit reporter Vince Welch caught up with Busch walking through the garage area. He told Welch that that's simply the way Logano races and that "he's gonna get it."

After announcing that they would receive a second date in the playoffs next year, a move that was lambasted by many fans because another "cookie cutter" mile-and-a-half track took a date from a short, one-mile track (New Hampshire Motor Speedway), Sunday's Kobalt 400 might have proved that Las Vegas Motor Speedway might be worthy of a second race after all. With the excitement that fans saw on and off the track, this should fire every race fan up for what the rest of 2017 has in store.

Kurt Busch Beats Young Guns to Win First Daytona 500

Kurt Busch won the Daytona 500 in his 17th try (Google Images)

It was a long offseason for Stewart-Haas Racing.

This time last year, the team announced that they would be leaving Chevrolet and their coveted alliance with Hendrick Motorsports to run Fords during the 2017 campaign, new hire Clint Bowyer began his transition into team co-owner Tony Stewart's old ride, and the sponsor of the majority of Danica Patrick's races, Nature's Bakery, announced last month they would be leaving the team, resulting in SHR filing a breach of contract suit and a counterclaim by Nature's Bakery.

So what better way to overcome all this change and adversity than to go out and win the biggest race of the year, right? Well, that's exactly what Kurt Busch and his No. 41 Ford team did.

This race also featured the return of Dale Earnhardt Jr. NASCAR's most popular driver spent the last 18 races of the 2016 season on the sidelines after suffering a concussion. Junior just missed out on the pole for the 59th running of the "Great American Race" and was forced to start second to his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, sophomore driver Chase Elliott. This was Elliott's second consecutive Daytona 500 pole.

Elliott and Earnhardt led the field to green and led NASCAR into a new era. For the first time ever, NASCAR would run their races in stages, rather than non-stop green flag to checkered. Races would instead be broken up into three stages, with Daytona being broken into 60, 60, and 120 lap stints to make up the 200 lap total distance. Stage winners would receive 10 regular season points and one playoff point to count towards their championship run.

Dale Jr (88) and Kyle Busch (18) wreck at Daytona
(Google Images)

The race ran caution free until pit stops began around lap 17 when the Joe Gibbs Racing and Furniture Row Racing Toyotas came in for service. Rookie Erik Jones overshot his pit box, while fellow freshman Daniel Suarez was hit with a pass through penalty for speeding. But both of their issues paled in comparison to Corie LaJoie's problems. While attempting to slow down to enter pit road, LaJoie locked up his brakes, slid past the entrance to pit road, and hit the outside wall.

Aside from these minor incidents, the race got off to a relatively calm start. But it wouldn't stay that way for long.

Restrictor plate tracks are known for close quarters racing and spectacular multi-car wrecks. It's never a matter of if "the Big One" will happen, but when it will happen and how many cars will get swept up in it. So the question on everyone's mind was could their favorite driver avoid trouble as the afternoon wore on.

At the close of the first stage, Kyle Busch was the leader and collected 10 championship points and a playoff point for the win.

When the race went back to green, SHR teammates Kevin Harvick and Danica Patrick on the front row. The team was beginning their switch to Ford look seamless.

Then the first of several big wrecks happened on lap 105. Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, and Jones were drafting together after making pit stops and trying to stay on the lead lap. Busch was leading the Toyota trio into turn three, just ahead of the leaders when he blew a tire. Busch's No. 18 M&M's Camry spun into the wall and collected Jones, Kenseth, and the race-leading car of Earnhardt Jr. 

After suffering a serious concussion last year, NASCAR Nation collectively held their breath when Junior's No. 88 Chevy rode over Busch's right front fender and into the outside wall. But he told reporters that his head felt fine and he was ready to head to Atlanta for the next race.

The 2017 edition of stock car racing's biggest event began calmly, but the Daytona garage area would quickly turn into a junkyard in the third segment, as Junior's wreck would be the first of many on the day.

Jamie McMurray pushed Jimmie Johnson into turn 3 on lap 127, triggering a 14-car pileup that collected Patrick, Bowyer, and Harvick. Following an incident involving Roush-Fenway Racing teammates Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Trevor  Bayne, McMurray would trigger another wreck with 59 laps remaining in the race that collected Ryan Newman, rookie drivers Suarez and Ty Dillon, and Brad Keselowski.

Kurt Busch celebrates his first Daytona win with his crew
(Google Images)

The race would resume with 47 laps and only a handful of cars remaining. Aric Almirola grabbed the lead from Cole Whitt after the green flag, but Kyle Larson would wrestle the top spot away just a few laps later. The youth movement at the front of the field continued when Joey Logano grabbed the lead from Larson with 37 to go, followed by Elliott charging to toe front just ten laps later. 

But with seven laps to go, Elliott ran out of fuel handing the lead to last year's runner-up Martin Truex Jr. The New Jersey native looked primed to grab his first Harley J. Earle trophy after losing last year's race by two-thousandths of a second. But Truex, too, would run out of gas after taking the white flag. This handed the lead back to Larson, who's fuel cell ran dry down the backstrech on the final lap. This enabled Busch to grab the lead and win his first Daytona 500.

After finishing second in the Great American Race three times, Busch was finally able to pull into victory lane. The win was also huge for his crew chief Tony Gibson, who grew up just hours from the speedway and had never won the Daytona 500 as a crew chief. It was also huge for all of SHR. After switching to Ford, many wrote the team off, saying it would take a while for the team to regain the strong footing they had while running Hendrick-powered Chevrolets. 

But clearly, Busch and SHR have proven that they will be a force this season. SHR might've missed out on the final four in last year's playoffs, but with Busch's Daytona triumph locking him into this year's title hunt, the sky is the limit for Stewart Haas Racing.

Breaking: Carl Edwards to Retire Immediately, Per Report

Carl Edwards may have done his final backflip in NASCAR (Google Images)

FoxSports.com broke the story late Tuesday morning, January 10, that Carl Edwards would be leaving Joe Gibbs Racing. The move is effective immediately and would end a successful 13-year career if "Cousin Carl" is indeed retiring for good.

The news came as a shock to NASCAR fans. Edwards is only 37 years old, he's won 28 times in 445 starts in what is now the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, and he came within just a few laps of winning the season finale at Homestead last year and securing his first cup title.

JGR announced that they will hold two press conferences tomorrow morning, January 11, starting at 10:00 am ET. During that time, they are expected to announce Edwards' departure, as well as name 2016 Xfinity Series champion Daniel Suarez as his successor.

Edwards is one of the most outgoing, fan-friendly, energetic drivers in the garage and his victory backflips after each of his win have made him a perennial favorite among fans. He is also one of the most private about his personal life. He lives with his wife and two children in his native Missouri rather than in the Charlotte/Mooresville area with the majority of the drivers, and he is the only active driver without a Twitter handle.

Edwards rose to prominence in NASCAR's premier series when he replaced Jeff Burton in Roush Fenway Racing's No. 99 Ford. He drove for Roush through the 2015 season, moving to JGR the following year.

This past season, Edwards won three races, his most recent being a rain shortened event at Texas Motor Speedway that ended under the lights and solidified him as a championship contender.

Truex Jr Nearly Reels In Harley Earl J. Trophy

Martin Truex Jr (78) missed beating Denny Hamlin (11) by four inches.

(Google Images)

Furniture Row Racing owner Barney Visser expected a slow start to the season. With his team switching from Chevrolet to Toyota over the winter and receiving chassis from Joe Gibbs Racing that were a tad outdated, Visser felt his team wouldn't be a contender right away.

He said this, despite the fact that things began to look up after they made this switch. After running for a Sprint Cup title last season, Bass Pro Shops announced they would sponsor Truex Jr in nine events this season, beginning with Daytona. FRR also announced last week that Auto-Owners Insurance will sponsor the team for three races. Not bad for a team that hasn't had a sponsor since it began a decade ago.

Then they ran the Daytona 500 and, after wrecking in both the Sprint Unlimited and their Can-Am Duel race, Visser's little Camry from Colorado came within four inches of a Daytona 500 trophy.

"I just said 'Damn, that was close,'" Truex said after the race. He missed beating Toyota teammate Denny Hamlin by .010 of a second, the closest finish in the 58-year history of the "Great American Race." You'd rather lose by a few feet than a few inches," Truex continued.

If only the bass on his hood would've stuck his tongue out. Then maybe Truex would've been able to reel in his first Harley J. Earl Trophy.

It wasn't a complete shock to see Hamlin win. He had won the Sprint Unlimited, barely got beat by Dale Earnhardt Jr in his Duel race and led 95 of the 200 laps in the Daytona 500. In addition, Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth won the second Can Am Duel qualifier. Speedweeks had been dominated by JGR Toyota's, and Sunday's big race was no different.

Polesitter Chase Elliott led the field to green and got out to an early lead before being passed by teammate, and race favorite, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Piloting "Amelia," the car named for Amelia Earhart which netted Jr three wins, a second and a third in last year's plate races, NASCAR's favorite son was again poised to take the victory in it's most storied race. That is if he could beat the JGR freight train at the front of the pack.

Dale Jr had a rough 500, wrecking Amelia, his favorite
restrictor plate car (Google Images)

While Jr planned on using his prolific plate racing skills to bob and weave to the front, the Gibbs Toyota's saw strength in numbers. They, along with Truex's No. 78 Camry, would run single file and block for each other in hopes that one of them would wind up in victory lane. But Jr, last year's winner Joey Logano, and a host of others couldn't best the Toyota train JGR had created.

While many thought the Hendrick cars might be able to do it, lap 20 showed just how long of a day HMS was about to have. Just shy of two dozen laps into the 200 lap event, Elliott got sideways trying to side draft off of turn four. He spun his car around without hitting anything, put when the front of his car looped back around, it dug into a drain in the infield grass and nearly ripped the nose off his No. 24 Chevy.

Then, with just 29 laps to go, Dale Jr did the same thing Elliott did. And he was just as lucky.

Side-drafting off turn four, trying to work his proven car back to the front, he got loose and spun to the entrance of pit road. But instead of spinning back around, his car stayed straight and slid nose-first into the inside retaining wall. Amelia would not get the chance to back up her Daytona win from last July. Now, she will no doubt be put to pasture in the woods on Earnhardt Jr's, where so many other wrecked race cars have famously found their final resting place.

The race also saw Brian Vickers spin, collecting the No. 7 of Regan Smith and the No. 19 of Carl Edwards (who nosed hard into the outside wall), Matt DiBenedetto wreck hard with Chris Buescher, and Danica Patrick spinning herself off the nose of Greg Biffle's No. 16. But Earnhardt Jr's wreck was the spin heard 'round the world, as he was a heavy favorite to topple the Toyota teammates at the front of the pack.

But now, with the strongest car out of the race, it was Kenseth's race to lose. He kept his teammates in line, simply following the leader, while Hamlin desperately tried to find a way to get around him. To show the strength this group had, Edwards' right front fender was nearly torn off and covered in bare bond from the Vickers spin and he was still running inside the top ten most of the day.

It appeared Kenseth was on track to win his third Daytona 500, until the last lap. That's when Hamlin slid up in front of Kevin Harvick as the outside line gained momentum. Down the backstretch, Hamlin inched closer to the front. Truex had a chance to pull in front and make some headway, but stayed on the bottom, as perhaps he was able to predict what Kenseth did next.

In the middle of turns three and four,

Danica Patrick does a little agricultural racing at Daytona
(Google Images)

Kenseth slid up to block Hamlin, making a lane for Truex to pass them both. The only problem was that Kenseth got loose and let Hamlin slide underneath him. Off of four and down the short shoot, Hamlin and Truex were in a dead heat for the lead. Truex nosed ahead, but as they came to the line, Hamlin's No. 11 slid in front by what proved to be four inches. He bested Truex by 0.10 seconds, the closest Daytona 500 ever. It was the infamous 1959 Lee Petty, Johnny Beauchamp photo finish for a new generation.

Truex knows this finish and the idea of what might have been will haunt him for the rest of his career. Hamlin hoisting the Harley J. Earl Trophy showed the thrill of victory, while Truex was resigned to taste the agony of defeat. But once the initial disappointment wore off, the Manahawkin, New Jersey native could see the big picture.

"I'm proud of what we did," Truex said after the race. "It's my best finish ever in this race. Probably one of the strongest runs I've ever had at a restrictor plate track throughout the entire day. It was a big day for us for a lot of reasons. I realize the position I'm in, the opportunities I'm going to have this year. I'm going to have a lot more opportunities to win races. I feel like we did everything right today to put ourselves in position to win."

So it sounds like Truex and his Furniture Row team will be just fine after all. This race was a big statement for this little team. They will be fighting for a seat at the head table in Vegas this year, and don't be surprised if Truex and his team are sitting on stage at the Wynn when the dust settles.

Stewart to Miss Start of Final Season With Back Injury

Tony Stewart will miss the first part of his final season in
NASCAR (Google Images)

Just when you think things can't get more interesting for Tony Stewart, he finds a new way to surprise us.

In 2013, he broke his leg in a dirt car race in Upstate New York prior to the Cup Series race at Watkins Glen. He missed the rest of the season due to his recovery. The next year, on that same race weekend, Stewart accidentally struck and killed Kevin Ward, Jr participating in a dirt track event at Canandaigua Motorsports Park. He has been embroiled in litigation since and has yet to run a dirt car since the accident.

But last season, he announced that 2016 would be his final year on tour and that Clint Bowyer would be the heir to his No. 14 Chevy. He has said that he's more physically fit and in the best shape he's ever been in. It looked like Smoke was going to rise back to the top and have a chance to leave NASCAR a champion, the same shot that Jeff Gordon had this past year.

But Sunday afternoon, while driving in the sand dunes in California with a group that included fellow driver Greg Biffle, Stewart had an accident that resulted in a burst fracture of his L1 vertebrae.He will miss the first part of the Sprint Cup season as a result, including his final shot to win the Daytona 500. Stewart, a three-time Cup Series champion, has not won the "Great American Race" in 17 attempts.

Biffle, who runs sand cars on a regular basis as a hobby, was driving with Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Ray Evernham and drag racer Don "Snake" Prudhomme. Both Biffle and Prudhomme said that, in the dust and sand, Stewart simply got lost from the group.

Stewart was driving a car similar to this when he had
his accident (Google Images)

"What really happened is, it isn't hard to get split off from one another," Prudhomme told NBC Sports. "In other words, if a guy makes a left turn and you're not watching his flags or there's dust or something, you can make a right turn and kind of get lost." Biffle told SiriusXM that he "wasn't near what went on," but that he had started "hearing bits and pieces that he hurt his back."

Prudhomme said that they found Stewart about 90 minutes later. "There was about three of us who went back on our buggies and we came upon him. He was laying there. He got out of it (the sand buggy) and was laying there in the sand on his back." The drag racing legend also said that Stewart was able to move all of his extremities.

There is no timetable set for Stewart's return, but he underwent spinal stabilization surgery on February 3 and could possibly return to the track in May for the Sprint All-Star Race in Charlotte. No substitute has been named to pinch hit (errr... pinch drive) for Stewart either. Bowyer has already inked a one-year commitment with HScott Motorsports to drive the No. 15 5 Hour Energy/Peak Motor Oil Chevy for the 2016 season, so he most likely won't get behind the wheel of Stewart's car until next season, as originally planned.

Kenseth Suspension Doesn't Quite Send the Right Message

Matt Kenseth has been suspended from NASCAR competition until
Homestead weekend (Google Images)

On Tuesday night, NASCAR dug itself into a pretty big hole and it doesn't appear many fans are keen to throw them a rope and help them get out.

Following Sunday's antics in Martinsville, capped off by an emotional victory for Jeff Gordon, the sanctioning body elected to suspend driver Matt Kenseth for the next two Sprint Cup Series events at Texas and Phoenix. Kenseth and Joe Gibbs Racing appealed the severity of the penalty, but lost both hearings. Now, Kenseth has been benched through the season finale at Homestead while truck and Xfinity Series standout Erik Jones fills in in the No. 20 Camry.

Many industry insiders and media members will make this out to be a black eye for the sport, but for many fans this was a self-inflicted injury for the sport of stock car racing. NASCAR has a long history of over-policing its drivers and, to paraphrase Kyle Busch, an even greater history of being "consistently inconsistent" when making judgment calls. Busch, Kenseth's teammate at JGR, proclaimed in his post race press conference at Martinsville that Brian France and other NASCAR heads have a nasty habit of playing favorites.

"Did [Matt] do anything wrong? I don't know. Did he do anything right? I don't know," Busch told reporters. "I think it all depends on whose name's above the door on whether or not you're allowed to do it." He told reporters it only matters which drivers are involved and who does what to who. "You got to be consistent. I definitely feel NASCAR is very consistent in being inconsistent on calls." Fans and drivers alike have bemoaned NASCAR for not enforcing it's rules and the sanctioning body has been accused of making rules as they go because of it. Everything from restart rules to debris cautions to pit road speed has been questioned this season and there is a severe amount of distrust between the fans and the sanctioning body.



The moment that might net Matt Kenseth (20) the Most Popular Driver
award this year (Google Images)

Busch has never been one to mince words and he went on to say what many fans are probably thinking about the Kenseth call.  "I think it's 'BS,'" he told reporters.  "[NASCAR] better - I say 'They better', but they don't have to listen to me for squat. Really doesn't matter what I say." He was also asked if he felt he'd be racing in Texas if he had done what Kenseth did. Busch simply replied, "Nope."

Busch has felt the wrath of NASCAR before following an altercation with Ron Hornaday in the fall 2011 truck race at Texas. But Busch also has more of a history of losing his cool inside the car, while Kenseth has always been known as a David Pearson-esque driver. He tends to just ride and stay out of trouble, then strike at the end of the race.

The Kansas incident was spark that ignited this firestorm, Logano's big mouth after the fact was what turned it into a five alarm blaze. Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr both said that had Logano kept his mouth shut in victory lane, this could have been a smaller incident. But instead, Kenseth gave this response to NBC's Mike Massaro and we got the sense this might not be over. Then Logano cut Kenseth off getting onto pit road and Kenseth warned the Penske driver to go "hide behind his daddy," a jab at the fact that Logano's father, Tom, usually attends races and tries to fight his son's battles for him. Then Brad Keselowski wrecked Kenseth at Martinsville. The team claimed it was a broken tie rod, but it was likely to protect Logano from any kind of payback.

You can watch the entire Martinsville incident here. Driver reactions start at around the 6-minute mark. Don't e surprised if Kenseth garners an Oscar nomination for his performance.

Three weeks in a row, three run-ins with Team Penske, two potential wins taken away and one chance at a title ruined. Nobody can blame Kenseth for losing his cool and trying to even the score. According to NASCAR, Kenseth was suspended because he "altered the outcome" of the championship fight by taking out Logano. But didn't Logano end Kenseth's title hopes by dumping him at Kansas? What about getting dumped by the No. 2 at Martinsville?




One fan took his love for Matt Kenseth to another level with this
custom-made diecast (Google Images)

France deemed Logano's actions at Kansas "quintessential NASCAR." But drivers have been wrecking each other since the beginning of time and that's become a part of the fabric of the sport. Even Dale Jarrett was pushed to his limit at the Bristol night race in 2005 when he punted Ryan Newman as retaliation for an earlier spin. And with the win at all costs style of the new Chase format, it allows for scenarios like this to play out. Kenseth saw his shot at a title go away in one corner of one race and he did the same thing to Logano, plain and simple.

NASCAR needs to take a look at the Chase format and stop looking at scenarios like this on a case by case basis and analyzing which drivers are involved and where they are in the points. They need to stop playing favorites and, like Busch said, simply enforce the rules. If they want to have a "boys have at it" mentality, then let the drivers police themselves. If they want to be in  control of every facet of the sport and rule with an iron fist, then the next time someone tries to retaliate we should expect them to be on the bench for a few races. It's that easy.

Judging from the amount of cheers Kenseth got at Homestead during driver intros, it would appear that a rather large majority of the NASCAR community probably shares this opinion.