NASCAR’s Brian France: Stock-car racing is a contact sport

NASCAR Chairman Brian France said he has evidence that drivers understand what the sport’s “driver’s code” is.

“Do you know how many drivers have come to see (Managing Director) Richard Buck in the last two or three weeks?” France asked at his season-ending news conference Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “Zero. Zero drivers have asked us for a clarification on the so-called ‘line.’ And the reason they don’t ask is they know.”

Some drivers – principally Matt Kenseth – might dispute France’s assertion. But France’s larger point is he feels comfortable with how drivers police themselves on the track, including in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400, a race that will decide this season’s Chase championship.

“Lots of things can happen when there’s really hard racing and contact going on,” France said. “NASCAR will officiate the way we have always done that.”

Kenseth is an example of a driver who has recently said he’s unclear on what’s clean and what’s not-so-clean driving. While leading at Kansas, Kenseth was bumped out of the way by Joey Logano, who went on to win. It was Logano’s third consecutive victory in the Chase. Kenseth was essentially spun out of championship contention.

Two weeks later at Martinsville, Kenseth exacted his revenge. Nine laps down, Kenseth wrecked race-leader Logano, a move that led to Logano’s eventual elimination from the Chase.

NASCAR suspended Kenseth for two races for the Martinsville incident. Logano wasn’t punished for what happened at Kansas. The week after, in fact, France had called Logano’s bump a “quintessential” NASCAR move.

Kenseth and Logano met before practice Friday morning at Homestead.

“I think everything will be fine there,” Kenseth told reporters. “I mean, I wish none of it had happened, obviously. There’s probably certain things we’ll never agree on, but I think long-term it will be fine and we’ll work it out.”

Said Logano: “It was good. NASCAR had us talk it out a little bit. It was good for us to do.”

The two team owners – Joe Gibbs and Roger Penske – have also spoken with each other.

“That’s just between me and Roger,” said Gibbs, who owns Kenseth’s Joe Gibbs Racing. “We’ve always had a good relationship. He called me after Kansas. I called him after Martinsville, and that’s about it. That’s all I’d say about it. I think we really get along with each other. The things we kind of talk about are kind of between us.”

France said he had also spoken with Kenseth.

“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,” France said. “It was a good conversation. Those kind of conversations happen with us more frequently than not, so that’s not a surprising thing. I felt good coming out of those meetings.”

France stressed that contact between cars has been an accepted tactic in NASCAR for years. Under the microscope of the Chase – in which four drivers are eliminated over each of the first three rounds and the champion is determined in Homestead’s one-race finale – aggressive driving becomes more of a factor.

“When drivers are going at their best, trying their hardest, taking chances and doing amazing things, that’s what fans love,” France said. “We have to understand that. Does it create more moments where some drivers get the short end of that? Matt got the absolute lousy end of a NASCAR exchange. That happens. It’s happened all the time.”

The difference between what Logano did – and how Kenseth reacted two weeks later – was that Logano was racing for a win at Kansas, while Kenseth was out of contention at Martinsville.

“Some of our greatest finishes have involved contact,” France said.

France said Kenseth’s suspension – he missed races at Texas and Phoenix before returning this weekend – serves as a safeguard against what France described as a possible “escalation” of hard feelings between drivers.

“I’ve heard a lot of about, ‘You should be more consistent with your calls, because if I knew that, I wouldn’t have done this,’ ” France said. “We issue penalties for two reasons. One, for what you did poorly or wrong. We want to deter it from happening again. But if we’re calling a certain infraction the same way each time and we keep getting the same results, well, the drivers don’t care. You can expect us to lift up that particular penalty. Which is exactly what we did with Matt Kenseth. We saw what was coming, which is an escalation.”

This story was originally published November 20, 2015 at 7:06 PM.