As the adoring crowd lingered in the darkness at Martinsville Speedway, Jeff Gordon took a moment to soak it in. In a 23-year career that is one long highlight reel, his victory Sunday overwhelmed the NASCAR great. He had just earned a spot in the championship race, a chance to race for an elusive fifth title. It was, in his mind, "one of my finest moments I've ever had." So Gordon, who at 44 years old celebrated his ninth Martinsville win by jumping along the track like a little boy on Christmas morning, climbed into the grandstands to share the emotion of the victory with the fans. "I don't know what it feels like to be a rock star, but that's as close as it can get," Gordon said. "That's a rock star moment right there." He has Matt Kenseth to thank for this storybook ending to his career. Kenseth intentionally wrecked Joey Logano — payback from an incident three races ago — to take the race leader out with 47 laps remaining. Logano had the dominant car, and Kenseth, who was in 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 hauler by the crew chief as the crowd cheered wildly in support of Kenseth. Although NASCAR chairman Brian France has championed on-track incidents, Kenseth could be sanctioned because he was not racing for the win. Kenseth downplayed the incident, deadpanning it was a result of an earlier incident 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-Miami Speedway, Logano is last in the eight-driver field and Keselowski is sixth. There are two races remaining for the rest of the final four to be set, and Logano has a lot of work to do to make it back to the championship finale for the second year. Kenseth and Logano have not talked since Kansas, and even though they were in the care center together after the accident, there was no conversation. Kenseth tried hard to dismiss the incident Sunday as a byproduct of earlier contact with Keselowski — a wreck that sent both Kenseth and Keselowski to the garage. But he was summoned to the NASCAR hauler after the race for a meeting that his crew chief and car owner Joe Gibbs attended. Kenseth eventually revealed why the wreck happened at Martinsville, the first of three races to set the championship field. "He's got a couple races left, he's got the best car, he might get a couple of wins here and still have a shot at it," Kenseth said. He also indicated that payback had to be done. "You never like to be in these situations. They really stink, to be honest with you, but sometimes you get put in these spots and you've got to try to keep respect in the garage area," Kenseth said. — AP
