Originally Posted by
t.nie
Mat didn't exact his payback because Logano cost him a win in another race. Mat's payback was payback for Logano taking Mat out of the chase. Logan had two wins to his credit, was safely into this round of the Chase competition to race for the title, and STILL decided that since he couldn't figure out a way past Kenseth clean, he would just move hi right on up out of the way and take the win.
Which is fine and dandy, as long as the win in that one race is ALL you are racing for. But Logano didn't just wreck him out of a single race win, he wrecked him completely out of a shot at the Championship and quite frankly, when you are safely into the next round, wrecking some guy just because you can is bound to get you all the retribution you can stomach.
I saw Kenseth after Kansas, and his comments were basically, Ok, fine, Logano wants to race that way, that's fine, but the bottom line is he is running for a championship and if this is what he is going to do, then you know, you might find that you are going to have a hard time winning that championship in the next coming races.
Yesterday Mat made it clear what he meant. You wreck me out of the Championship, then if I get the chance, I am going to wreck your Championship too. And that is exactly what he did.
Had Logano run Mat clean at Kansas, Mat wins, both go into the next round and then all bets are off, it's every man for himself. But at some point Logano needs to understand that if you want to win the whole thing, you best not be doing stupid crap along the way to other folks who are fighting to stay in contention too. And Logano wrecking Kenseth at Kansas was the stupidest thing he could have possible done.
Cooperation is just as much a part of lifting that trophy at the end of the season as beating and banging is on the run to it. But just because you CAN wreck someone for a single race win, it's not always the smartest move to make. Especially under the Chase format where a win gets you into the next round.
Logically Kenseth was not a real threat to Logano for the Championship. Logano is fast, the team is on fire, he's winning like crazy, so its not like Mat is some threat that Logano is better off if he's not in contention. But Logano took Mat out, and now instead of being a guy that Logano can look at in the 8 and say "don't need to worry about beating him, I practically let him stay in the Chase at Kansas" now Logano has created an enemy, a guy with an axe to grind who wants payback and while it may cost him a fine or suspension, Logano may have lost the Championship over it. NOT smart at all.
Logano has no one but himself to blame for this. I've watched plenty of races where the guy in second is hammering away to try to get by the guy in front but decides, in the end, that second place is better than running the risk of wrecking yourself in the process, costing both of you points and money, and making an enemy that could come back to bite you.
When Logano wrecked Kenseth at Kansas, he didn't just wreck Kenseth's race win and shot at the next round of the Chase. He wrecked his own chances at winning the Championship, too.