Matt Kenseth tangles with Brad Keselowski in Charlotte post-race fight

By Oct 11, 2014, 11:43 PM EDT
25 Comments

A tense sequence of events at the end of tonight’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway culminated with a post-race clash involving Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, and their respective crews.

The matter began on the cooldown lap after Kevin Harvick had won the race. Keselowski attempted to spin Denny Hamlin in Turn 3 before running into Kenseth and Tony Stewart at the entrance to pit road.

Stewart took exception and backed his car into Keselowski’s, inflicting serious front-end damage to the No. 2 Ford.

When the group returned to the garage, Hamlin climbed out of his No. 11 Toyota and had to be restrained by his Joe Gibbs Racing team as he expressed his displeasure with Keselowski.

Keselowski then walked away from the scene and in between a pair of haulers when Kenseth came up from behind and forcefully grabbed him.

The scrum escalated between the haulers and included members of their teams for a short time before dissipating.

In post-race comments to ESPN, Kenseth said that as a former Sprint Cup champion, Keselowski should have known better.

“He was doing something with Denny there – I don’t know if he was mad with him,” Kenseth said. “I had my HANS [device] off, my seat belt off and everything, and he clobbers me at, like, 50 [miles per hour].

“The race is over – try and come back to pit road and if you want to talk about it like a man, go do that. But to try and wreck somebody on the race track – come down pit road with other cars and people standing around and my seatbelt’s off – driving in the side of me is inexcusable.”

Kenseth had also made contact with Keselowski on a restart with 63 laps to go that had enabled Hamlin to take over the lead.

In that exchange, Kenseth appeared to have a big run on Keselowski, who then seemed to move up as they went through the tri-oval. Kenseth then clipped the wall and fell out of the Top 15 as he tried to get back up to speed; when asked about it, Kenseth felt Keselowski “ran him out of room.”

Keselowski thought the restart incident with Kenseth was simply a racing deal, but said that when Kenseth took a wave-around to return to the lead lap under the final caution, he hit him.

“When we restart in fifth with no right-front [bumper] on it, we fell all the way back to 16th and it ruined our day,” he said. “It gave us a big Chase hurt, which is unfortunate. And then for some reason after the race, the 11 [Hamlin] stopped in front of me and tried to pick a fight.”

Then came the incident with Hamlin on the cool-down lap.

“I don’t know what that was all about and he swung and hit at my car,” Keselowski said. “So I figured if we were gonna play Car Wars under yellow and after the race, I’ll join too.

“Those guys can dish it out, but they can’t take it and I gave it back to them. And now they want to fight. I don’t know what’s up with that.”

As for the contact with Kenseth and Stewart, Keselowski appeared to say that it was Kenseth who ran into Stewart, not himself. In any case, Keselowski’s car certainly got the worst of it in the end.

“I rubbed into the 20 [Kenseth] and I think he gassed up and ran into Tony,” Keselowski said. “I don’t think Tony knew what was going on, so he’s probably upset and he has every right to be. His car got tore up.

“But there was a whole lot of other stuff going on, and I’m sure when he sees the whole situation, he’ll understand.”

Hamlin was starting ahead of Keselowski on the restart with two to go and he figured that the Penske pilot would be aggressive considering his situation in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

But after what he felt as being knocked up the track by Keselowski, Hamlin decided to brake-check him down the backstretch on the cool-down lap before Keselowski’s unsuccessful attempt to spin him.

“And then we got to pit lane, he just plowed into the 14 [Stewart] and the 20 [Kenseth],” he continued. “The 14, his belts were off and he ran into him. Then he ran into us again coming onto pit road, and then he went to the garage, did burnouts, and knocked somebody’s transmission clear into somebody else’s pit stall.

“He was just out of control.”

Hamlin then said that NASCAR had declared “no tolerance” for such behavior. When asked to clarify that, he then said “NASCAR hasn’t told me anything” before adding:

“They told me, ‘Don’t go after him. You’ve got too much to lose.’ If I would have wrecked, he would’ve been in big trouble. I’d be waiting for him. He cost us six spots, but what goes around comes around.”

Hamlin ended up ninth at the finish, while Keselowski and Kenseth were 16th and 19th respectively.

Ford unveils a new Mustang for 2024 Le Mans in motorsports ‘lifestyle brand’ retooling

Associated PressJun 9, 2023, 7:00 PM EDT
Ford Mustang Le Mans
Ford Performance
0 Comments

LE MANS, France — Ford has planned a return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with its iconic Mustang muscle car next year under a massive rebranding of Ford Performance aimed at bringing the automotive manufacturer “into the racing business.”

The Friday unveil of the new Mustang Dark Horse-based race car follows Ford’s announcement in February (and a ballyhooed test at Sebring in March) that it will return to Formula One in 2026 in partnership with reigning world champion Red Bull.

The Mustang will enter the GT3 category next year with at least two cars in both IMSA and the World Endurance Championship, and is hopeful to earn an invitation to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The IMSA entries will be a factory Ford Performance program run by Multimatic, and a customer program in WEC with Proton Competition.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, also an amateur sports car racer, told The Associated Press the Mustang will be available to compete in various GT3 series across the globe to customer teams. But more important, Farley said, is the overall rebranding of Ford Performance – done by renowned motorsports designer Troy Lee – that is aimed at making Ford a lifestyle brand with a sporting mindset.

“It’s kind of like the company finding its own, and rediscovering its icons, and doubling down on them,” Farley told the AP. “And then this motorsports activity is getting serious about connecting enthusiast customers with those rediscovered icons. It’s a big switch for the company – this is really about building strong, iconic vehicles with enthusiasts at the center of our marketing.”

Ford last competed in sports car racing in 2019 as part of a three-year program with Chip Ganassi Racing. The team scored the class win at Le Mans in 2016 in a targeted performance aimed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ford snapping Ferrari’s six-year winning streak.

Ford on Friday displayed a Mustang with a Lee-designed livery that showcased the cleaner, simplified look that will soon be featured on all its racing vehicles. The traditional blue oval with Ford Performance in white lettering underneath will now be branded simply FP.

The new mark will be used across car liveries, merchandise and apparel, display assets, parts and accessories and in advertising.

Farley cited Porsche as an automaker that has successfully figured out how to sell cars to consumers and race cars in various series around the world while creating a culture of brand enthusiasts. He believes Ford’s new direction will help the company sell street cars, race cars, boost interest in driving schools, and create a merchandise line that convinces consumers that a stalwart of American automakers is a hip, cool brand.

“We’re going to build a global motorsports business off road and on road,” Farley told the AP, adding that the design of the Mustang is “unapologetically American.”

He lauded the work of Lee, who is considered the top helmet designer among race car drivers.

“We’re in the first inning of a nine inning game, and going to Le Mans is really important,” Farley said. “But for customer cars, getting the graphics right, designing race cars that win at all different levels, and then designing a racing brand for Ford Performance that gets rebranded and elevated is super important.”

He said he’s kept a close eye on how Porsche and Aston Martin have built their motorsports businesses and said Ford will be better.

“We’re going in the exact same direction. We just want to be better than them, that’s all,” Farley said. “Second is the first loser.”

Farley, an avid amateur racer himself, did not travel to Le Mans for the announcement. The race that begins Saturday features an entry from NASCAR, and Ford is the reigning Cup Series champion with Joey Logano and Team Penske.

The NASCAR “Garage 56” entry is a collaboration between Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear, and is being widely celebrated throughout the industry. Farley did feel left out of the party in France – a sentiment NASCAR tried to avoid by inviting many of its partners to attend the race so that it wouldn’t seem like a Chevrolet-only celebration.

“They’re going right and I’m going left – that NASCAR thing is a one-year deal, right? It’s Garage 56 and they can have their NASCAR party, but that’s a one-year party,” Farley said. “We won Le Mans outright four times, we won in the GT class, and we’re coming back with Mustang and it’s not a one-year deal.

“So they can get all excited about Garage 56. I almost see that as a marketing exercise for NASCAR, but for me, that’s a science project,” Farley continued. “I don’t live in a world of science projects. I live in the world of building a vital company that everyone is excited about. To do that, we’re not going to do a Garage 56 – I’ve got to beat Porsche and Aston Martin and Ferrari year after year after year.”

Ford’s announcement comes on the heels of General Motors changing its GT3 strategy next season and ending its factory Corvette program. GM, which unlike Ford competes in the IMSA Grand Touring Prototype division (with its Cadillac brand), will shift fully to a customer model for Corvettes in 2024 (with some factory support in the IMSA GTD Pro category).