Johnson drives to pole
Kenseth says he has no regrets about wrecking Logano.
Jimmie Johnson won the pole Friday for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway, continuing to play spoiler to the championship contenders.
Johnson was eliminated from the Chase for the Sprint Cup in the first round. But he won last Sunday at Texas, denying Brad Keselowski a spot next week in the championship finale, and his qualifying run Friday stopped Kurt Busch from earning the top starting spot for the final elimination race.
Johnson drove a lap at 143.158 mph in a Chevrolet to earn the pole for Sunday’s 312-lap race at the 1-mile trioval.
Busch was second at 142.880, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase drivers Carl Edwards and Martin Truex Jr.
Seven drivers are vying for the three remaining spots next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Jeff Gordon, who qualified 11th Friday, is the only driver locked into the final four.
Kenseth speaks: Matt Kenseth admitted Friday he deliberately wrecked Joey Logano and said he would do it again. But he said he would have handled the payback in a less obvious manner had he known he’d draw a tworace suspension, which ends with Sunday’s race.
“You have to have respect in the garage area,” Kenseth said from his home in North Carolina. “If you are going to go out and try to race for wins and race for championships, you can’t be a doormat or next year you are going to get knocked out again. Drivers are going to be like, ‘Well, he ain’t going to do nothing. We’ll just knock him out of the race and then jack with him as much as possible and make sure he’s not going to make it through because he’s not going to retaliate.’
“At some point ... you have to retaliate.”
Logano spun Kenseth while racing for a win at Kansas that Kenseth needed to continue his championship chances. Kenseth retaliated two races later by wrecking Logano as Logano raced for a win at Martinsville that would have landed him a berth in the championship field. Now Logano needs to win at Phoenix to advance.
Kenseth had returned to the track down nine laps after a wreck with Logano teammate Brad Keselowski.
“I really stand by my actions,” Kenseth said. “I feel like there’s a breaking point. It wasn’t just about being mad, it was about getting this fixed. It was time to make it stop.”