Brad Keselowski: 'No idea' when Kenseth and I will patch things up
Brad Keselowski isn't willing to say whether he regrets his actions that led to a heated scuffle with Matt Kenseth after last Saturday night's race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Only this much is certain: He isn't ready to make any dinner plans with the driver who ran up behind him and put him in a headlock before the two were separated by members of their respective teams.
Kenseth's unexpected show of anger was mainly a reaction to Keselowski's post-race bump on pit road -- and after Kenseth had taken his safety belts off.
So does Keselowski feel any remorse about pushing one of the typically most mild-mannered drivers in the garage to his breaking point?
"I am not really ready to get into that side of it," Keselowski said outside his team hauler on Friday at Talladega Superspeedway. "I haven't put a lot of thought into it, to be honest. I have been busy testing Martinsville and getting ready for this weekend. It is a huge weekend for me and our team where we have to really pull out a clutch moment (to advance in the Chase), and I don't want to lose sight of that by spending a whole bunch of time on all that other garbage.
"I am not going to say I haven't spent any time on it, but I didn't spend enough to really have all my thoughts and feelings put together enough to share it with you guys."
Speaking Friday before Keselowski, Kenseth expressed no desire for a do-over on his decision to confront the Team Penske driver after the race.
"To come down afterward and have your (belts) off and your net down, and to come and (for Keselowski) to pull those high school stunts playing car wars after the race, was just absolutely unacceptable, so that definitely put me over the edge. I don't regret my actions," Kenseth said. "I'm not proud of them or happy about them or anything like that, but I don't regret them. I don't know that I'd do anything different if the same thing went down again."
Keselowski bristled at Kenseth's suggestion Friday that the Team Penske driver was "greatly exaggerating" damage incurred when Kenseth across the nose of the No. 2 Ford under a late-race caution as payback for earlier contact.
"He is always entitled to his opinion as I am to mine," Keselowski said. "We are both entitled to your opinions. Obviously we have a difference of them or what happened Saturday wouldn't have happened."
Perhaps surprisingly, Keselowski was not particularly bothered that he was fined $50,000 this week while NASCAR did not penalize Kenseth.
"I haven't really thought about it, to be honest," said the 2012 Sprint Cup champion. "I guess in some ways you could, in some ways you couldn't. It is what it is. I haven't really put that much thought into it."
Nor has Keselowski considered when or if he might reach out to Kenseth in an effort to patch things up.
"I have no idea," Keselowski said. "That's hard to say. That's just not something I've thought about."
After finishes of 36th and 16th, respectively, in the first two races of the Chase Contender Round, Keselowski is 10th among the 12 remaining championship-eligible drivers and likely needs to win Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway to be among the eight drivers who move on to the Eliminator Round.
The thought of having no shot at the title over the final four races is admittedly not fun for the driver who has won five times this season and opened the Chase with a victory at Chicagoland Speedway last month.
"It'll be tough, but it happens," Keselowski said. "I'm not preparing to fail, but I am proud of what we've done this year. If we don't win the championship because of this round, I'm not going to go home and cry in my milk. We've got a lot to be proud of, we've led a lot of laps, won some races, won poles, in a lot of (ways) had a career year. There's a lot to take away from it, but I'm not giving up on it, either."
VIDEO: Kenseth jumps Keselowski after Charlotte race
