Kenseth was suspended by NASCAR for two races after the sanctioning body determined he had intentionally wrecked Logano at Martinsville, in retaliation for a previous collision between the pair at Kansas. Kenseth acknowledged regret that the incident took place, although not for his own actions.

"Honestly, I'd never had a problem with Joey before that. We've always raced well together and I've always had a lot of respect for him and felt like he raced me clean before all this stuff went down," Kenseth told the media in Charlotte. "I think the way all the circumstances fell, it was something that unfortunately had to be done. If I knew I was going to be suspended I would have figured out how do it differently and be a little sneakier about it to where you didn't get yourself suspended."

Kenseth said he felt fans had widely supported his stance.

"It depends who you ask – some people will say I did (the right thing) and some will say I didn't," he related. "You know, it's been an interesting offseason, to be honest with you. I've gotten more feedback, had more fans approach me this offseason than I have ever in my entire life at just random places you go. I haven't had any guy want to hit me yet.

"I mean, race fans like that stuff. They really do. I don't particularly like it, but the race fans like it, and they like to watch it, and that's how racing's been ever since I started watching NASCAR, right? You wreck me, you're going to get wrecked back. I think a lot of the fans, especially old-school fans, probably like to see some of that – everybody not liking each other so much."

"But this isn't a popularity contest, it's about winning. I feel like I have a lot of respect from my organization and my teammates and I feel like I have a lot of respect within the garage. So I'm not going to change who I am, just go out and do my business and some people are going to like it and some people aren't."