Four-wide in turn three at Talladega is a recipe for disaster. Just ask Matt Kenseth

  
Pinball Alley: Ouch! This is going to hurt. Let's see, that's Kenseth into Gordon into......(Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   RICHMOND, Va.
   Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon have always had this 'thing,' every now and then it seems, like that day at Bristol.
   So what's the real story behind their catastrophic run-in at Talladega?
   "From my perspective -- what I saw -- me and Jeff were going up the middle the whole time, and we were working together," Kenseth says.  "He was hitting me real hard (bump-drafting), pushing me real hard. And we were halfway down the backstretch, and I cleared the guy on the bottom. 
    "Me and Jeff were in the middle, and there was somebody outside of Jeff, and -- to be honest with you -- I was looking forward and I felt my car slow down. So I looked up to the right rear, and Jeff was about an inch off my quarterpanel. 
    "He must have decided to pass me….which almost made us four-wide, although there was nobody on the bottom at that instant. 
    "So we were three-wide, but the whole time we were in the middle, and there was only room for one more up there. 
    "I never moved the wheel.  I kept going straight. And then I was just ready to turn down in the corner and give him extra room and let him be in the middle, and I was going to be on the bottom….and the spotter said 'Inside.'
   "So I looked to the inside, and there was a car in there. So I had to move up a little bit for that car. And he was just so close to me trying to get the air off my side when I moved up those few inches that he (Gordon) hit me in the right rear. And when he did my car shot right, because if you hit somebody back there, it's going to move the car that way.
   "And we just ran out of room. 
    "I don't think he knew we were four-wide.
    "But to go in there four-wide that early, there wasn't enough room for all get through there without touching each other.
    "And you don't need much of a touch to start it all off."
   
   

   
This doesn't look good. Matt Kenseth (Citi here) didn't have a good weekend at Talladega (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)