LOUDON, N.H. — Jeff Gordon apologized to Matt Kenseth — sort of.
And Kenseth accepted — sort of.
Kenseth said the two former NASCAR champions spoke briefly on Tuesday during a test session in Indianapolis, but the face-to-face meeting apparently did little to settle their differences.
"He almost acted like he was mad a me," said Kenseth, spun out by Gordon late in last Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway.
"I thought we were OK but, obviously, we weren't," Kenseth said Friday at New Hampshire International Speedway. "I don't think we'll be going out to dinner tonight.
"We talked after Indy but, honestly, when we talked about it, it was kind of one of them things where he came over and apologized but wasn't very apologetic, if you know what I mean."
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Asked about Kenseth's comments, Gordon shrugged and said, "I did all I could. I pretty much left it up to him."
Kenseth had dominated the Chicagoland race. But, Gordon, who obviously had the faster car in the closing laps, got impatient and tried to get past with four laps to go by bumping Kenseth up the track. The result was a spinout at about 180 mph for Kenseth and a victory for Gordon.
Since it was Kenseth who spun out Gordon on the way to a third-place finish earlier this season in Bristol, payback was the immediate thought. Gordon insisted it was simply hard racing, saying he only tried to move Kenseth up the track, not to spin him.
But Gordon said he can certainly understand why the Roush Racing driver is upset.
"I look at the Bristol incident and this incident is so similar," said Gordon, who was penalized $10,000 and placed on probation until Aug. 30 for shoving Kenseth when he came up to apologize after the Bristol race. "He came up to me and said he was sorry and didn't mean to do it, but I was fuming for a long time after that.
"All I do know, and people can believe me or not believe me, that wasn't payback. It really wasn't. It was racing hard and it just happened to be a guy that I had an incident with earlier in the season."
The four-time series champion said he has watched video replays of the Chicago incident and that it was obvious to him that after the two leaders slowed to drive under the lapped car of Casey Mears, he simply got back on the gas faster than Kenseth did.
"That's going to be something we might disagree on right now but, at the same time, if we don't both move on from this, then it's going to cost both of us a chance at the championship," Gordon said.
● Ryan Newman posted a lap of 129.683 mph in Friday's qualifying to win the pole at New Hampshire.
Jeff Burton was the runner-up at 129.651, followed by Brian Vickers at 129.626.
IRL
GLADEVILLE, Tenn. — Dan Wheldon made sure he will start in front of Marlboro Team Penske rivals Sam Hornish Jr. and Helio Castroneves.
Wheldon turned a lap of 203.293 mph at Nashville Superspeedway and won the pole for tonight's Firestone Indy 200, making him the first IndyCar Series driver with consecutive poles this season.
Wheldon, the defending series champion, currently ranks fourth in the points race and is only 43 points behind Hornish. Wheldon led 45 laps at Kansas before being passed and finishing second.
"There's no points for the pole, but I think … going into this race I'm more confident in the race car than I was in Kansas. It's that same guy next to me and starting to be a bit of a trend. He beat me at Kansas, and we need to put that right," Wheldon said.
Formula One
MAGNY COURS, France — Juan Pablo Montoya could race in Formula One this season after all.
The Colombian driver left the McLaren team this week after announcing that he was switching to NASCAR next season.
However, McLaren chief Ron Dennis said Friday that Montoya is still a McLaren employee and could be back this season.
"Juan Pablo is contracted through to the end of the year," Dennis said at the French Grand Prix. "And if we so choose, he will test and race again."
Asked whether Montoya could race again in F1, Dennis said, "More than possible and with our team."
There are eight races left in the F1 season.
Montoya said last Sunday that he was joining the NASCAR series next season. On Wednesday, McLaren announced that Montoya was leaving the F1 team immediately. That led to speculation that Montoya could compete in NASCAR sooner than expected.
Montoya never finished better than third in the F1 drivers championship and won seven races in 95 starts.
