Kenseth hits out at Gordon

Kenseth had dominated the race, however, with just four laps to go, the pair collided coming out of Turn 2, with Gordon spinning Kenseth onto the infield.

The Roush Racing driver believes the contact was retribution for an incident at Bristol earlier this year, when Kenseth bumped Gordon out of the way in the closing stages.

After that race, Gordon physically pushed Kenseth on the pit-road, which earned him a fine and landed him on probation until the end of August.

"Jeff is a smart guy," Kenseth told gathered American media. "NASCAR brings people into the trailer and gives you same old speech each time, that you should stay away from each or we'll put you up on probation. Jeff is not dumb and he's not going to do it the next week or the week - he's going to wait.

"I know for sure it was intentional, but that's OK. Part of it is my fault. I knew he was going to catch me. In two laps he would have been a lot faster and he would have got past me clean anyway. We just got bottled up behind a lapped car and he just dumped me.

"Do you think with him being on probation he was going to say it was left over from Bristol? He's a smart guy. It was. He said he was going to do it and he did it.

"There was nothing I could do about it. I did the best job I could do today. I didn't have the car to win."

It all went wrong for Kenseth after the contact. During the subsequent caution period he ran out of fuel and had to pit, dropping him to the end of the lead-lap cars.

In the final seconds he collided with David Stremme, crashing his car into the wall just moments after he had crossed the finish line. He was classified 21st.

Fans at the track threw bottles and cans at eventual race-winner Gordon after the race, but he defended his part in the collision.

"If I wanted to just wreck him, I could have done it on that restart because I easily was inside of him," Gordon said. "He ran me all the way down to the apron, and our bumpers touched and he was getting ready to spin out because he just kept going. I actually checked up to keep from wrecking him.

"I want to win a race fair and square, and that's why I hate that he spun because I think we had a car capable of racing for the win.

"I definitely felt like I had a better car but it was going to be tough to pass him.  We come up on the lapped car and I think that had a lot to do with it because I got a run on him going into 1 and I drove underneath him trying to see if I could get him to overdrive the corner a little bit.

"He cut down in front of me and then I got back on the gas early, and I don't know if that car affected him, but he had been getting off there so good and he didn't that time, and I drove right in the back of him.  I didn't mean to wreck him, but I didn't mind moving him out of the way, either."