Matt Kenseth gets two-race NASCAR Cup ban for Joey Logano crash

The 2003 champion drove Logano into the Turn 1 wall on lap 454, while Logano was leading the race and Kenseth was several laps down.

NASCAR officials indicated they considered the move to be retaliation for a recent clash between the pair at Kansas, where Kenseth came off worse when they were fighting for the lead.

NASCAR executive race president and chief racing development officer Steve O'Donnell said: "In our minds [the Martinsville incident] is a little bit different than two drivers really going after it coming out of Turn 4 for a win.

"Based upon our extensive review, we have concluded that the#20 car driver [Kenseth], who is no longer in the Chase, intentionally wrecked the #22 car driver [Logano], a chase competitor who was leading the race at the time.

"The #20 car was nine laps down, and eliminated the #22 car's opportunity to compete in the race.

"These actions have no place in NASCAR."

Earlier on Tuesday NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France warned no penalties were "off the table" ahead of Kenseth's sanction being finalised.

France explained that NASCAR's 'boys, have at it' code, introduced in 2010 to allow drivers to settle differences themselves, had its limits.

"What we want to prevent happening is drivers or anyone participating in NASCAR to take events into their own hands and control outcomes of races," said France.

"That's a very serious thing to us, and we'll be dealing with that."

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kenseth will miss the Texas and Phoenix races, returning for the season finale at Homestead.

Danica Patrick was also penalised for retaliating against David Gilliland in the race, with NASCAR docking her 25 points and issuing a fine of $50,000.