Matt Kenesth’s appeal of a two-race suspension will be heard at 9 a.m. Thursday at the NASCAR R&D Center.
The three-person panel for the hearing already has been selected to rule on Kenseth’s challenge of the penalty for intentionally wrecking Joey Logano in Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway.
If Kenseth loses the appeal, he would have one last option of taking the case to Final Appeals Officer Bryan Moss. A NASCAR official said a final appeal also would be held Thursday.
In a release shortly after the penalty was announced Tuesday night, Joe Gibbs Racing said Kenseth “will challenge the severity of the penalty, which is believed to be inconsistent with previous penalties for similar on-track incidents.”
If the suspension holds, Erik Jones will drive Kenseth’s No. 20 Toyota this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. Kenseth’s streak of 571 consecutive starts in NASCAR’s premier series also would be snapped. He ranks second among active drivers in that category to Jeff Gordon, who holds the record of 794 consecutive starts.