They raised their arms and roared a throaty approval to their vigilante hero the last time NASCAR raced at Martinsville Speedway.
The crowd serenaded Matt Kenseth last November with approval after he wrecked Joey Logano in retaliation for contact at Kansas that spun Kenseth out of the lead.
Should the crowd show its love for Kenseth and displeasure for Logano again Sunday in such a vociferous way?
“To be honest with you, it motivates me,’’ Logano said. “I’m kind of OK with it. It doesn’t bother me at all. I just want to go and show them up.’’
Logano admits he doesn’t expect a rosy reception this weekend at Martinsville.
“I think that’s probably one of those race tracks that is probably going to be fairly negative towards me,’’ Logano said Tuesday during a break in a Goodyear tire test at Richmond International Raceway. “Like I’ve said over the years, there’s only certain people that really know who I am, the people you let close into your life and know how you are. I don’t really take that stuff too personal. I know there’s only one person that can judge me.’’
Logano notes he is looking forward to returning to Martinsville — where Kenseth’s incident cost him a chance to win and advance in the Chase — because of how well he’s progressed at the .526-mile track.
Before Kenseth wrecked Logano, who was leading at the time last year, Logano was seeking his fifth consecutive top-five finish there.
“That’s a race track we’ve made progress on every time we’ve been there,’’ said Logano, who had two top-10 finishes in his first 10 starts at the historic track. “I think if you look at years past we qualified well, but we ran eighth to 10th. OK, now we qualify well and we run fifth to sixth. We’re making progress. The last time we were there, we put it on the pole and quite possibly were going to win that race. It’s cool just to see the progress that is being made every time we go there.
“I would consider Martinsville one of our weaker race tracks in the past and now I consider it one of our stronger race tracks and I look forward to going to.’’
