Matt Kenseth saw his day end abruptly against the Turn 1 wall when the right front tire let go on his No. 17 Lycos Chevrolet. The sophomore had set the pace for much of the first half of Saturday’s race, holding eventual winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. and runner-up Bobby Hillin Jr. at bay while he led 55 of the first 102 laps.

Track safety crews quickly doused a minor fire after Kenseth clouted the wall on lap 137.

“We had really good race car. It was extremely disappointing,” Kenseth said as he clutched an ice pack to his bruised right shoulder and right side. “It ruined a pretty good race car. I’m all right but we tore up the race car and that’s the worst thing.”

The 40th place put a dent in Kenseth’s championship quest, as point leader Mike McLaughlin finished fifth to stretch the gap to 113.

“It hurt us a little bit in the points race, but it’s early and we’ll come back,” Kenseth said. “I just bruised my right shoulder and my right side.”

• Matt had his career best Busch qualifying effort today, he will be on the outside front row!! Matt missed the pole position by 55 thousands of a second, he shares the front row with Kevin Lepage.
  
  Kenseth said he wasn’t surprised that Lepage beat him out for the Bud Pole.
  
  “I knew it was going to be close,” he said. “There were quite a few cars that I was worried about. Kevin was one of them, because he didn’t go out in that final practice and I was only 1/1000th faster than he was this morning. I’d like to win the pole someday, but the race is a little more important. Every time we start near the front, we have a much better day.”

• Matt was in a chat session Wednesday with Nascar.com. Matt is also interviewed on MRN Radios Nascar Today.

• Starting Monday June 1st, Matt will continue his weekly chat sessions at http://chat.lycos.com. See you there at 7pm Eastern.

• Team Lycos makes their way over to Dover Delaware this weekend for the MBNA Platinum 200. Qualifying is this Friday at 2:10 PM Eastern and racing gets underway Saturday at 1:30, televised live on TNN. This will be Matt’s third time at Dover, last year he placed 11th at this race and 3rd in the fall race.

• Matt Kenseth continues to impress, bringing the #17 Chevrolet into a 5th place finish, highest of the Busch series regulars. Starting from the 5th position, Matt quickly moved to the front and led several laps with Mark Martin in tow. Then trouble struck, Matt damaged the front end of his car when he drove into the rear end of Dale Earnhardt Jr. after Jr. went into the wall to avoid a collision with Kevin Schwantz. The Team Lycos crew did a great job bandaging up the car and getting him out on the tail end of the lead lap. With a aerodynamically challenged race car, Matt flew through the field and was quickly back up with the leaders.

• Matt Kenseth and Mike McLaughlin are starting to run away with the points race. Matt gained 9 points today on Mike and is now just one point away, followed by Earnhardt Jr., 189 points off the lead. The pit crew continues to have excellent pit stops and Matt’s consistent finishes are proving that this is a championship team.

• No Hooligan race for Matt this year!! The Team Lycos #17 will be starting up in 5th place. Matt held the provisional pole for awhile before being knocked off by Dale Fischlein and pole sitter Bobby Labonte.

• Local news — Nascar.com has an article about the RE/MAX challenge series being at Madison International Speedway this Friday. According to the article, Ron Breese Jr. is the favorite to win the race, I’m putting my money on Jason Schuler, holder of the track record.

• The biggest race of the year takes place this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Over 60 Busch cars will be trying to make Saturdays race, a difficult feat since only the top 28 are done on time. Qualifying for the Carquest Auto Parts 300 starts Thursday at 4:30 Eastern, the last chance Hooligan race is Friday at 2:30 and the race is Saturday at 1:00, televised live on TBS. This will be the 4th time Matt has raced at Charlotte, and each time he has had to run in the Hooligan race to make the field.

• Starting in the 6th position, Matt Kenseth brought the Team Lycos Chevrolet into another top five finish, placing 4th. Matt ran in the top five all day and was running as high as second a few times. With 5 laps to go, Matt seemed to find some extra speed, passing Joe Bessey and catching up to points leader Mike McLaughlin. McLaughlin beat Matt across the finish line by half a fender, taking a 10-point advantage in the points race.

• MATT KENSETH (No. 17 Lycos Chevrolet Monte Carlo): “I haven’t had enough experience here at this track to know what makes it different, but it’s definitely changed since this morning. The track’s OK, the car’s OK, we just need it to turn a little better. I hated this place last year, but everyone’s been saying how much fun it is to drive here. This year, I really like it so far.
  
  “We were way too loose (in qualifying) — we were out of control. We’re just going to get it ready to race. Hopefully, we’ll find a good race setup. Qualifying and racing are two different things. This car always races good.”

• Matt Kenseth and Team Lycos will be headed for the difficult 5 corner raceway at Nazareth Pennsylvania this weekend. Qualifying for the First Union 200 is Saturday at 2pm Eastern and the race is Sunday at 1pm, televised live on ESPN.

• Check out some cool images of Matt and the #17 at Lycos Headquarters in Waltham Massachusetts, taken just before the New Hampshire race. Go to the Team Lycos page and click “Photographs”

• The rain stayed away from Loudon today and Matt brought the Lycos #17 into a 16th place finish despite a very tight car. Matt was unable to get on the gas soon enough coming off the corners because of a bad push, he went back through the field quickly and was close to being lapped when a much needed caution came out. 2 cautions later it looked like the team had managed to get the car loosened up enough to run in the middle of the field, I wonder if the ball peen hammer had anything to do with it  :)

• Team Lycos lost a little ground today in the points race. They are now in 2nd place 5 points behind Mike McLaughlin.

• Matt has qualified in 14th position for tomorrows race, which is looking like it might be on Sunday because of rain.

• Lycos has updated their web site and now has a “Matt Kenseth’s Official Homepage” site. Be sure to check this site out often, there is a lot of great information on Matt and the team.

• The weather doesn’t look too cooperative for qualifying tomorrow and the race on Saturday. There is a chance of showers both days with temps. in the 60’s.

• The Busch cars take to the track this weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway for the Gumout Long Life Formula 200. Qualifying is Friday at 2pm Eastern and the race is Saturday at 12:10 pm televised live on TNN. Last year qualifying was rained out and Matt had to start towards the back of the field, based on owners points. He got caught up in a wreck and was not able to continue racing. This year expectations are high as they had a great test session and look forward to expanding the points lead.

• Matt had the Lycos Chevrolet at Nazareth earlier this week for testing, but had to settle for a softball game because of the rain.