I would like to welcome Kraft back as an associate sponsor on the Reiser #17 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

The NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division Awards Banquet will be televised on ESPN2 on Saturday, Jan. 16, 1999 at 6pm/et from the Regent Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, California.

There have been a couple good articles about Matt and Reiser Enterprises at Nascar.com this week. Shop Tour: Reiser Enterprises and No rest for Reiser, Kenseth, 17 team

Not much happening as far as news stories but you can be assured that the guys at the shop are working hard to be ready for the 99 season which starts on February 13th in Daytona.

No word yet on availability of DeWALT merchandise, there was supposed to be something ready by Christmas. I will post news on merchandise as soon as I hear about it. The only Lycos items available from Matt’s sister are the 1/24th black diecast cars, everything else has been sold out.

The season ending race was not very dramatic for the Busch series champion, Dale Earnhardt Jr. The championship was his as soon as the green flag dropped and he would start to celebrate after his motor failed in the backup car on lap 89. Matt Kenseth had his own problems in the Lycos #17. After a poor first round qualifying attempt, the engine was swapped for a fresh motor which unfortunately failed on the first lap of second round practice. Matt had to take his first provisional, starting back in the 37th position. Matt and the Reiser Raiders made up for the back of the field start by being fast on long green flag runs and quick pit stops. Matt would go on to finish 4th, highest of the Busch series regulars. Miami Jiffy Lube 300

Matt Kenseth finishes 2nd in Busch series points, 48 points out of first. The stats show that Matt had more consistent finishes then Dale Jr, Matt’s average finish was 9th compared to Dale’s 10th. The difference in points was Jr’s bonus points in laps led. It should be quite exciting watching these two great young drivers in the years to come.
  

MATT KENSETH
No. 17 LYCOS.COM Chevrolet

“That was really good for us, because we weren’t expecting to run very good. We ran terrible all weekend. We had a problem and didn’t get to practice much yesterday, so that was a very good run for us today. We came all the way up to fourth place. We were the highest-finishing Busch car, but I would’ve liked to have beat those Winston Cup guys. To run fourth was really good for us today. “It’d be real easy to beat myself up over losing the (Busch Series) championship since we were so close, but there’s 31 races in a year and every single point matters all year long. We lost too many points. We didn’t run good enough on short tracks and we didn’t run good enough on flat tracks. Basically, we just lost it on performance. They (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) performed better than we did — they had four more wins that us, but we had more top-fives and more top-10s. They led more laps and won more races, and anytime you can do that, you can win the championship. The bonus points made the difference. The difference in bonus points between us is probably what the overall difference was in the championship. Those points play a big part in winning the championship.”
  

I would like to thank Lycos for a great year, your involvement with the internet fans has been fun. We will all miss the chat sessions and hope you can do a few next year.

It is now time to welcome DeWALT Tools and Luxaire Heating and Cooling. Welcome aboard and here is to a winning season in ’99!!

Dale Earnhardt Jr. almost clinches the Busch Grand National Championship this weekend by gaining 20 points on Matt Kenseth with his second place finish. Matt finished the race in 4th after starting from the outside pole position. It was looking like Jr. would easily clinch the championship when Matt went a lap down early in the race by taking a green flag pit stop and getting caught a lap down when a caution came out just 2 laps later. Matt would later get his lap back by making an incredible move to get by race leader Casey Atwood when the leaders got stacked up at a restart causing a few cars to wreck. Mark Martin went on to win the race, despite a damaged rear bumper.

Dale Jr. now leads Matt by 166 points, and only needs to start next weekends race at Homestead to win the Championship.

Matt will race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend for his first time. First round qualifying for the Stihl Power Tools 300 starts Thursday at 3pm eastern. The race is Saturday at 1pm televised live on ESPN. Tim Bender sat on the pole last year in the #17 at Atlanta.

Matt tested at Atlanta a few weeks ago and turned the fastest times of the test session. He did wreck the car by going into the wall but the car has been fixed and should be back up to speed. Earnhardt Jr. can win the championship by finishing 17th or better in the next 2 races, he clearly needs to have some bad luck if Matt hopes to catch him in points.

A very interesting story was developing Friday afternoon, Matt was qualified on the front row along with pole sitter Tony Stewart. It was going to be a replay of this springs dramatic finish...  Unfortunately this story didn’t play out. On the first lap of happy hour Busch practice, Matt was taken out by Phil Parsons. The car was heavily damaged and the backup car was brought out, putting Matt at the back of the field for Saturdays race. The only good thing about this misfortunate wreck was that it happened early in the practice, giving the crew more time to work with the backup car.

Saturdays race had several early race cautions and Team Lycos took advantage of them by pitting on every yellow flag lap, making many adjustments to the car. After the 3rd caution, Matt started to make his move towards the front, getting as high as 10th. They missed the setup on the car and paid for it in tire wear, slipping back to a 27th place finish. The race was won by pit strategy. The leaders, including Matt made green flag stops late in the race and paid for it by being caught a lap down after a caution. Elliott Sadler went on to win the race, Earnhardt Jr. was leading most of the day but was also caught a lap down and finished 14th. Matt is now 146 points behind Jr. in the championship battle with just 2 races remaining.