KENSETH WINS COCA-COLA 600

Matt Kenseth and the DEWALT Racing Team captured the win at Lowe’s Motor Speedway Sunday night, Matt’s first career Winston Cup victory in just his 18th start.

Matt qualified for the 399 lap event in 21st position. Kenseth quickly moved into the top ten, claiming 9th spot on lap 153. Matt broke into the top five soon after and sat in that position until the one hour rain delay on lap 258. Matt resumed the race in eighth spot after a pit stop for fuel, but quickly moved back into the top five with 100 laps to go. Thanks to stellar pit stops the entire night, Matt hung in the top five until lap 375, when he took the lead and didn’t look back till the checkered flag dropped.

“I feel good right now,” stated Kenseth. “I’m pretty surprised, but it feels great to win our first race, especially the Coke 600. This is huge to be able to adjust from the beginning of the race to the end of the race and a lot of the changes that go on with this race track. I’m really, really surprised. This car here ran pretty good for us at Texas and I wrecked it there and we were junk last week with this car at The Winston, but Robbie and all these guys here behind me did a good job of getting this thing competitive and using their heads and thinking and trying to figure out what was wrong with it and making the changes to make it run. My heart started beating pretty hard there as soon as I took the lead there from Bobby. I was starting to think that Junior is a long way back there, I don’t think he can catch us. I just had to try real hard to hold off Bobby. We started out a little quicker, which was a surprise because that was just opposite of what we were all night, but I never really thought we had it in the bag there until we got two to go.”

Honorary Race Day Crew Member

Anthony Leister was DEWALT’s Honorary Crew Member at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Anthony is the outside sales representative for Hugh’s Supply in Spartanburg, SC.

NASCAR Winston Cup Series Raybestos Rookie of the Year Standings

1. Matt Kenseth	154
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr.	149
3. Stacy Compton	105
4. Dave Blaney	98
5. Scott Pruett	80

NASCAR Winston Cup Drivers Point Standings

1. Bobby Labonte	1776
2. Ward Burton	1722
3. Mark Martin	1695
4. Dale Earnhardt	1693
5. Jeff Burton	1672
6. Dale Jarrett	1630
7. Rusty Wallace	1578
8. Jeff Gordon	1539
9. Ricky Rudd	1523
10. Tony Stewart	1456
13. Matt Kenseth	1394
16. Dale Earnhardt Jr.	1326

MATT KENSETH’S RICHMOND BUSCH RECORD

Date	Start	Finish	Laps	$ Won	Status
9/5/97	32	22	248/250	$6,800	Running
6/5/98	14	3	250/250	24,965	Running
9/11/98	23	4	250/250	21,525	Running
5/14/99	18	3	250/250	28,865	Running
9/10/99	30	20	249/250	16,950	Running

Notes of Interest

Matt Kenseth captured his career best Winston Cup finish at California last Sunday, grabbing 3rd place. His previous best finish was a 4th at Dover Downs in September of 1999.

Kenseth and the DEWALT Race Team did not test at Richmond prior to the Pontiac Excitement 400.

Matt will be running a brand new #17 DEWALT Ford Taurus at RIR this weekend.

Kenseth has been the top finishing rookie in six of the first ten races of the WC season. Matt currently leads the 2000 Raybestos Rookie of the Year battle.

Matt Kenseth’s Thoughts on Richmond

“We’ve ran pretty good at Richmond in the Busch Series car, grabbing a few top five’s. I’ve never won there, but we’ve always run well. It’s a fun race track to drive on because you can race side by side. Even though it’s a short track, there is still room to pass. Short tracks aren’t my favorite race tracks, but I’ve always enjoyed competing at RIR.”

Kenseth grabs 3rd at California Speedway
Career best finish

Matt Kenseth and the DEWALT Racing team dominated at California Speedway, with Matt leading the most laps and grabbing his career best finish in the Winston Cup Series.

Kenseth was strong from the get go, moving from his starting position of 23rd into the top ten in just 30 laps. With the help of some great pit stops by the DEWALT crew, Matt took over the lead on lap 87. Kenseth led until the next round of stops cycling back to 5th, but reclaimed the top spot on lap 110.

Kenseth dominated the next 50 laps, falling back only slightly under green flag pit stops. Once the field cycled through their stops, Matt was again out front, leading the race with a considerable lead over second place when caution flew on the speedway on lap 220. Kenseth ducted into he pits for four tires and fell back to 6th with positions one through five getting only 2 tires. This proved to be the decisive moment, with Kenseth never able to get back to the front spot after leading four times with a total of 119 laps. Matt finished in 3rd position, a career best Winston Cup finish and moved up to 16th in the point standings.

“We didn’t really need the caution. We had an excellent race car, but I was really struggling to come from the back. When we saw that caution, I just wanted to get four (tires) because we had such a good car and I didn’t think as many people would have gotten two as they did and I thought they would have fell back faster than they did. Hindsight is 20-20. I probably should have got two tires and kept the lead and I don’t think they could have gotten around us. It’s neat to dominate all day, but it doesn’t do any
good if you’re not in victory lane. I thought we were gonna win today with those long green flags, we led so long. If it wasn’t for the caution, we were gonna win the race. I’m real proud of this team, but I sure wish we would have won it. The team came a long ways and I’m real proud of them guys. They were a front-running team today.”

Honorary Race Day Crew Member

Rik Gagnon of Costa Mesa, CA was DEWALT’s Honorary Crew Member at the California Speedway, representing White Cap.

NASCAR Winston Cup Series Raybestos Rookie of the Year Standings

1. Matt Kenseth	113
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr.	102
3. Stacy Compton	81
4. Dave Blaney	76
5. Scott Pruett	60