• Matt Kenseth Sweeps Crown Royal IROC Finale at Atlanta; First ever $1 Million Dollar Champion
• IROC Photos
• More IROC Photos
• IROC race review
• The million-dollar man
• Kenseth gets title in IROC series
• IROC championship special to Kenseth
• Kenseth hits daily double at AMS
• Kenseth beats Busch after late charge
• Kenseth survives wreck-filled Busch Series race
• Kenseth enjoys Busch, IROC wins
• Kenseth victory is bittersweet
• Busch race photos
• Kenseth’s engine woes caused by gear selection
• Cup race photos

ATLANTA, GA (October 31, 2004) — Matt Kenseth had a terrific weekend going in Atlanta until Sunday. He swept both Saturday races in both the Busch Grand National Series and the IROC race — of which gave him the 2004 Crown. However, his luck ran out on Sunday as a mechanical failure relegated him to a 41st place finish in the Bass Pro Shops 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Rolling off the starting grid from the 39th position, Kenseth took off like a man possessed. Or a man possessed with a very fast race car. Either way, Matt was making up ground in the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford in a big way. Lap after lap, he ducked low in the corners and picked off competitors — sometimes two and three at a time. He was running 20th — a difference of 19 positions in the first 20 laps of the race. All the while, he was reporting that the car was loose off of both corners, real good on sticker tires and sliding around just a bit.

Nevertheless, he continued his forward march to the front of the field. “This thing is awesome in turns one and two,” he radioed on lap 18 while in 17th position. “There’s so much horsepower, it’s unbelievable,” he added. By lap 44, he cracked the top-ten for the first time all day and held the position until the first caution flag waved on lap 52 — just two laps shy of their regularly planned pit stop.

Kenseth came in for four tires, but was blocked in his pit stall by the No. 88 car. He had to give up some position on pit road and restarted the race from the 15th position on lap 61. Again, he took off much like he did at the beginning of the race and made it back to 10th by lap 76. The car was loose, he reported … much looser than the previous run. He got as high as eighth place before a regularly scheduled green flag pit stop on lap 117. The over-the-wall crew completed the stop in 13.85 seconds and gained him two spots on the race track to sixth overall when he cycled back through.

“The middle of the corner is now tight — I have to wait to get in the gas,” he radioed to Robbie Reiser on lap 120. Clearly, it wasn’t hampering his ability to pass cars and Kenseth got into the top-five running order for the first time all day on lap 129. After a lap 136 caution, he pitted again and once more, he was blocked into his pit stall losing valuable positions on pit road. He restarted eighth on lap 142 and sifted through heavy traffic to reach 6th place two laps later.

“It’s real loose on this set of tires and getting looser every lap,” he radioed on lap 160. Just past the halfway point, Robbie Reiser was planning some minor chassis adjustments to help the handling when Matt suddenly radioed that he had a serious problem in the drive train. A lap later, he officially dropped out of the event on lap 174 going behind the wall to evaluate the problem.

He stopped outside of the DEWALT Transporter to answer questions from the media:

WERE YOU WORRIED WHEN KURT WENT OUT? “I was worried when I saw it happen to Kurt, but not because we’ve had engine trouble. This is the first engine problem we’ve had all year and I can’t complain at all. Our engines have been awesome. They’ve done a phenomenal job in Mooresville of making us real competitive, so I don’t have anything bad to say about that. The reason we broke is we ran too much gear. We ran more than Kurt. I don’t know why he broke, but I knew in my head this morning we shouldn’t have run it and we all decided as a group to do it, and I was one of the guys that decided to go ahead and run it so we should have known better than that.” 

WHAT HAPPENED? “Something broke in the engine. I don’t know what it is, but we might have broken a valve or something like that.”

WHAT DOES THIS DO TO YOUR TITLE CHANCES? “I thought we were out of it before we ran today, so we’re really out of it after today. I didn’t think coming into today we really had a chance, but we’re trying to get as high as we can. We still really want to get in the top five and finish as high as we can and end the season on a strong note.”

YOU SAID THE CAR WAS BORDERLINE EVIL YESTERDAY. “Yeah, we had it better today, but all weekend it was terrible. Today it was OK. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t near as good as what people are running, but it was a top 10 car, which isn’t great for us because this is one of our better tracks, but it was definitely better than it was all weekend.”

THIS WAS A CHANCE TO GAIN SOME POINTS. HOW DO YOU ASSESS THINGS? “We probably didn’t make the best decisions. I don’t know why it broke. Maybe it would have broke with any gear that we ran, but we chose to run more gear than most other guys were and that hurt us today.” 

Matt Kenseth fell one spot to ninth in the 2004 NASCAR NEXTEL Chase for the Championship, now 357 points out of first. The points have now been updated and the current standings are as follows:

1. Kurt Busch	6052
2. Jimmie Johnson	5993
3. Jeff Gordon	5980
4. Mark Martin	5971
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr.	5954
6. Tony Stewart	5907
7. Ryan Newman	5866
8. Elliott Sadler	5815
9. Matt Kenseth	5795
10. Jeremy Mayfield	5736

Next week, the eighth of the ten final events for the Chase Contenders gets underway at Phoenix International Raceway — where Kenseth finished in sixth place in the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford last year.

ATLANTA, GA (October 30, 2004) — Matt Kenseth, fresh off a victory in the Busch Grand National Series, made it two-for-two on Saturday afternoon by winning the 2004 Crown Royal IROC Championship.

In the series’ first race at Daytona, Kenseth finished third. The second event at Texas Motor Speedway was a disaster with Kenseth crashing hard out of the race on the third lap. He bounced back at Richmond, leading all but six laps en route to a victory. Trailing point leader Ryan Newman by four markers heading into the final round at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kenseth knew what he had to do: win the race and make sure that Ryan Newman finished behind him.

He did both.

Kenseth rolled off the starting grid from the 10th spot as starting positions are inverted via the current points. He had no intentions of staying at the back of the pack for long. By the fourth lap, all of the competitors showed they were willing to go four-wide to lead a lap. Kenseth, using the outside lane to his maximum advantage, slid into sixth right away. He cracked the top-five running order on the 11th lap of the 65-lap event.

Two laps later he got fourth and passed Ryan Newman — a key to winning the title. With a strong push from teammate Kurt Busch, Kenseth kept moving to the front. By lap 20, he was solidly in third behind Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson.

On lap 25, the caution waved for an incident coming out of turn four involving J.J. Yeley and Helio Castroneves. Both cars were retired from the event. Since caution laps don’t count, the race was delayed for 10 minutes until they restarted again.

On lap 27, just after the restart, Kenseth made a bid for the lead and he and Harvick touched on the backstretch. Kenseth hung his car high up the track and remained second. He fell back to third and was running there at the halfway point of the event on lap 33.

There was a mandatory caution period on lap 45 to give each driver fresh tires for the 15-lap sprint to the finish. Kenseth started second on lap 46 and wasted no time making his move for the front. On lap 49, the cars running fourth through eighth all almost got together, allowing the top-three cars to break away slightly. On lap 52, Kenseth took the lead in dramatic fashion by placing his car up high where it had worked all day long.

Kenseth held serve, but Danny Lasoski gave a furious charge at the end and had a shot to pass Kenseth were it not for some fancy blocking. This gave arch-nemesis Ryan Newman a chance at Kenseth’s back bumper on the final lap. He tried to get underneath Kenseth, but the topside was working as it had all day and Kenseth won the race — and the title — by a scant five total points.

Afterwards, he was jubilant.

“That was awesome. I was nervous seeing Ryan Newman as he was making a charge and I’m glad I had Kurt Busch out there. He gave me the push I needed to get around Kevin (Harvick),” said Kenseth, last season’s Nextel Cup champion.

“I couldn’t pass on the bottom and Kurt gave me a big shove. I could make the outside work pretty good. He drafted with me pretty good. The cars were pretty even and it was a lot of fun to be a part of it.”

It was Kenseth’s first year in the IROC Series and by virtue of his new championship, he now gets an automatic bid to race in the 2005 IROC Series and defend his title. It is Kenseth’s second big-league auto racing Championship in less than a year.

= IROC Photos

Atlanta Pre-Race Notes
Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500
Sunday, October 31; 12:00 p.m. EDT
Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hampton, Ga.

Date	S	F	Laps	Status	Money
03/14/04	30	6	325/325	Running	$120,178
10/28/03	37	11	325/325	Running	$95,825
03/09/03	24	4	325/325	Running	$91,850
10/27/02	9	9	248/248	Running	$82,275
03/10/02	32	4	325/325	Running	$91,700
11/18/01	23	17	325/325	Running	$63,275
03/11/01	38	37	273/325	Engine	$42,080
11/10/00	23	9	324/325	Running	$54,750
03/12/00	4	40	199/325	Engine	$32,700

  

Totals	Races	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles
Fall Race	4	0	0	2	0
Spring Race	5	0	2	3	0
Cumulative	9	0	2	5	0

Matt Kenseth on racing at Atlanta:

“This is definitely the kind of racetrack where our team has had a lot of success and Atlanta is a great example of a multiple groove place. It’s a lot of fun to drive here, especially when you have a great handling car. The speeds are fast, but it’s fun when you’re running up front and that’s what we need to be doing on Sunday in order to get some of these points back we’ve been missing.”

Robbie Reiser on racing at Atlanta:

“Our test sessions seem to have become ‘car-tryouts’ where we try to find out if our new chassis stuff responds to the track better than our old chassis stuff. It still comes down to the stopwatch in the end and our new one performed that much better than the old one. That’s why we’re bringing 36.”

Fast Facts

Kenseth finished 16th at Martinsville Speedway one week ago. He has 16 top-10 finishes in 32 starts in 2004. Kenseth has now been inside the NASCAR Top-10 for 67 straight weeks — the longest active streak.

Matt Kenseth tested at Atlanta Motor Speedway on October 20–21st of this year.

This week, the team will bring chassis No. 36 to Atlanta Motor Speedway — this is a brand new chassis, never before raced, but tested at the track on October 20–21st of this year.

Kenseth has two top-five and five top-10’s at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Matt Kenseth in the NEXTEL Cup Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway

Driver	Starts	Poles	Wins	Top-5’s	Top-10’s
Matt Kenseth	9	0	0	2	5

Matt Kenseth in the Busch Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway

Driver	Starts	Poles	Wins	Top-5’s	Top-10’s
Matt Kenseth	5	1	0	3	3

2004 Point Standings

	Position	Points	Behind	Starts	Wins	Top-5’s	Top-10’s	Winnings
Matt Kenseth	8th	5,750	-260	32	2	9	16	$5,625,814

MARTINSVILLE, VA (October 24th, 2004) — To say it was a rough day for the No. 17 DEWALT Team was an understatement. Under a slate gray set of clouds and chilly 50-degree weather, 43 cars battled it out for 500 laps and at the end of the day, the number of caution flags equaled the number on the side of Matt Kenseth’s car. When it was all said and done, Matt Kenseth brought home a 16th place finish in the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

An already somber feeling day took a turn for the worse when it was learned at the close of the event that a Hendrick Motorsports jet went down at an airport near the speedway earlier in the day, killing 10 members of patriarch Rick Hendrick’s family, including his son, brother and head engine builder. Following the event, there were no victory lane celebrations. NASCAR had all four of the Hendrick Motorsports cars, including winner Jimmie Johnson, park their cars on the frontstretch. An announcement was made about the accident and several teams gathered to pray on pit road.

Rolling off the starting grid from the 25th position, it only took two laps for the first caution flag period. Passing was going to be tough and in the end, certainly led to the record number of cautions. By lap 15, Kenseth was able to report that the car was ok, but a little loose off the corners. Using their first opportunity to make adjustments on the car on a lap 38 pit stop, crew chief Robbie Reiser elected to make an air pressure adjustment to both rear tires. After the subsequent restart, Kenseth radioed that the loose condition was actually worse. “I can’t get on the throttle from the middle off and they’re [the other competitors] are getting by me,” he stated on lap 47.

On lap 67, the team pitted again and made further adjustments on the chassis and the crew changed four tires in 13.87 seconds. Progress, however, was nowhere to be found yet as Kenseth restarted from the 31st position. “I need more bite off the corners,” Kenseth radioed. On lap 105 as Kenseth was attempting a pass on the inside of the No. 88 car of Dale Jarrett, the two collided with Jarrett getting the worst of it. The team pitted again for four fresh tires and a crucial adjustment to the rear end. After the lap 112 restart, the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford began to wake up.

Kenseth cracked the top-25 for the first time since the beginning of the race on lap 170 of the 500-lap event. Up at the front of the pack, teammate Kurt Busch was putting the heat on the competition and was only three cars behind Kenseth when another caution flag occurred on lap 182. The 17 team pitted and changed another four tires in just over 14 seconds.

Just past the halfway point, Kenseth restarted from 25th. Twenty laps later, the crew was startled to hear Kenseth radio that his alternator was going out on the car. It was down to 10-volts from a normal 13.5 with just under 200 laps to go in the event. “I don’t know if we’re going to make it,” stated Kenseth. The DEWALT Team sprung into action by preparing a fresh battery for installation in the car. The crew would have to be quick. Even under caution, a lap was taking under 30 seconds to complete behind the pace car. The voltage was holding up, but it was only a matter of time before it would fail.

The team got the chance to change the battery following a lap 290 caution. On lap 295, the team replaced the battery in less than 10 seconds and got Kenseth off pit road. The 17 car did have to return one lap later to replace the battery cover and in doing so, they lost two laps by the closest of margins.

Fortunately, cautions were aplenty and the team used the next one as an opportunity to restart one lap down. They got it back. Following the next caution on lap 353, Kenseth was allowed to line up at the tail end of the lead lap, just in front of then race leader Jamie McMurray. Kenseth got the jump on Scott Wimmer and held off the frontrunners for an agonizing seven laps until the yellow flag waved for debris in turn one. Kenseth was back in business on the lead lap.

He pitted, changing two tires each time to save track position on laps 373–374. Kenseth then restarted in 23rd position, the last car on the lead lap. Over the next 40 laps, Kenseth held his position on the track as other competitors were caught up in several incidents. By lap 455, he was up to 17th place.

He continued to hold his position in the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford over the final 50 laps, which included three more caution flags in the final 35 laps. In the end, he brought the car home in 16th place and on the lead lap. And all of the fenders were intact.

Matt Kenseth fell one spot to eighth in the 2004 NASCAR NEXTEL Chase for the Championship, now 260 points out of first. The points have now been updated and the current standings are as follows:

1. Kurt Busch	6015
2. Jeff Gordon	5919
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr.	5890
4. Jimmie Johnson	5808
5. Mark Martin	5791
6. Tony Stewart	5769
7. Elliott Sadler	5760
8. Matt Kenseth	5755
9. Ryan Newman	5749
10. Jeremy Mayfield	5651

Next week, the seventh of the ten final events for the Chase Contenders gets underway at Atlanta Motor Speedway — where Kenseth finished in sixth place in the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford this spring.

CONCORD, NC (October 19, 2004) — This week, Matt Kenseth had something to say when asked about the new surfacing of Martinsville Speedway, sight of the sixth NASCAR NEXTEL Chase for the Championship race. He also had a bit to add about making up points under the new format for Chase contenders at the half-mile track.

Regarding the reground surface at Martinsville, Kenseth responded, “It’s just like it was before they ground it. It’s a little bit smoother, but it’s just like Martinsville used to be before they ground the bottom groove.”

When asked if fans would see more side-by-side racing, Kenseth replied, “The fast way around is on the bottom. You’re going to see a race like you saw there a couple of years ago, which I thought was OK. I mean, the bottom is the way to go and it’s going to be very difficult to pass on the outside, but I still think a better handling car is going to be able to pass. Before you could run side-by-side, you just couldn’t complete the pass.”

On a final note, Kenseth was asked to comment on the fact that it’s tough to make up points when the other Chase competitors don’t have an off-day at such a small track as Martinsville.

“It’s a weird race because of the lucky dog rule that they have,” he said. “There’s going to be 35 cars on the lead lap because there are going to be a lot of cautions and on every caution, you give somebody their lap back. On a short track like that, there are a lot of cars on the lead lap and it’s going to be very difficult to plan your strategy and try to pit when there are so many other cars on the lead lap,” he added.

Matt Kenseth performance summary at Martinsville:

Date	S	F	Laps	Status	Money
04/18/04	29	8	500/500	Running	$113,728
10/19/03	14	13	500/500	Running	$68,400
04/13/03	34	22	499/500	Running	$66,725
10/20/02	17	19	499/500	Running	$55,875
04/14/02	26	2	500/500	Running	$97,165
10/14/01	22	36	459/500	Rear End	$37,725
04/08/01	25	6	500/500	Running	$57,750
10/01/00	37	34	447/500	Running	$32,700
04/09/00	31	21	498/500	Running	$38,625

  

Totals	Races	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles
Fall Race	4	0	0	0	0
Spring Race	5	0	1	3	0
Cumulative	9	0	1	3	0

Matt Kenseth on racing at Martinsville:

“As far as the new surfacing, it’s just like it was before they ground it. It’s a little bit smoother, but it’s just like Martinsville used to be before they ground the bottom groove. The fast way around is the bottom. You’re going to see a race like you saw there a couple years ago, which I thought was OK. I mean, the bottom is the way to go and it’s going to be very difficult to pass on the outside, but I still think a better handling car is going to be able to pass. Before you could run side-by-side, but you couldn’t pass.”

Robbie Reiser on racing at Martinsville:

“We had a good test here — I think we ran something like 500 laps total. We used a couple of cars, but the older chassis actually performed better and responded to the changes the way we wanted, so we’re going with it for this event.”

Fast Facts:

Kenseth finished 11th at Lowe’s Motor Speedway one week ago. He has 16 top-10 finishes in 31 starts in 2004. Kenseth has now been inside the NASCAR Top-10 for 66 straight weeks — the longest active streak.

This week, the team will bring chassis No. 22 to Martinsville Speedway — this is the same car the team used earlier this year at Martinsville and it was used in both events in 2003 at the half-mile track.

Kenseth has one top-five and three top-10’s at Martinsville Speedway.

Matt Kenseth tested at Martinsville Speedway earlier this spring and again on October 12th.

Matt Kenseth in the NEXTEL Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway

Driver	Starts	Poles	Wins	Top-5’s	Top-10’s
Matt Kenseth	9	0	0	1	3

2004 Point Standings

	Position	Points	Behind	Starts	Wins	Top-5’s	Top-10’s	Winnings
Matt Kenseth	7th	5,635	-215	31	2	9	16	$5,517,611

CONCORD, NC (October 16, 2004) — Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Race Team battled back from a couple of severe setbacks to rally to an 11th place finish in the UAW-GM Teamwork 500 event at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Were it not for a blown tire just past the midway point in the race, the No. 17 DEWALT Ford might have been rallying for a victory, rather than a respectable finish.

Rolling off the starting grid from the 36th spot, Kenseth had plenty of time to avoid the first caution of the night, which occurred as the cars reached turn one. Several contenders were knocked for a loop, including current point leader and teammate Kurt Busch. Kenseth moved up to 21st on the chart when the cars restarted on lap seven. During the early going, Kenseth reported that the car was way too tight, but he had almost more horsepower than he could handle. “There’s so much horsepower in this thing that it’s disgusting,” said an excited Kenseth on lap 20.

A bruising caution for the 25 car brought the race to a standstill as officials had to mend the fence where rookie Brian Vickers crashed on the front stretch. On lap 28, Kenseth ducked into the pits from the 16th spot, but his over-the-wall crew knocked out a 13.24-second stop and earned him four positions. Kenseth restarted in 12th place after the ten-minute red flag delay.

Kenseth took off like a rocket and moved into the top five for the first time all night on lap 75 when the caution waved again for debris. He once again pitted and this time gained two more positions after a blistering 12.76-second stop on pit road. Clearly, the “Killer Bees” brought their “A Game” to the race. The No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford restarted the race from third place on lap 80 of the 334-lap event.

Kenseth remained in third place for many laps, then began to decline a bit as the car had trouble turning in the corner, but was loose off. Kenseth fell all the way to ninth place on lap 170 and the team was contemplating a short-pit scenario. Then, the night took a turn for the worse. The right front tire gave out and sent Kenseth up into the wall coming off of turn four. Over the next three laps, the team pitted three times to look at the damage, fix the fenders and look into possible suspension damage. The good news was that the damage was not major and would not require a trip behind the wall. The bad news was that the team went down a lap in the process.

Kenseth restarted in 19th on lap 219 and got a few laps under his belt at speed — which showed the car to still be competitive. But sometimes, it just isn’t your night. Just five laps later, the engine on the No. 29 car let go and Kenseth spun in the oil — luckily not hitting anything. He pitted for tires and restarted in 18th place on lap 231 as the only car on the track one lap down.

The team now needed a caution in order to receive the “Lucky Dog” pass, which would allow them back on the lead lap. Proving all wasn’t lost, the team got the much-needed caution on lap 267. The team pitted for tires and fuel on lap 270 and restarted the race from the 15th spot on lap 272. Kenseth fell back a couple of positions, then gained them back. He was running in 12th place on lap 306.

After a subsequent caution on lap 312, Kenseth came down pit road in 12th place, but the crew busted off another fast stop and sent him back out onto the track in ninth for the lap 317 restart. Two laps later, Kenseth accidentally got into the No. 15 car of Michael Waltrip and sending the NAPA car into the fence. An apologetic Kenseth asked that his spotter relay his apology to Waltrip.

Dealing with a slight fender rub, Kenseth nursed the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford home in 11th place when the checkered flag fell on lap 334.

Afterwards, he chose not to speak with reporters.

Matt Kenseth remained in seventh spot in the 2004 NASCAR NEXTEL Chase for the Championship, now 215 points out of first. The points have now been updated and the current standings are as follows:
 

1. Kurt Busch	5850
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr.	5826
3. Jeff Gordon	5776
4. Elliott Sadler	5693
5. Mark Martin	5664
6. Tony Stewart	5646
7. Matt Kenseth	5635
8. Jimmie Johnson	5623
9. Ryan Newman	5579
10. Jeremy Mayfield	5501

Next week, the sixth of the ten final events for the Chase Contenders gets underway at Martinsville Speedway — where Kenseth finished in eighth place in the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford this spring.

Trex Company, manufacturer of Trex decking and railing, announced today that they are becoming an associate team sponsor in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series for the 2005 racing season. Trex Co. will partner with DEWALT Tools, the primary sponsor, for a series of 38 racing events, including two non-point special events during the year. The companies will sponsor the #17 car driven by Matt Kenseth, as the two building products industry leaders share the spotlight with car logos and promotional events throughout the racing season. For the Spring Atlanta race, Trex decking will have the opportunity to be the primary sponsor of the car, to be referenced as the #17 Trex Ford. Trex Co. will also be featured in DEWALT's Rolling Thunder 6,400 sq. ft. trackside pavilion which features product demos, driver guest appearances, entertainment and give-aways. Rolling Thunder is DEWALT's mobile display and entertainment unit that travels to selected race markets. Trex decking and railing is a splinter-free, weather-resistant decking lumber available at more than 3,300 lumber dealer locations in the U.S. and Canada. For an authorized Trex dealer or TrexProT contractor near you, call 1-800- BUY-TREX (289-8739) or visit the Trex Co. website at www.trex.com.

CONCORD, NC (October 13th, 2004) — This week, we go back in time, to one year ago — before Matt Kenseth clinched the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Championship. Before the much heralded point system change. Before the three additional victories earned by the No. 17 DEWALT Team in 2004.

It was one year ago this week that Robbie Reiser led a determined, but slightly rattled, DEWALT team into the second race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway — the UAW-GM Teamwork 500 event. For those that can’t recall, the No. 17 team had just come off two straight weeks of trouble at the racetrack. In a year in which the team finished in the top-10 in 80% of the races, this had come as a shock.

In began two weeks prior at the end of September as Kenseth, driving the No. 17 Smirnoff Ice Ford, had a mechanical failure relegate him to a 33rd place finish in the EA Sports 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. It was the first DNF of the year for the team.

Fast forward to one week later and the team showed up to Kansas Speedway as the media began to question whether or not Kenseth’s point lead was indeed invincible. It had been as high as 420 points following the Dover International Speedway even the third week of September in 2003. Kenseth wrecked his primary car for the race on his second practice lap and the backup didn’t qualify very well. Once the race got underway, the team was 60 laps into the event when Kenseth locked up the brakes trying to avoid an accident and crashed hard into the inside wall coming off of turn two. As for the enormous point lead — it was now halved.

The 2003 race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway marked the first time that the No. 17 car appeared in the Carhartt colors. He qualified 29th — not good, but not unlike Kenseth when it comes to qualifying.

Within the first 58 laps of the race, Kenseth had moved into sixth place overall and the swagger had returned to the pit box and the crew. On lap 117 of the event, a spirited duel erupted ontrack as Kenseth tried to pass his closest points rival — Kevin Harvick. Harvick refused to cede an inch of leeway on the track and it took Kenseth close to ten laps to pass him cleanly. Then he drove away.

The power steering pump began to fail on the car at the midway point of the race and Kenseth began to back up a bit. On a subsequent pit stop, crew chief Robbie Reiser ordered Kenseth to bring the car into the pits and fix the problem. Up went the hood on the No. 17 Carhartt Ford. The media, smelling blood in the water for the third week in a row, crawled out of the media center and sprinted up to pit road — nonetheless hoping a stumble at this point for Kenseth would tighten up the championship even more.

Too bad for them, the problem was spotted right away — a broken cap on the pump. It was quickly replaced and Kenseth returned to action on lap 164 from the 16th place.

Kenseth’s two closest points rivals were Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. As the race wound down, Kenseth hunted down both of their cars. He passed Harvick with 30 laps to go and nabbed the position from Earnhardt Jr. with fewer than 10 laps to go in the 334-lap event. He crossed the line in eighth place for his 23rd top-10 finish of 2003.

When it came time to tally the points, Kenseth was back on top by a healthy margin of 267 over second place. There were five events to go in the year, but Kenseth would only need four of them to lock up the title.

It can be said that the turning point to solidify their mission, however, came on a dark October night… one year ago this week.

Matt Kenseth performance summary at Charlotte:

Date	S	F	Laps	Money	Status
5/30/04	37	3	400/400	$222,478	Running
10/11/03	29	8	334/334	$82,425	Running
5/25/03	18	2	276/276	$206,500	Running
10/13/02	7	34	254/334	$62,680	Engine
5/26/02	21	2	400/400	$170,600	Running
10/07/01	32	12	334/334	$52,440	Running
5/24/01	40	18	399/400	$65,630	Running
10/08/00	26	9	334/334	$50,100	Running
5/28/00	21	1	400/400	$200,950	Running
10/11/99	27	40	231/334	$19,680	Accident

  

Totals	Races	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles
Fall Race	5	0	0	2	0
Spring Race	5	1	4	4	0
Cumulative	10	1	4	6	0

Matt Kenseth on racing at Lowe’s:

“Lowe’s has always been one of my favorite tracks on the circuit and we always seem to run pretty good here. The Roush cars in general seem to all run pretty good here so I hope we can run up front and lead some laps here and challenge for a win. We need more than a good finish — we need a great finish right now, but I know this team is capable of it here.”

Robbie Reiser on racing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway:

“This is our Dover car and we got to lead some laps with it when we ran there so we know it’s a good car. I just hope it translates to Charlotte like it did at Dover. It’s one of our newest chassis that we have in the shop.”

Fast Facts:

• Kenseth finished 17th at Kansas one week ago. He has 16 top-10 finishes in 30 starts in 2004. Kenseth has now been inside the NASCAR Top-10 for 65 straight weeks — the longest active streak.

• This week, the team will bring chassis No. 39 to Lowe’s Motor Speedway — this is the same car the team used a month ago at Dover International Raceway, where it led 60 laps before a mid-race accident relegated it to a 32nd place finish.

• Kenseth has one win, four top-fives and six top-10’s at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. He also won the inaugural NEXTEL All-Star challenge event back in May of this year.

• Matt Kenseth’s first Nextel Cup victory came here on May 28th, 2000 as he won the Coca-Cola 600 as a rookie.

• Kenseth will also be running his No. 17 Bayer Busch Grand National car at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Matt Kenseth in the NEXTEL Cup Series at Lowe’s Motor Speedway

Driver	Starts	Poles	Wins	Top-5’s	Top-10’s
Matt Kenseth	10	0	1	4	6

Matt Kenseth in the Busch Series at Lowe’s Motor Speedway

Driver

Starts

Poles

Wins