Matt wins Miller Lite Nationals at Slinger
July 19, 2006

n Photos from Slinger

Slinger Speedway Press Release
KENSETH PERSEVERES TO SCORE THIRD MILLER LITE NATIONALS CROWN

By Dan Margetta

(Slinger, WI) July 18 — Fate did just about everything it could to knock Matt Kenseth out of the Miller Lite Nationals Tuesday night at the Slinger Super Speedway, but strong perseverance by both driver and crew paid off in big dividends as the visiting NASCAR Nextel Cup Series star led the final eight laps to capture his third Nationals title by winning the 250-lap late model feature.

Forced to start the main event deep in the field in the 21st position due to missing the cut in qualifying, Kenseth methodically blazed his way through the field, entering the top ten by lap 60 before mechanical issues arose which sent his car off the speedway twice, nearly terminating his chances for the win. After getting pushed to the pits for ignition problems that surfaced right at the halfway mark, Kenseth’s crew was able to remedy the situation during the ten-minute break and he returned to the track for the second half only to deal with distributor issues on lap 146 which once again sent his car sputtering off the track while under caution. Kenseth and crew caught a break as an aborted restart for a spin by Dave Feiler before a green flag lap could be completed, allowed them extra time to return to the speedway without losing a lap.

“It’s pretty amazing, I mean, right at the (halfway) break the thing died and we cooled down the ignition box and got it running again,” Kenseth explained from victory lane. “Then it died again during that other caution and I just thought we were done. I was ready to get out of the car when they were trying to fix it, so to win this is pretty awesome.”

Once back underway, Kenseth caught then leader David Prunty with eight laps to go and then managed to hold off the current Slinger point leader through two late restarts to secure the victory.

“I thought I might be able to catch him (Prunty) under green but then on the restarts my motor would vapor lock or something because it was getting so hot, but he (Prunty) raced me clean and it was a heck of a race,” Kenseth continued.

By all rights, it was Prunty who probably should have been holding the victory hardware at the conclusion as he literally dominated the race, leading a whopping 224 of the 250 laps before falling just short at the finish.

“All I needed was to get alongside him for just a couple of laps,” Prunty theorized afterwards. “If I could have done that, my tire pressures would have come up and I would have been gone. But then again, who could complain about losing to Matt Kenseth.”

Dennis Prunty rebounded from an early spin and charged to a respectable third place finish, just ahead of Lowell Bennett who remained in the top five all night, leading 16 laps before finishing in fourth place. Brian Johnson Jr. turned in a strong performance that was capped off with a fifth place finish. Travis Dassow paced the event for two laps early on before turning in one of his best results of the season, taking the checkered flag in sixth place, the final car on the lead lap. Jeremy Lepak and Josh Bauer were a lap down in seventh and eighth place respectively while Chad Barker and Matt Kocourek rounded out the top ten.

NASCAR Craftsmen Truck Series driver Erik Darnell fared the best of the remaining visiting stars, completing the event in the eleventh position while 65-year old legend Dick Trickle wowed the crowd by running solidly in the top ten until a jarring crash against the backstretch wall on lap 243 relegated him to a thirteenth place finish. NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Scott Wimmer kept pace with the leaders for most of the night, racing in the top three until a broken sway-bar on lap 183, knocked him back to a fourteenth place result. Rich Bickle also had a car capable of running up front until tire issues late in the race left him with a sixteenth place finish.

“The was really good,” Bickle stated. “I went into turn three and someone must have lost a bunch of water and I slid up and someone got into me and I didn’t realize it to later, but it peeled all the rubber off the left rear tire and it wouldn’t go anywhere from there.”

NASCAR Busch Series driver Todd Kluever wound up with a nineteenth place result after racing hard with Dick Trickle all evening.

“It was a good night and we were having a lot of fun,” Kluever said. “We had a pretty strong car in the second half and there was a car outside of me who got in the back of the #99 car (Trickle) and knocked him into the frontstretch wall. When he tried to cut back down to get to the bottom, I was already there. I think it broke the steering rack, but I was having a ball out there.” 

Race Results: Miller Lite Nationals		Date: July 18, 2006
Late Model Feature 250-laps
1.	Matt Kenseth (Cambridge)	15.	Nick Schumacher (Hartford)
2.	David Prunty (Brownsville)	16.	Rich Bickle (Edgerton)
3.	Dennis Prunty (Lomira)	17.	Mike Egan (Slinger)
4.	Lowell Bennett (Neenah)	18.	Dave Feiler (DeForest)
5.	Brian Johnson Jr. (Rockton, IL)	19.	Todd Kluever (Sun Prairie)
6.	Travis Dassow (West Bend)	20.	Al Schill (Franklin)
7.	Jeremy Lepak (Wausau)	21.	Tommy Pecaro (Janesville)
8.	Josh Bauer (Random Lake)	22.	Randy Schuler (Mequon)
9.	Chad Barker (Franksville)	23.	Colin Bamke (Slinger)
10.	Matt Kocourek (Franklin)	24.	Eric Fransen (West Bend)
11.	Erik Darnell (Beach Park, IL)
12.	Andrew Morrissey (DeForest)
13.	Dick Trickle (Iron Station, NC)
14.	Scott Wimmer (Wausau)

New Hampshire race recap
July 17, 2006

No. 17 DeWALT Ford Fusion recap:
KENSETH GRINDS OUT 14th PLACE FINISH ON A GRUELING AFTERNOON AT LOUDON

It wasn’t pretty, but in the end Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 DEWALT team did what championship-caliber teams do; turn potentially bad finishes into respectable ones. On a day where the attrition rate was unusually high, Kenseth persevered through handling woes and brake issues to pick off seven positions in the final 20 laps and salvage a 14th-place finish.

Ryan Newman paced the field to the green flag at 2:30 PM Eastern under hot, sunny skies in central New Hampshire. Kenseth rolled off 24th and instead of his familiar march to front, struggled early on with handling issues. By the time the first caution flag was displayed at lap 19, Kenseth had advanced only to 21st and was anxious to come to the attention of his always reliable pit crew.

The No. 17 team may have struggled with handling concerns throughout the race, but it wasn’t due to lack of effort. The Robbie Reiser-led crew worked hard making major and minor adjustments throughout the day; adjusting everything from air pressure to wedge, track bar to spring rubbers; even once bleeding the left front brake during a regular four-tires-and-fuel pit stop.

While the No. 17 Ford Fusion may not have been up to its usual brilliance on the track, Reiser made sure they stayed ahead of the curve with pit strategy. Kenseth and company played pit strategy to a ‘T,’ gaining track position on several occasions and benefiting from several timely cautions. Reiser called Kenseth to pit road on lap 211 for what originally was hoped to be the final pit stop of the day, giving the No. 17 enough fuel to make the scheduled 300 laps.

But, on a day where nothing seemed to come easy for the No. 17 team, Kenseth began reporting an urgent brake problem on lap 222. Kenseth felt that the brakes were losing fluid and going dangerously soft. After dropping back from 10th to 23rd due to the problem, Kenseth received the caution he desperately needed on lap 234 and promptly brought his Ford to the attention of the “Killer Bees.” Under caution the crew went to work changing four tires, fueling the machine, and bleeding the left front brake, all in less than 37 seconds to maintain Kenseth’s spot of the lead lap.

Kenseth took the restart on lap 238 in the 28th position and quickly picked off several positions before coming to pit road one final time under caution on lap 268 for four fresh tires. Restarting 24th Kenseth began his final advance, maneuvering into 21st just 20 laps shy of the finish. That’s when things began to get interesting.

A caution flag fell on lap 298, just two laps shy of the finish meaning the race set up for a green-white-checkered finish. However, several teams had gambled on fuel mileage and didn’t plan for the extra laps. Kenseth, with plenty of fuel to burn, picked up two positions under caution as cars fell to the wayside with their fuel gauges on “E.” Restarting 17th for the two-lap dash to the checkers, Kenseth quickly went to work, picking off two spots on the first lap under green and one more on the white-flag lap to finish 14th, his 15th top-15 finish of 2006.

“I can’t believe we finished that high,” Kenseth explained after the race. “These guys fought hard all day long in the pits, we never gave up and dug out a pretty good finish. With about 70 to go, if you would have told me we’re going to finish this high, I would have called you crazy. But, these guys did a great job keeping track position all day. We never could get a handle on the car and I’m sure we’ll get that fixed for next time, but we kept as much track position as we could and ended up with enough fuel to pick off several positions at the very end.”

RACE SUMMARY
Matt Kenseth • Started: 24th • Finished: 14th

POINTS SUMMARY
Matt Kenseth • Race Total: 121 points • Season Total: 2721 points, Ranked 2nd, 68 points behind first

NEXT UP:
Pennsylvania 500 • Pocono Raceway • Sunday, July 23, 2006

Matt Kenseth New Hampshire press conference
July 9, 2006

Kenseth recaps ‘bumpy’ week
7/14/2006

Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWALT Fusion, heads into this weekend’s race in second place in the standings, 51 points behind the leader. He has two victories and leads the series with 10 top-five finishes through the season’s first 18 races.

Last week at Chicagoland Speedway, he was in the lead in the closing laps only to be bumped out of the way. He subsequently ran out of fuel and ended up in 22nd place. Kenseth met with reporters this morning in the infield media center at New Hampshire International Speedway.

HAVE YOU AND JEFF GORDON TALKED ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK?
“Yeah, he came and talked to me after the test on Tuesday, so I talked to him a little bit.”

HAVE YOU GONE BACK AND LOOKED AT IT AND STILL FEEL THAT IT’S INTENTIONAL?
“Oh, yeah.”

DRIVERS SOMETIMES SAY THAT WHAT HAPPENS ON THE TRACK IS FORGOTTEN AND THE FOCUS IS THEN ON THE NEXT RACE…
“Yeah, obviously it didn’t work like that. I talked to him. He basically told me in so many words that he didn’t mean to spin me out, but did he mean to hit me? Yeah. Did he mean to hit me that hard? No.

“So, I guess he was upset on that restart. I kind of blocked him, which, he was hanging back more than a car length, which is actually technically a rule — they tell us every driver’s meeting, if you hang back more than a car length you’re going to be black-flagged, and to my knowledge nobody has ever been even told about it or black-flagged or anything, so I had to block my restart because I felt like he hung way back and I knew I could get away in a couple of laps and I thought that was kind of a cheap way to pass somebody, by holding back, which a lot of people do because they never enforce it.

“And he was mad because he got taken out at Bristol, which I thought was a little different — he moved me out of the way to start with and it was the last lap and he blocked me on the frontstretch and I was right on him trying to get underneath him and barely touched his car and he spun out at a half-mile track. So he told me he wasn’t going to cut me a break and he was going to get up on me and try to move me up the track and move me out of the way, which I guess that’s what happened.

“I don’t know that he meant to spin me out, but yet I’ve never been ran into or ran into somebody at a mile-and-a-half race track somewhere that fast, 180 miles an hour, and not spun out. I’ve never seen somebody knock somebody out of the way at a mile-and-a-half track and not wreck, so I guess that’s about the summary.”

THIS IS A PART OF THE SCHEDULE WHERE SOME DRIVERS, LIKE YOU, ARE IN THE CHASE, BUT OTHER DRIVERS MIGHT BE MORE DESPERATE AND MIGHT MAKE MORE DESPERATE MOVES…
“I don’t think so. If I was him and I was 10th and on the bubble, I wouldn’t want to make somebody mad, you know what I mean? Finishing second to finishing first, which, he would’ve passed me anyway, he was three-tenths at the end of the run. He would’ve driven right around me the next corner.

“If I was in the position I would do just the opposite. I’d make sure I got the best finish I could get that day, and didn’t wreck somebody and take a chance of getting it back and not being in the top 10. I guess I would think of it the other way around.”

IN GENERAL, THOUGH, ARE THERE TIMES WHEN DESPERATE DRIVERS ARE MAKING DESPERATE MOVES?
“I don’t think so. I haven’t really thought about it like that. I think to get the most points you try to win and lead laps and finish the best you can. It’s easier not to get in than to get in is what I’m trying to say. You do a desperate move and take yourself from fourth or third to last, you’re not going to make it.

“I would look at it the other way around. I would try to keep my stuff clean and get the best finishes the best that I could if I was trying to get in like we were last year. We ran hard the last 10 races to get in, but yet we made sure we got the best finish we could get every week.”

SHOULD NASCAR COME DOWN ON THAT ACTIVITY HARDER, AND, IRONICALLY, DO YOU THINK THAT THINGS LIKE THAT ARE GOOD FOR THE SPORT BECAUSE EVERYBODY IS TALKING ABOUT THE RIVALRY NOW?
“I think it’s really exciting to watch. For me, it’s very hard to understand, and figure out, how NASCAR works — what’s okay, what’s not okay, what’s going to be a penalty, what’s not. I don’t know.

“After our Bristol thing they put him on probation, they got us both in the trailer and say, ‘You guys stay away from each other, I know that there’s probably a little bad blood,’ and I talked to Jeff about it, what happened from my perspective at Bristol, and they say that everything is okay but yet as soon as you get done with that the first word you hear is, oh, he got the bad end at Bristol, he got the bad end here. And there’s nothing done about it and it’s a mile-and-a-half race track at 180 miles an hour.

“I don’t really quite understand how that always works, but I think any time there’s any kind of conflict — in which I don’t like being in any of it — but any other conflict when other people are in it, I think it’s interesting to watch. I look up on the internet and see what they’re saying about each other. I think it’s great for ratings and putting people in the stands. But the penalty thing and NASCAR’s stance and all that is very difficult for me to understand where the consistency is or what’s okay and what’s not okay. I don’t understand.”

IT IS A GRAY AREA, ISN’T IT?
“Yeah. I read Mr. Helton’s comments afterwards and he said it was a case of a slower [car] being in front of a faster car and the fast car moved him out of the way, and acted like that was okay, so is that okay? Is that okay if somebody gets spun out at Michigan and gets hurt? Is that alright? And, it’s the closing laps — is that okay or not okay? Is not okay halfway through the race? I don’t really understand that so I probably need clarification.”

WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOU AND JEFF STAND RIGHT NOW?
“I don’t know. I thought after we talked about it at Bristol and we talked several times and I feel like I’ve tried to be pretty fair about it and give him a lot of room to race and all that stuff — I thought we were okay, but obviously we weren’t.

“So, I don’t know. I don’t think we’ll be going to dinner tonight. We talked about [it] after Indy, but honestly when we talked about it, it was kind of one of them things where he came over and apologized but wasn’t very apologetic, if you know what I mean. He almost acted like he was mad at me.

“I don’t know. I’m not going to go out here and really keep it on my mind and race different than I’ve ever raced, and take away from our goal. My team is doing a great job this year and to get caught up in something else and take away from your performance or to take away from goal of trying to get in the Chase and trying to win a championship would be silly, it wouldn’t help our team at all. I’m certainly going to let it go and just race as hard as we can. Are we buddies and is everything totally cool? Not really.”

MORE ON THE SITUATION.
“It’s something that you’re not going to forget, totally. It’s going to be on your mind a little bit, but you certainly have to try and you certainly have to let it go enough where it doesn’t affect your performance. You can’t be on the track, thinking about one car and looking at one car, you just have to go out there and race the competition and try to finish the best you can. When you start doing that, it’s not productive and things are going to end up worse instead of better.

“Somebody’s got to be the man about it and forget about it and try to remember what’s most important, why we come to the track. We come to the track to try and win races and try to win championships. We don’t come to the track to try to hold a grudge on somebody or get even with somebody or do whatever.

“You’ve got to remember what it’s all about. It’s all about winning, it’s all about trying to win a championship, it’s all about being competitive and if you’re focused on something else I don’t think you’re going to do the best job you can at what you’re supposed to be doing.”

YOU AND JEFF ARE BOTH CHAMPIONS. DO YOU FEEL THAT PERHAPS YOU SHOULD BE SETTING AN EXAMPLE FOR THE OTHER DRIVERS IN THE FIELD?
“I think that everybody in the garage area is an equal. I think that everybody who has gotten here is a great driver. I think you could put — on days when my cars have been good and been winning, I think you could put pretty much anybody in there and probably have that result.

“I think everybody is a great race-car driver. I don’t think that we’re people to set examples and I don’t feel like people look at — I don’t even feel like I’m in the same group as Jeff anyway. Jeff’s kind of by himself and Tony and them guys are just awesome race-car drivers. We’ve had good stuff and I think we’ve done okay, but them guys are super-exceptional, so I don’t really put myself in that group.

“But I don’t think you really look up and say, ‘Well, he does that so I should do it,’ or, ‘He doesn’t do that so I shouldn’t do it.’ Everybody has their own driving style, and I’ve tried to base my driving style and some of my decisions off of what Mark Martin’s done over the years and some other drivers like that. Everybody’s got their own etiquette and their own style and they’ve got their own rules on what’s okay and what’s not okay. I think you have to be yourself, you have to do what you think is right at the end of the day and go from there.”

IN BASKETBALL, THERE WAS TALK OF THE JORDAN RULES. DOES THAT COME INTO PLAY HERE? WOULD THIS HAVE BEEN VIEWED DIFFERENTLY HAS IT BEEN, SAY, ROBBY GORDON INSTEAD OF JEFF GORDON?
“You’re putting me in a bad spot here. I think it’s very difficult — I feel like all the time everybody’s probably not judged all the same. I think NASCAR has a hard job and I think they do the best they can to be fair. But I certainly feel like sometimes being competitor it’s maybe not exactly the same for everybody, but I think they do a pretty good job at keeping it all level.

“Everybody needs to know their spot, and I certainly know where I am and where my spot is in the sport, and everybody’s got to understand that and live with that. It’s a great, great sport to be part of and I think it’s judged pretty darn fairly, really, if you look over the top of everything, so that’s about it.”

WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOUR SPOT IS?
“It’s hard to say. It’s hard for me to explain to you totally what I mean by that. But everybody knows their spot, no matter where you’re working. Everybody knows what they are and where they fit in to the group, and I definitely know where mine is.”

DO YOU PLAN ON RACING WITH JEFF GORDON ANY DIFFERENTLY FROM NOW ON? AND SOME WILD THINGS HAPPENED AT THIS TRACK LAST SEPTEMBER? DO YOU SEE SIMILAR THINGS HAPPENING THIS TIME?
“I don’t know. I just hope whatever happens this weekend I’m not involved in it. I’d much rather being sitting here talking about a win or talking about getting a lot points or something like that than to be talking about this kind of stuff, so I hope I’m not involved in that if it is a crazy race.

“This race track, I remember the race here in July, it was awesome, with Tony and Ryan, that was a great race, watching it. The track’s been putting out a lot better race. As far as racing Jeff, I’m not going to race any different. I’m going to race the way I’ve always raced and I think the way my driving style is, I don’t think I should change that. I think I should race everybody the same as I always have and try to get the best finish we can.

“I think when you get caught up in that, again, it’s not productive. I think saying, Oh, Jeff’s catching me so I’m going to race him 10 times as hard, you run side-by-side and you lose three-tenths to the leader instead of letting him get out of your way and losing one-tenth to the leader. That’s not productive for either. I don’t think you can really get into that. I think you, I think you need to just move on and focus on what’s important.”

HOW DIFFICULT A JOB DOES NASCAR HAVE IN DETERMINING WHAT WAS ON PURPOSE AND WHAT WAS AN ACCIDENT?
“I think it’s all fine as long as it’s the same for everybody. I think that’s fine. And a lot of times you say things and don’t mean exactly what your quote was and what comes out. I’ve read some of the quotes and I haven’t talked to anybody yet, but I’ve read Mr. Helton’s quotes and basically, I weeded through that, but that’s okay in the final few laps.

“If the car behind you is faster than the car in front of him, that’s okay. Well, I don’t know so much about that. But if that’s okay and that’s the way works, then, to race with everybody, that’s fine if that’s what the rule is. I think they do a pretty good job of judging the thing as objectively as they can. It’s a hard job. There’s a lot of things that are judgment calls.

“From the tower, how do they know whether it was on purpose or whether it was an accident. They have to judge that, look at that quickly, you know what I mean? It’s not like they get an hour to look over it and judge it, so they got to judge that pretty quickly, say, ‘Hey, that was racing, that was the end of the race and they were going for it’ or the guy will say, ‘No, it was intentional and somebody needs to get parked for it.’ That’s a hard job.”

MORE ON THE SITUATION.
“You’ve seen a lot of races end like that. Now, at a big track, I haven’t seen a lot of races end like that, but at short tracks you certainly have. I think it’s a whole new ballgame doing it at Chicago or places like that, that’s that fast, and maybe putting people maybe in more danger than you would at a shorter race track like this. But, it’s a tough call to make.”

CAN YOU CONRAST WHAT HAPPENED AT CHICAGO TO WHAT HAPPENED AT BRISTOL?
“It doesn’t matter because it was so long ago and it’s over, but I didn’t even mean to do that. First, I got knocked all the way from the lead, and second, he knocked me out of the way for third. Right then I got back in line and he drilled me getting into [Turn] three and knocked me up the track and passed me, and I got back on him and I was going to try to pass him the last lap, but I certainly wasn’t going to hit him.

“And I probably hit him half as hard as he hit me at Bristol and he spun out. It was just bad timing, barely touched him, and I was trying to get by him on the last lap, so I think that’s quite a bit different. But everybody’s going to have their opinions about it.”

ON THE REPLAY, HE SEEMED TO CATCH YOU AWFULLY QUICK.
“Yeah, because I wasn’t in the gas yet, he was wide-open.”

WAS FUEL AN ISSUE FOR YOU AT THAT MOMENT?
“No. It was alright.”

THOUGHTS ON JUAN MONTOYA JOINING THE SERIES.
“It’s hard to say. Everybody adapts different and gets in different equipment and all that stuff. I’ve never watched a whole bunch of Formula [One] racing that much, but obviously you’ve heard his name and he’s very talented and it’s a big name, not in the U.S. necessarily, but worldwide, so I think that’s really awesome for this sport. I think it’s a big compliment that somebody like that comes over and wants to do it [race in NASCAR].”

ON GORDON BEING ONE VICTORY BEHIND DALE EARNHARDT ON THE ALL-TIME LIST.
“I think it’s a big deal. I think anybody that can win that many races is a big deal. That’s a huge accomplishment. He’s done it with some different crew chiefs, he’s been at the same place a long time, but obviously Jeff Gordon is the face of NASCAR. He’s the guy. Tony and Dale, Jr., are, too, but Jeff is really the guy who has been here the longest and accomplished the most and probably does the best job all around for the sport as far running up front and winning and having a good, normal, clean sponsor.

“He looks good, he talks good. Jeff’s really the guy. I think he probably represents our sport better than anybody and I think when you think of NASCAR NEXTEL Cup racing, you think of Jeff Gordon. So I think him winning all of those races just legitimizes that even more. When Jeff’s not running as good or not having as good a year, you can kind of feel it. When he is and he’s winning, you can kind of tell. Everything’s normal.”

New Hampshire Nextel Cup Preview
July 12, 2006

New Hampshire International Speedway • Loudon, N.H.
Lenox Industrial Tools 300 • Sunday, July 16 • 1:30 pm/e TNT

Nextel Cup Chassis • No. 17 DEWALT Ford Fusion
Primary: RK-353 (Last ran Richmond May ’06, finished 38th after brake failure; Also ran Phoenix Apr. ’06, finished 3rd)
Backup: RK-150 (Last ran Phoenix Nov. ’05, finished 32nd; Also ran Loudon Sep. ’05; finished 3rd)

 
Matt Kenseth’s Cup Series performance summary at New Hampshire

Date	S	F	Laps	Reason
07/09/00	22	19	272/273	Running
09/17/00	38	17	298/300	Running
07/22/01	21	16	300/300	Running
11/23/01	16	4	300/300	Running
07/21/02	6	33	299/300	Running
09/15/02	17	10	207/207	Running
07/20/03	1	3	300/300	Running
09/14/03	19	7	300/300	Running
07/25/04	31	4	300/300	Running
09/19/04	5	2	300/300	Running
07/17/05	16	10	300/300	Running
09/19/05	4	3	300/300	Running

 
Matt Kenseth Cup Series totals at New Hampshire:

	Races	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles
Cumulative	12	0	5	8	0

 
Kenseth on racing at New Hampshire International Speedway:

“We’ve run pretty good at Loudon lately. It’s important for us to go there and run good this weekend because that momentum will carry over to when we return there for the Chase in September. It’s important to have a good run for a number of reasons. We ran really good at Chicago last week but didn’t get the finish we probably deserved. It’s important for us to bounce back strong this weekend at Loudon to kind of put Chicago behind us. But, the important thing to me now is that we’re getting our cars to where they can run up front and compete for the win each week, and we’re doing that right now.”

Crew Chief Robbie Reiser on racing at New Hampshire International Speedway:

“Loudon is a good place for us to continue our momentum. I can’t say enough about this team and how they are performing this year. Our cars have been good nearly every time we unload at the track, with only a couple of exceptions. The pit crew has been as consistent as ever. They did a great job at Chicago all day. We never lost a position on pit road and they kept Matt up front on the final two stops. We’ve competed for a number of wins so far and that’s a credit to this entire 17 team. It’s been a one-race-at-a-time approach that has worked well for us this year and has us operating at a championship level right now.”

 
New Hampshire Fast Facts

n Matt Kenseth has an average finish of 10.7 at New Hampshire International Speedway; tops among active NEXTEL Cup drivers with 10 or more starts at the track, and the third best track for Kenseth’s career.

n Kenseth has completed all but four laps in 12 races at NHIS; 3476 of 3480. The fourth best mark of any driver that has competed in those same 12 events.

n Kenseth’s eight top-10 finishes at NHIS is best among all drivers since 2000 (tied with Dale Jarrett).

n Kenseth’s average start this year is 14.6, nearly seven positions better than his career average of 21.3.

n Kenseth’s average finish this year is 9.9, slightly better than his single-season best of 10.2, posted the year of his Cup Championship in 2003.