Talladega race recap

No. 17 DEWALT FORD FUSION RECAP
Wild finish to weird Talladega leaves Kenseth 14th

After riding for nearly 30 laps in a 30-car, single-file conga line, a caution with three laps remaining grouped the field together for a green/white/checker finish. Kenseth led at three different times during the race, but was shuffled from the top 15 just before the pack oddly resorted to single-file racing. Kenseth restarted 19th with only two laps to go, but never got his final shot to race back into the top 10. Instead, as the field motored down the backstretch coming to the white flag, several cars got together bringing out the final caution, which ultimately froze the running order with a lap and a half remaining. Some cars continued to wreck, not realizing the caution was out, others ran out of fuel, others began passing under caution. Kenseth was scored in the 13th position when he crossed the finish line, but several hours after the race on Sunday evening he had dropped to 14th, though that number could change when the official results are released on Monday.

Riding a Talladega hot streak (three consecutive top-six finishes) Kenseth started the race in the 17th position. Jeff Gordon sat on the pole for the fifth time this season and eventually went on to the 77th victory of his career to place him in sole possession of sixth on the all-time win list.

Kenseth started 17th but felt his car was capable of the getting to the front. Kenseth was right. By lap two Kenseth had maneuvered the No. 17 DEWALT Ford Fusion inside the top 10 and was hungry for more, moving as high as third by lap seven. But, as is the ebb and flow of restrictor-plate racing, Kenseth was shuffled out of line and back to the 12th position within 12 laps.

Early on, Kenseth reported the car being a little tight and said that it felt as if the car had, “too much gear.” The call was for two tires when Kenseth came to pit road under green on lap 45, but after feeling he may have “flat spotted” the tires upon entry into the pits, the crew was forced to change all four. Since the rest of the field took two tires only, Kenseth lost the lead pack and for the next 26 laps watched the field pulled further and further away.

However, a timely caution for debris on lap 73 allowed Kenseth to catch back up to the field to stay out and lead his first lap of the day. After restarting 35th, Kenseth once again mounted a charge to the front. Just three laps after the restart Kenseth had worked up to the 13th position. That’s when the second caution flag of the day was displayed on lap 81. Kenseth brought the No. 17 to pit road and emerged 16th, but after a piece of tape on the grill was misplaced, had to come back into the pits to remedy the problem.

Again, Kenseth restarted in the rear of the field in the 36th position on lap 85 but three laps later had maneuvered into 19th. Five laps later, the No. 17 Ford cracked the top 10 and on lap 103 Kenseth moved past the No. 24 car to take the lead for the second time of the afternoon. The lead was short lived however as three laps later Kenseth found himself running in the ninth position, freight trained by a line of Chevrolets.

For the next 37 laps, Kenseth toiled inside the top 10, avoided any major on-track melees and managed two successful pit stops while holding onto his track position. Kenseth led for the last time on lap 138, but immediately got shuffled out of the mix and all the way back to the 19th position. Then, from lap 145 until the caution flag flew on lap 162, the “storm” subsided to single-file racing, a rarity a Talladega; a track that’s become synonymous with three-wide racing.

Even after a caution flag for debris on lap 163, the field remained nose to tail, 30 cars deep until the next caution on lap 175, just 13 laps shy of the finish. This time, once the field restarted on lap 179, the action began to pick up. Kenseth moved up as high as 16th, but never could get the drafting help needed to mount a serious charge. Kenseth was eventually shuffled back to the 23rd position when the caution flag flew on lap 185, setting up a green-white-checker finish (a two-lap overtime).

Kenseth restarted 19th, but as the field rumbled off of turn two coming to the white flag, two cars got together behind the No. 17 bringing out the final caution of the day and freezing the field for the finish. The only stipulation to that is that every car must maintain the speed of the pace car until they cross the finish line. Several cars began to run out of gas, not factoring enough fuel for the “over time,” several others wrecked after the initial caution. In all the confusion, Kenseth kept his line and his speed over the final lap and a half, was able to dodge beer cans and other garbage thrown onto the track from fans upset at the results, and was originally scored in the 13th position at the finish but several hours later, NASCAR had dropped the No. 17 DEWALT team to 14th. The official NASCAR race results will not be released until Monday afternoon.

“Yeah, every time you get to go home with the car in one piece is good, but this is probably the least important since we’ll be running COT cars next time,” Kenseth said following the race. “It was just a hard day. We weren’t very fast. We had the grille knocked out, I guess, and every time I got in any clean air we were just really slow. I could only run if I was in a big pack of cars, so it was a frustrating day. It was real disappointing at the end to see how some of the fans were acting. It’s disappointing to have your $150,000 race car being pelted by full beer cans at the end of the race, but, other than that, we did finish and we finished halfway decent.”

NEXT UP:
Crown Royal 400 • Richmond Intl Raceway • Sat., May 5

RACE SUMMARY
Matt Kenseth • Started 17th • Finished 14th

POINTS SUMMARY
Race Total: 126 points
Season Total: 1292 points
Ranked 3rd, 229 points behind first

Talladega Nextel Cup Preview
April 25, 2007

Talladega Superspeedway • Talladega, Ala.
Aaron’s 499 • Sun., April 29 • 12:30 pm/e Fox

Nextel Cup Chassis — #17 DeWALT Ford Fusion
• Primary — RK-271 (Last ran at Talladega, Oct. ’06, led 23 laps, finished fourth; also ran Talladega, Apr. ’06, led 21 laps, finished sixth)
• Backup — RK-283 (Last ran at Daytona, Jul. ’05, finished ninth; also ran Daytona, Feb. ’05, finished 42nd)

 
Matt’s Cup Series summary at Talladega:

Date	S	F	Laps	Led	Reason
10/08/06	19	4	188/188	21	Running
04/30/06	12	6	188/188	23	Running
10/02/05	11	3	190/190	23	Running
05/01/05	23	11	194/194	0	Running
10/03/04	7	14	188/188	0	Running
04/25/04	31	42	59/188	0	Engine
09/28/03	37	33	158/188	1	Engine
04/06/03	27	9	188/188	9	Running
10/06/02	8	14	188/188	15	Running
04/21/02	37	30	180/188	18	Running
10/21/01	24	4	188/188	3	Running
04/22/01	40	19	188/188	11	Running
10/15/00	36	10	188/188	2	Running
04/16/00	42	18	187/188	2	Running

 
Matt Kenseth Cup Series totals at Talladega:

	Races	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles	Laps Led
Spring	7	0	0	2	0	63
Fall	7	0	3	4	0	65
Cumulative	14	0	3	6	0	128

 
Matt Kenseth on racing at Talladega:

“We’ve had a great car at Talladega the past couple of years and we’re taking it back this weekend. Of course, I guess like a lot of other cars, it will go into retirement after Sunday since this is the last time we’ll run the current speedway cars at Talladega.

“The past few times at Talladega, we’ve been in position to win in last 10 laps or so, but I just haven’t had much luck when it comes to picking partners at the end of the race. Last fall, everyone stayed tucked in line too long and we were too far back to make a move; in the spring I jumped out of line but had trouble getting help, and in the fall of 2005 I was leading at the white flag and got teamed up on the last lap. So go figure.

“The good thing is, our car has been as good as anyone for the most part over the past four races there and I think we’ll be as competitive this weekend. I can’t say enough about how good this team has performed this year. We might be a little off when it comes to the setup, especially with the COT, but I find it hard to believe anyone’s been better on pit road this year than our guys.”

Crew Chief Robbie Reiser on racing at Talladega:

“Every time we go to a restrictor-plate track we take the same approach — understand that there are a lot of things that are out of our control, but we need to take care of everything that we can control. That means pit stops, getting on and off of pit road and making the proper adjustments throughout the day.

“You don’t really think track position when you think of Talladega, but we want to keep our track position throughout the day and keep Matt as close to the front as possible. We don’t want him to have to work his way back through the middle of the pack because we mess up on pit road. You never want to be in the middle of the pack, but especially at Talladega, when one cut tire can wipe out half of the field.

“Matt’s done a heck of a job this year of getting really good finishes out of decent cars. The top five at Phoenix proved that, the second at Texas and hanging on to a top 10 at Martinsville, just goes to show you that if we can get these cars a little bit better, he’ll be able to drive it to the front.”

Talladega Fast Facts

n Matt Kenseth has spent 650 of the past 752 laps (2005 & 2006) at Talladega running in the top 15, which is best among all Cup drivers.

n Kenseth has an average running position during that span of 7.698, tops among all Cup drivers.

n Kenseth’s Driver Rating of 105.8 at Talladega is also tops among all Cup drivers since 2005. Driver Rating is a formula combining the following categories: Wins, Finishes, Top-15 Finishes, Average Running Position While on Lead Lap, Average Speed Under Green, Fastest Lap, Led Most Laps, Lead-Lap Finish. Maximum: 150 points per race.

n In the past seven races, Kenseth has picked up a total of 140 positions from where he started to where he finished, or an average of 20 spots per race.

n Kenseth has completed every lap so far in 2007, one of only three drivers to do so (Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton).

n Kenseth ranks fourth in laps completed (2,472) at Talladega since the beginning of 2000; Kenseth’s rookie season in NEXTEL Cup.

n Kenseth’s average starting position at Talladega is 25.3, which ranks last among NEXTEL Cup tracks for Kenseth’s career.

Phoenix Nextel Cup post-race press conference
April 22, 2007

MATT KENSETH — No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion (finished 5th)

“Some guys obviously ran better than others. We didn’t handle the best all night. We ran a lot better than I thought we’d run and we were able to get a good finish out of it. So, it was alright.”

THIS WAS THE LONGEST TEST FOR THE CAR OF TOMORROW. PLUS, THE RACE STARTED IN DAYLIGHT AND ENDED AT NIGHT. THOUGHTS ON THE COT? “I don’t think everybody likes how they drive, but the fact is we’re all in the same boat, and we’ve all got the same opportunity to make it work, so we’ve just got to figure it out.”

ON THE CLOSE RACING AT THE END. “At the very end we were just too loose and we couldn’t go anywhere. So, we didn’t have the car as good as some of those guys. On a long run we were able to run up, probably, in the top four or five times, so I was real proud of the guys for that. And they did a great job on pit road. We never had bad track position all day and that was really the key to us getting a good finish.”

EVERYBODY SAID THIS WOULD BE THE TRUE TEST FOR THE CAR OF TOMORROW. WHAT DO YOU THINK? “It doesn’t matter what I think. We’ve all got the same thing to work with, we’ve just got to make it work better than the rest. They’re a struggle to drive and to get to turn, but everybody’s kind of in the same boat. We’ve just got to figure it out better than those guys.”

YOU KEEP SAYING THAT YOU’RE NOT HAVING THE BEST OF CARS, BUT YOU KEEP FINISHING NEAR THE FRONT. “I feel like I’ve got an A-plus team. I feel like they do a great job, they really prepare the cars well, we always pit it good, Doug Yates and our engine guys do a great job, we’ve got great reliability on horsepower. It’s just that we haven’t quite hit the combination to make them handle the way we need to here the last few weeks. We’re just going to keep working. These great finishes are really good for us to stay up in points, but we’ve got to just keep working and try to develop the stuff and make it more competitive down the stretch.”

ROBBIE REISER – YOUR THOUGHTS ON YOUR DRIVER, MATT KENSETH, TONIGHT. “We’ve got an awesome driver and an awesome team. We didn’t have the car quite right, but somehow we came out of this thing fifth and had a shot at winning there at the end. So, it was a great job by everybody.”

Phoenix Busch post-race press conference
April 21, 2007

MATT KENSETH — No. 17 iLevel by Weyerhaeuser Ford Fusion (finished 2nd)

“We ran decent all night, probably a fourth- or fifth-place car most of the night, and we made some adjustments and made the car better, and a great battle for the win again. We didn’t quite have the car doing what I needed it to do. I needed it. I needed to be able to run the bottom and be able to turn in the middle, and I couldn’t really do that. So, to compensate for that we kind of had the car too loose the whole time and I just had to run up top where the most grip was. And it really worked, it was just a little too long. I needed about 10 laps to have run up there and not have to run up there for 30, and it just made the front tires not work good enough after a while.”

IT LOOKS LIKE THE CAR GOT A LITTLE BIT LOOSE WITH ABOUT THREE LAPS TO GO. “He was doing a great job on the bottom. I couldn’t run down there, and I got real loose off of four that lap. And drove beside him a little bit, but he didn’t quite leave me a whole lot of room to get through there, and then the next corner we went through there and I just got too loose to hang on. I was doing everything I could and he was doing everything he could. It was a heck of a race.”

DID THAT CAUTION WITH ABOUT 10 TO GO HELP YOU AT ALL? “Yeah, I guess. Both cautions helped me a little bit. The last didn’t help as much as the one before that, but it did seem to help a little bit.”

ON RUNNING SIDE BY SIDE TOWARD THE END. “No, I actually messed that up. I was outside of Clint down in one and two a fair ways up there a couple times, and he didn’t quite give to me, which that’s his job. It was my decision on whether to lift and give him the three or four inches he needed to or not lift and have a wreck, so I just decided it would’ve been at this time and this race that was the right thing to do, was to lift. So, I had to get out of it a couple of times and then that particular lap I kind of got to his right rear and I tried getting in the gas to early and I got sideways and I got real sideways and I had to get out of the gas, and that’s how Burton caught me there. I was just trying to get a little more than I had in it.”

WHAT KIND OF ADJUSTMENTS DID YOU MAKE THROUGH THE RACE? “All we really did, honestly, was air pressure. We just worked around with the tires a little bit. We started off the race, and I was real happy with the balance and I must’ve been running fourth – I guess it was Clint and the 5 and Burton – and I was real happy with my car. The balance felt really good, I just didn’t have the grip those guys had, and that’s really what we fought all night, really, for whatever reason. I don’t know, maybe we’ll have to go back and keep working on our bodies, shocks, that kind of stuff, whatever we can do to make grip because it was pretty balanced. It was doing what I wanted it to do, it just wasn’t fast enough.”

ON THE CAUTIONS. “The cautions were helping me a little bit, because I was too loose, generally, except for the last run for whatever reason I’d be a little tighter after a caution. I can’t remember if it was the last run or second-to-last run, we had a lot going on, but the one right after he passed me, when that came out that probably helped a little bit because when he cleared me there he was probably going to take off and leave me because I was losing a lot of grip. So, that probably helped make it a little more exciting. I wish it would’ve come out when we were still in the lead, I think we would’ve had a better shot, because we seemed to be better for the first two or three laps on a restart.”

Phoenix Nextel Cup recap

No. 17 DEWALT FORD FUSION RECAP
KENSETH SCORES FIFTH TOP-FIVE FINISH OF THE SEASON, FIRST IN CAR OF TOMORROW

Taking advantage of yet another outstanding total team effort, Matt Kenseth was able to wheel the No. 17 DEWALT Ford Fusion to a fifth-place finish in the Subway Fresh Fit 500, his first top five in NASCAR’s new “Car of Tomorrow,” and fifth top five of the season. The “Killer Bees” again were the class of the field on pit road, constantly gaining track position and keeping Kenseth running in the top five for much of the event. Since finishing 27th at the Daytona 500, Kenseth has now finished no worse than 11th in the past seven races.

An estimated crowd of 105,000 witnessed Jeff Gordon lead the field of 43 to the green flag at 5:47 PM Pacific. Kenseth rolled off 17th but didn’t stay there long.

Kenseth immediately began his march to the front and by lap 16 had cracked the top 10. After reporting that the car needed more grip off the corner, Kenseth came to pit road under caution for the first time on lap 38 in the ninth position. After a 13.37 second stop, Kenseth exited pit road in the eighth position.

During the next run, Kenseth began fighting a loose condition off the corner and when the caution flag flew on lap 98 for debris, he had fallen out of the top 10 and into the 11th position. But, after a 13.19-second pit stop that included four tires, fuel and some adjustments, Kenseth returned to the track in the ninth position.

For the next 50 laps, Kenseth was able to hold his track position, but unable to make up much ground due to the car being a little too tight in the center of the turn. Kenseth returned to pit road under caution at lap 150 for service and once the crew clicked off a 12.96 second stop, he restarted fifth, picking up three spots in the pits while running in the top-10.

Again the caution flag flew on lap 211 for, what else, debris, and Kenseth had worked his way up to fourth. Reporting the car still a little too tight in the center, Kenseth returned to pit road in the fourth spot and though he nearly picked up two spots, had to settle for exiting in the same position after a stellar 12.58-second stop.

During the next long green-flag run, which Kenseth ran much of in the third position; it became apparent that the longer the run the better the No. 17 Ford was in comparison to the field. Kenseth began reeling in the leaders and after Gordon, who was running in second, ducked onto pit road, Kenseth was only one second behind the leader, Tony Stewart. But the caution flag flew during the cycle of pit stops after two cars collided off of turn four.

Kenseth was low on gas at this point but was able to make it around for several circuits until NASCAR opened the pits. Kenseth was the second car to enter the pits and the second to exit, but Gordon, who had pitted right before the caution flag came out, never went a lap down, and therefore, once all the lead-lap cars made their stops, was scored as the leader.

Kenseth would restart third with 18 laps remaining, but due to a funky restart, where cars that were trapped a lap down due to the untimely caution during pit stops were allowed to start in front of the leader, the No. 17 Ford lined up sixth on the outside for the double-file restart.

On the restart, Kenseth was able to navigate through the traffic and stay on the leaders heels, but after 10 laps began to slide backwards reporting that his car was way too loose to keep up and he had burned up his brakes trying to run them down. Still, Kenseth was able to hang on to finish fifth, his fifth top five of the season in only the series’ eighth race.

“At the very end we were just too loose and we couldn’t go anywhere,” said Kenseth from pit road after the race. “So, we didn’t have the car as good as some of those guys. On a long run we were able to run up, probably, in the top four or five times, so I was real proud of the guys for that, and they did a great job on pit road. We never had bad track position all day and that was really the key to us getting a good finish.

“I feel like I’ve got an A-plus team. I feel like they do a great job, they really prepare the cars well, we always pit it good, Doug Yates and our engine guys do a great job and we’ve got great reliability on horsepower. It’s just that we haven’t quite hit the combination to make them handle the way we need to here the last few weeks. We’re just going to keep working. These great finishes are really good for us to stay up in points, but we’ve got to just keep working and try to develop the stuff and make it more competitive down the stretch.”

“We’ve got an awesome driver and an awesome team,” said a proud Robbie Reiser from pit road. “We didn’t have the car quite right, but somehow we came out of this thing fifth and had a shot at winning there at the end. So, it was a great job by everybody.”

KILLER BEES STATS FOR THE EVENING:

Stop	Time		In	Out
1	13.37		9	8
2	13.19		11	9
3	12.96		8	5
4	12.58		4	4
5	13.13		2	2*
* Restarted third due to Gordon’s good fortune while pitting early

• Five stops

• 13.04 average time per stop

• Six positions gained all while changing four tires.

NEXT UP:
Aaron’s 499 • Talladega Superspeedway • Sunday, April 29

RACE SUMMARY
Matt Kenseth • Started 17th • Finished 5th

POINTS SUMMARY
Race Total: 155 points
Season Total: 1166 points
Ranked 3rd, 160 points behind first

Phoenix Busch & Cup Preview
April 18, 2007

Phoenix International Raceway • Avondale, Ariz.
Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 • Fri., April 20 • 9:30 pm/e ESPN2
Subway Fresh Fit 500 • Sat., April 21 • 8:30 pm/e Fox

Nextel Cup Chassis — #17 DeWALT Ford Fusion
• Primary — COT RK-451 (Last ran at Bristol in April, finished 11th)
• Backup — COT RK-457 (Last ran at Martinsville in April, finished 10th)

Busch Chassis — #17 iLevel Ford Fusion
• Primary — RK-395 (Last ran Phoenix in Nov. ’06, finished first)

 
Matt’s Cup Series summary at Phoenix:

Date	S	F	Laps	Led	Reason
11-12-06	10	13	312/312	1	Running
04-22-06	4	3	312/312	1	Running
11-13-05	16	32	310/312	0	Running
04-23-05	17	42	164/312	0	Accident
11-07-04	16	36	280/312	4	Engine
11-02-03	37	6	312/312	0	Running
11-10-02	28	1	312/312	55	Running
10-28-01	38	4	312/312	0	Running
11-05-00	12	42	53/312	0	Accident

 
Matt Kenseth Cup Series totals at Phoenix:

	Races	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles	Laps Led
Spring	2	0	1	1	0	1
Fall	7	1	2	3	0	60
Cumulative	9	1	3	4	0	61

Matt Kenseth Busch series summary at Phoenix:

Date	S	F	Laps	Status
11-11-06	1	1	203/203	Running
04-21-06	2	7	206/206	Running
11-12-05	22	3	200/200	Running
11-06-04	17	8	205/205	Running
11-01-03	21	19	181/181	Running
10-27-01	3	22	198/200	Running
11-04-00	16	6	200/200	Running
11-06-99	6	8	200/200	Running

 
Matt Kenseth Busch Series totals at Phoenix:

	Races	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles
Cumulative	8	1	2	6	1

 
Matt Kenseth on racing at Phoenix:

• Cup: “It’ll be interesting to see how much we’ve learned about the COT over the past month and we should find out something this weekend. It’s still a steep learning curve and I’m sure we’ll learn more this weekend, but I think we learned a lot at the Richmond test. Hopefully we can apply some of that knowledge with some of the things we learned at the tire test earlier this year in Phoenix and really show a lot of improvement over the first two COT races.

“I’ve always enjoyed racing at Phoenix, but it usually seems like we’re all or nothing. In the spring last year we ran really well and were able to get a top-three finish. But, in the fall, we weren’t able to compete. The car wasn’t near where it needed to be and we were lucky to hang on and finish where we did. Hopefully this weekend we can get our car where it needs to be and have a chance to compete for the win. Our guys on pit road have done an excellent job this season, so if we can get the car where it needs to be, we should be there at the end.”

• Busch: “I’m looking forward to going to Phoenix with Drew and the guys. We had a great run last weekend in Texas, the team really pulled through with some great stops when I wasn’t sure what was going on with the car. In the end, it all worked out and we were able to pull off the win. Phoenix is a good track for us and we are bringing back the same car we won with in the fall. This time around we’ll have iLevel as the primary for the first time this season, so hopefully we can earn a good finish for their debut.”

Crew Chief Robbie Reiser on racing at Phoenix:

“We’re bringing the same car we ran at Bristol. We took that car to the Richmond test two weeks ago and we’re pleased with what we learned. The Richmond test couldn’t have gone much better for us and hopefully we can translate that information into good things this weekend at Phoenix.

“The guys have been doing an outstanding job on pit road and there’s no reason that it shouldn’t continue. They’ve been gaining positions almost every time we pit whether we’re in 15th or fifth. They’ve really kept us in the game at some of these tracks, especially at Martinsville, they were the reason we stayed on the lead lap and came away with a top-10 finish. That’s the good part. The bad part is, we still haven’t got our COT program where it needs to be, but hopefully we can take a big step in the right direction this weekend.”

Busch Series Crew Chief Drew Blickensderfer on racing at Phoenix:

“The guys did a great job last weekend in Texas. This weekend we are bringing RK-395, which is the same car that Matt won with in the fall. Hopefully we can carry over our momentum from Texas to Phoenix and get a solid finish with the iLevel Ford Fusion.”

Phoenix Fast Facts

n Matt Kenseth’s second-place finish at Texas marked his 70th career top five and 125th career top-10 finish. In 263 career Cup starts, Kenseth has finished in the top five 26.6% of the time and finished in the top 10, 47.5% of the time.

n Kenseth’s Busch Series win at Texas moves him into sixth on the all-time series’ win list with 23; one behind Jeff Burton and Tommy Houston.

n Kenseth’s average finish of 8.3 is currently third best among drivers who have competed in all seven Cup events in 2007.

n In the past six Cup races, Kenseth has picked up a total of 127 positions from where he started to where he finished, or an average of 21.1 spots per race.

n Kenseth has completed every lap in Cup so far in 2007, one of only three drivers to do so (Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton).

n Despite notching a win in 2002 at PIR, Kenseth’s average finish at the track is just 19.9; which ranks 18th out of 23 tracks where he’s competed at in the Cup Series.

n Kenseth will be racing the No. 17 iLevel Ford Fusion in the NASCAR Busch Series on Saturday. For his career, Kenseth has notched one win and six top-ten finishes in eight starts in the Busch Series at Phoenix. Kenseth’s first Busch Series pole and first Busch Series win at PIR came last November.

iLevel by Weyerhaeuser to sponsor Kenseth in 2007
April 17, 2007

CONCORD, N.C. (April 17, 2007) — Roush Fenway Racing announced today that iLevel by Weyerhaeuser will return in 2007 as a primary sponsor in the NASCAR Busch Series. Weyerhaeuser’s iLevel brand will appear four times this season as the primary sponsor on Matt Kenseth’s No. 17 Ford Fusion. The first race in which Kenseth’s No. 17 will feature iLevel as the primary sponsor will be this weekend at Phoenix. iLevel will also be the primary sponsor for Dover in September and Charlotte in October. iLevel will finish out its season at Texas in November.

iLevel by Weyerhaeuser was a primary sponsor for four races in 2006, splitting time between Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards. The combination of the two drivers proved successful as iLevel finished 2006 with three top-five finishes in just four starts. Biffle and Edwards both fell just short of earning a win for iLevel, Edwards finished second at Dover, while Biffle finished second at Richmond.

“I looked on the calendar and saw the four iLevel races (Phoenix, Dover, Charlotte and Texas) and thought to myself, ‘Hey, those four races are pretty good ones for them to be on board,’” said Kenseth. “Historically, we’ve had a lot of success at those tracks and they’re definitely among my favorites. I’ve been fortunate enough to win at all four of them and would love to add to that total when we go back this year with Drew (Blickensderfer) and the Busch car. I know iLevel came close to getting to Victory Lane last year, ideally we’ll be able to take them there at least once in 2007.”

iLevel by Weyerhaeuser is looking forward to the 2007 season with Kenseth. “Roush Fenway Racing and iLevel are alike in many ways,” said Carlos Guilherme, vice president of sales for iLevel by Weyerhaeuser. “We’re both dedicated to innovation, high performance, getting the job done right and doing it in a safe way. It’s a natural fit for us to sponsor Matt and we’re excited to continue teaming up with Roush Fenway Racing for the 2007 season. This is a tremendous opportunity for iLevel to give our customers a once in a lifetime experience.”

About iLevel by Weyerhaeuser

iLevel is Weyerhaeuser’s integrated residential framing business resulting in a seamless, unified solution for residential builders through dealers - offering a coordinated network of support for all structural framing materials. By combining Weyerhaeuser’s high-quality products and services from well-known brands like Trus Joist and Structurwood, with its distribution and technology capabilities, iLevel efficiently supplies customers with all the necessary components for building the residential structural frame, and solving builder and customer needs around that frame. To learn more about the complete iLevel line of residential framing products, design software tools, technical support, and extensive distribution network throughout North America, visit www.iLevel.com or call 1 888-iLevel8 to locate a dealer near you.

About Weyerhaeuser

Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world’s largest integrated forest products companies, was incorporated in 1900. In 2006, sales were $21.9 billion. It has offices or operations in 18 countries, with customers worldwide. Weyerhaeuser is principally engaged in the growing and harvesting of timber; the manufacture, distribution and sale of forest products; and real estate construction, development and related activities. Additional information about Weyerhaeuser’s businesses, products and practices is available at www.weyerhaeuser.com .

Texas Nextel Cup post-race press conference
April 15, 2007

MATT KENSETH — #17 DeWALT Ford Fusion (2nd)

ON THE LAST 10 LAPS. “We were racing as hard as we could and still be clean, and so I really thought I had him, you know, I could pull away a little bit. Jeff’s smart, he had what he needed to, just got through one and two really good. Me and Jeff, I probably could’ve pulled the bottom there that last lap. I was going to go to the bottom and make him follow me through one and two because I was okay there, but he was just under me enough where I couldn’t do that. So, I did everything I could, and I got beat.

“It was very strange that last run. I ran about 10 laps behind Jeff Gordon, I was able to keep up with him, and all of a sudden my car just got extremely loose and Jeff hit the wall and started backing up. And we were in the lead and I saw Burton coming, and I was just really loose on the bottom and he was catching me two- to three-tenths a lap, he was just going to blow right by me if I stayed on the bottom. So I moved up and actually found some grip, that tightened my car up a little bit – but I knew it was going to be temporary – but it tightened the car up and I was able to run two- or three-tenths faster than what I had been running, and hold him off as long as I could. Then that last lap, we both got into one, he got back to the gas quicker and I just couldn’t do it, I was going to wreck. He just got me cleared on the last lap, so that’s why I tried the high side. I had to try to look somewhere for grip, it wasn’t working where I was.”

DID YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH THE RIGHT-REAR TIRE TOWARD THE END? “They said it was fine. I don’t know. I could never get a consistent run, really, all day. There were times I started loose, and then tight, and vice-versa. And the best we were was when we got up front in clean air, got two tires on it that time and we were able to run up to second or whatever. And that run, it just started really good for 10 laps and then it went to just so loose, we were just getting killed on the bottom. And I thought I had a flat right-rear, and then when I moved up to the top and Jeff caught me, because I couldn’t dare let him outside of me, then the car tightened up a little bit where I could hold on for a little while. But, no, we didn’t find anything wrong with it. It was just my imagination again.”

DO YOU ENJOY RACING AGAINST JEFF BURTON? “I like racing against him better when I beat him. He’s a lot of fun to race with. When I first went to Roush, Mark got me to Roush and Mark and me became friends and started working together over there. And through that is how I met Jeff. Jeff was the number two man at Roush, and those guys helped a lot earlier in my career, and all the way through it, but especially early when we first started. You know, we tried to use a lot of Jeff’s and Mark’s information on our Cup cars when we started in 2000. We were good teammates, just became good friends through that, also. Racing for the win with Burton is the same as racing for the win with Mark: you know the guys are going to give you room, you know they’re going to race you fair, but they’re going to drive it for everything it’s worth at the same time. Honestly, I thought he was going to pass me way before that because he was running me down like crazy, and when I moved to the top I was fortunate enough to find some grip. It reminded me of Dover last year; he was running me down and had the faster car, but I was just enough of a pain in his neck to hold him up for a while. I was hoping I could hold him up one more lap, but he was smart and hung back and did how Mark used to pass cars at Michigan all the time. He lifted for turn one about two-car lengths early and got back in the gas early. And by the time I knew he lifted I was already going by him, and he just got in the gas and got in front of me and cleared me.”

ON FRIEND AND FORMER TEAMMATE JEFF BURTON WINNING AND BECOMING THE FIRST REPEAT WINNER AT TEXAS. “It doesn’t really matter. I don’t think either of us, if we’re not the winner. You like to see a friend or a teammate or a buddy or somebody you’ve got a lot of respect for win the race, but ultimately, we’re all out for ourselves. If we can’t win, we care, but we don’t care as much as if we would’ve won. I wish I was the one to repeat.”

WHAT ABOUT AERO-PUSH? WHAT ABOUT THE COT HERE? “This track, you’ve always had aero-push if you’re going to follow someone through the corner because it’s so fast and it’s flat off the corner. If you have an aero-push at this track you can move up and find another lane and make it work. We’ve seen that. We’ve seen it yesterday, we’ve seen it at the end of this race, there were two very distinctly different lines. I wasn’t right on Jeff’s door, I was three car-lengths higher than he was and we were running about the same speed, so if you’re not behind a car, if you build race tracks like this, where you don’t have to be right behind the car in the same line, you’re not going to have an aero-push. If you’re right behind a guy going this fast, I don’t care what kind of car you have, you’re still going to have an aero-push.”

Texas Nextel Cup recap

No. 17 DEWALT FORD FUSION RECAP
KENSETH SECOND AT TEXAS AFTER LATE-RACE DUEL WITH BURTON

In a thrilling final 15 laps, Matt Kenseth kept a hard-charging Jeff Burton at bay and if it had been the Samsung 499, Kenseth would have celebrated his second win of 2007. But, Burton, who was noticeably faster than Kenseth, made the pass as they exited turn two for the final time and pulled away over the final half mile to seal the victory in Sunday’s Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. After running in the top 10 all afternoon, Kenseth took the lead for the first time on lap 318, just 16 laps from the finish. Burton soon moved into second and onto Kenseth’s bumper to set up the dash to the finish. Kenseth’s second-place finish marks his fourth top-five finish in just seven races in 2007 and moves him up one position to third in the NEXTEL Cup point standings.

After a series of “Texas twisters” cancelled qualifying on Friday, the field was set according to owner points, which allowed Jeff Gordon to start from the pole. Kenseth started fourth and in front of a Texas-sized crowd took the green flag at 2:17 PM Eastern beneath clear-blue skies.

Starting up front proved beneficial as on the second lap a six-car pileup that started in the middle of the pack took out a number of competitors early. The attrition rate proved to be unusually high as several good cars were taken out of contention throughout the day.

Kenseth and the No. 17 DEWALT team were able to keep themselves inside the top 10 all afte