Atlanta race recap

No. 17 R+L DEWALT NANO TECHNOLOGY FORD FUSION RECAP
KENSETH LEAVES ATLANTA WITH SECOND STRAIGHT TOP-FIVE FINISH

n Photos from Atlanta

“From worst to almost first” describes Matt Kenseth’s day at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Sunday’s Pep Boys Auto 500. Due to an engine change on Friday, Kenseth was forced to start at the rear of the field in the 43rd position despite qualifying 17th. But a good car, an always-solid performance by the “Killer Bees,” and the right adjustments had Kenseth’s No. 17 DEWALT NANO Technology Ford Fusion in contention for the win. Running second and reeling in the leader, fuel mileage began to play a factor, but a caution flag with seven laps to go brought the field down pit road once more. Kenseth took on four tires and after entering second, exited first… among cars that took four tires. But seven cars elected to take only two tires and exited ahead of Kenseth for what set up to be a three-lap dash to the checkers. A wacky caution on the ensuing restart set up a green-white-checker finish, but even that was cut short as two cars got together in turn one, negating any attempt by Kenseth to challenge for the win and relegating him to a fourth-place finish.

An estimated 100,000 fans enjoyed a picture-perfect day in Hampton, Ga., as Greg Biffle led the field of 43 to the green flag at 2:19 PM Eastern. Kenseth qualified 17th, but during the first practice of the weekend had engine problems and was forced to change engines. As a rule, if a team changes engines at any point throughout the weekend, then they will be forced to start at the rear of the field. Therefore, Kenseth took the green flag in the 43rd position.

Predictably, Kenseth, driving the black No. 17 DEWALT NANO Technology Ford Fusion, wasted no time maneuvering towards the front. By lap 12, Kenseth had cracked the top 30 and by the time the first caution flag was displayed on lap 34, Kenseth was riding in the 24th position.

For a large part of the 329-lap event, Kenseth reported the car as being “loose off of the corners.” Robbie Reiser and the No. 17 crew worked to adjust the handling of the car throughout the day in an attempt to keep up with one of the most weather-sensitive tracks on the circuit.

On lap 99, Kenseth cracked the top 10 for the first time all day, but was hungry for more. Just 25 laps later, Kenseth moved into fifth, but as the run wore on, the No. 17 Ford began loosing more and more grip making the machine very loose upon exit, and even getting into turn one. Kenseth entered the pits on lap 150 in the sixth position but thanks to an 11.83-second stop returned in the second spot.

Kenseth toiled inside the top seven for the remainder of the race, but didn’t have the car quite where it needed to be in order to compete for the win. Kenseth came to pit road on lap 269 in the fifth position and after several adjustments and another great pit stop returned to the track in fourth place. With 56 laps remaining, Reiser came over the radio a reminder Kenseth to conserve fuel.

The adjustments worked and Kenseth immediately began making up ground on the leaders. By lap 290, just 35 laps from the scheduled finish, Kenseth had moved into the second position and was reeling in the leader. But at the same time, both he and Reiser were concerned with how short they may be on fuel. The original calculations had the No. 17 Ford coming up two and a half laps short, so Kenseth began to do his best to conserve fuel, despite having a car capable of taking the lead. Both Kenseth and the leader began to slow down in an attempt to conserve fuel.

But all the worry and calculations were for naught as the caution flag flew on lap 318, just seven laps from the finish. Kenseth came to pit road in second and Reiser made the call for four tires, which was the same call that the other cars running in the top four made at the time. A stellar 12.64-second stop by the crew got Kenseth out ahead of everyone else who had taken four tires, but unfortunately a number of cars took on two tires only, seven of which beat Kenseth out of the pits.

This set up a three-lap dash to the finish and Kenseth, the first car on four tires, restarting eighth. But as the green flag waved, the leader apparently ran out of gas, log-jamming the entire field, wrecking several cars, and sending the rest of the field into extreme evasive maneuvers. Kenseth checked up but was slammed into from behind; still, he managed to dart right around the stalled vehicle at the last second and avoid catastrophe. Instead of resetting the order since the leader failed to restart the race, NASCAR took the order from the next scoring loop after the caution flag had waved. This jumbled the running order again and placed Kenseth in the seventh position for the ensuing green-white-checker finish.

Still the first car on four tires, Kenseth knew it was a long shot, but was awaiting his chance over the final two circuits to see if he could reel in the leader. But that chance never came. As the field rumbled into turn one on the restart, one car lost a tire and collected another directly in front of Kenseth. After making yet another evasive maneuver, Kenseth found himself in fourth place but with no opportunity to advance his position considering the field was frozen and the race officially over.

Kenseth’s fourth-place finish at Atlanta comes on the heels of a fifth-place finish at Martinsville, marking the first back-to-back, top-five finishes since April at Texas and Phoenix, which just so happen to be the next to tracks on the scheduled.

“They had that restart at the end and you can’t come out of the pits that far back with two laps to go,” said Kenseth. “That was the biggest thing, so it just didn’t work out. But we had a good car all day. We had probably a top seven or eight car and then at the end they made the right adjustments and we actually had a car that could win, but it just didn’t work out with the cautions.”

IT WAS A CASE WHERE YOU THOUGHT FOUR TIRES WAS THE RIGHT CALL UNTIL THE WAY IT PLAYED OUT.

“I didn’t really think of it until we came off pit road and realized we only were going to have five laps left. Of course with five laps left and that many cars in front of you, four tires wasn’t the right thing. But if everybody would have got four tires, it would have been the right thing.”

YOU HAD A GOOD CAR AT THE END EVEN THOUGH YOU COULDN’T HAVE MADE IT ON FUEL.

“Yeah, I guess we were a little short, but we were both slowing down a lot so I don’t know if we would have made it or not. It would have been kind of fun to find out. If we made it, it would have been fun to find out. If we didn’t, it wouldn’t have been, but we had a pretty good car. The guys did a great job on pit road. They were kind of off and on, but they were on when we needed to be at the end and they made the perfect adjustments at the end. I thought we had the car on that last long green flag run, but the cautions just didn’t fly quite right for us and we just couldn’t quite get it done. A caution 20 laps from the end, I think, would have been good. Everybody would have got four and we would have been up there and had a shot, but just the way it worked out with all that craziness, we didn’t really have a chance to do anything.”

RACE SUMMARY
Matt Kenseth • Qualified 17th • Started 43rd due to engine change • Finished 4th

POINTS SUMMARY
Race Total: 160 points
Season Total: 5753 points, Ranked 11th, 448 points behind first

NEXT UP:
Dickies 500 • Texas Motor Speedway • Fort Worth, Texas • Sunday, November 4

Atlanta Preview
October 24, 2007

Atlanta Motor Speedway • Hampton, Ga.
Pep Boys 500 • Sun., Oct. 28 • 1 pm/e ABC

Nextel Cup — #17 DeWALT Nano Ford Fusion
• Primary — RK-323 (Last outing: Kansas, Sep. ‘07, finished 35th after wreck on lap 156; also won Michigan in Aug. ’06; won Fontana in Feb. ’06)
• Backup — RK-340 (Last outing: Pocono, August ’07, finished 14th; also served as backup in nine races in 2007

 
Matt’s Cup Series summary at Atlanta:

Date	S	F	Laps	Led	Reason
03/19/07	21	3	325/325	11	Running
10/29/06	1*	4	325/325	0	Running
03/19/06	27	13	325/325	0	Running
10/30/05	23	5	325/325	1	Running
03/20/05	23	31	311/325	0	Running
10/31/04	39	41	175/325	0	Engine
03/14/04	30	6	325/325	0	Running
10/28/03	37	11	325/325	0	Running
03/09/03	24	4	325/325	0	Running
10/27/02	9	9	248/248	0	Running
03/10/02	32	4	325/325	46	Running
11/18/01	23	17	325/325	0	Running
03/11/01	38	37	273/325	0	Engine
11/20/00	23	9	324/325	0	Running
03/12/00	4	40	199/325	2	Engine

*Starting order set by points due to inclement weather

      
Matt Kenseth Cup Series totals at Atlanta:

	Races	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles	Laps Led
Spring	8	0	3	4	0	59
Fall	7	0	2	4	0	1
Cumulative	15	0	5	8	0	60

   
Matt Kenseth on racing at Atlanta:

“Atlanta is just a lot of fun mainly because the pavement has kind of worn out and it’s real high banked. You start off real fast and the track gets real slick, but you’re always looking for a different groove and looking for more grip. It gets slick so you’ve got to have some throttle control and you’ve got to change your points a lot where you’re letting off the gas and how you’re entering the corner and things like that. Any track that drives like that makes it, I think, more challenging and more fun as a driver.

“At some tracks, you’re out there for three-and-a-half or four hours sometimes and you’re all running around the same line all the time and hope to get up under somebody and get them out of line and pass them and that’s not always that much fun. But at Atlanta, as much as you’re racing your competitors, you’re also racing the race track all the time for speed and trying to find grip. You’re always looking for something. All the tracks like that — Michigan and like Rockingham used to be — are always a lot of fun and they’re a challenge.”

Crew Chief Robbie Reiser on racing at Atlanta:

“Martinsville was definitely the kind of finish we needed. If you would’ve told me going into the Chase that six races into it, our best finish would be at Martinsville, I would’ve laughed at you. But, our guys did a good job. Matt did a great job all day and we were able to hang on for a real good finish.

“We’re bringing our most consistent piece to Atlanta this weekend. We’ve used this car more than any other the past two years and it’s done real well. The last time out it was wrecked at Kansas, but not too bad. It was probably a top-five to top-10 car before the wreck.

“We’ve still got four more chances to get a win this season and that’s what we’ll be trying to do. Nothing’s changed as far as our weekly routine. We’re still trying to get the best finish we can each week at the track, but the fact that we’re out of the championship hunt and we really don’t have anything to lose, that does allow you to gamble a little bit with pit strategy and fuel mileage and some things, that maybe you wouldn’t have done before.”

Atlanta Fast Facts

Matt Kenseth’s fifth-place finish at Martinsville was only his second top-five at the .526-mile speedway, and his first since 2002.

By finishing fifth at Martinsville, Kenseth snapped the worst four-race stretch of his 288-race Cup career. Starting at Dover and carrying through Charlotte, Kenseth failed to finish on the lead lap and finished 26th of worse in each race.

For the second time this season, Kenseth’s No. 17 Ford will carry the DEWALT NANO Technology paint scheme. The predominantly black car will run twice more, at Phoenix and Homestead.

Kenseth Chase history at Atlanta:

					Points Position
	Start	Finish	Laps	Led	Entry	Exit
2006	1	4	325/325	0	1st	1st
2005	23	5	325/325	1	9th	7th
2004	39	41	175/325	0	8th	9th

Kenseth’s average finish during the Chase at Atlanta is 16.6, ranking sixth among all Chase tracks.

Kenseth has three top-five finishes in the last four Atlanta Cup races.

What a difference a year makes: Last season, Kenseth entered Atlanta 36 points ahead of the field in first place in the Championship Standings. This season, Kenseth currently sits 12th, 462 points out of first.

Martinsville race recap

No. 17 R+L CARRIERS/DEWALT FORD FUSION RECAP
KENSETH BREAKS OUT OF SLUMP AT MOST UNLIKELY VENUE

n Photos from Martinsville

Martinsville Speedway has never been kind to Matt Kenseth, so there was little reason to believe that he could break out of the worst four-race stretch of his Cup career on Sunday. But, Kenseth and crew chief, Robbie Reiser, used great pit strategy and a solid No. 17 Ford Fusion to avoid 21 caution flags and hang on for fifth-place finish in the Subway 500. The top-five finish was Kenseth’s first since Michigan in August and his first at Martinsville’s .526-mile oval since 2002.

Perfect conditions greeted a crowd of 66,500 fans for Sunday’s race as points leader Jeff Gordon led the field of 43 to the green flag at 1:49 PM Eastern. Kenseth, flying the R+L Carriers colors for the fourth and final time of 2007, started 24th.

Kenseth admittedly isn’t too fond of Martinsville Speedway, but was happy with the way the car was handling early on and it showed on the track. By lap six he was already up to the 20th position and looking for more. When the field came to pit road on lap 46, Kenseth was in the 16th spot and was asking for more bite off of the corner and to free the car up through the center of the turn.

For most of the afternoon, Kenseth dealt with the same issue, needing a little more bite in the rear tires off the turns. But, as often is the case, the big hurdles at Martinsville are the wrecks — 21 of them during Sunday’s race. Kenseth, with help from spotter Bob Jeffrey navigated his way through all of them with little incident and was able to keep his car’s fenders clean for all 506 laps, even through a green-white-checkered finish.

Several times during Sunday’s race the field got out of sequence on pit stops and because of that Kenseth ran a portion of the race in the top five as well another portion between 15th and 20th. After Kenseth’s second-to-last stop on lap 349, he was running in the 15th position. But Reiser made what turned out to be the call of the race during the next and final stop on lap 396.

Track position at Martinsville is always at a premium, more so than any other track on the circuit, and for that reason Reiser had a big decision to make on the final stop. Kenseth entered the pits in the 11th position and the call was made for two tires only, placing Kenseth fourth when the race restarted on lap 403.

With only 97 laps remaining, the challenge for Kenseth was to hang on the best he could for the remainder of the event. Playing to Kenseth’s advantage was the number of cautions that would occur in the final 103 laps. To be exact, there were eight cautions for a total of 42 laps from lap 404 to lap 506 (the race went into overtime).

Though Kenseth initially was hesitant about the strategy, with cautions coming in bunches over the final 100 laps the two-tire call worked perfectly and he was able to hang on to finish fifth. The finish broke one of the worst slumps in Kenseth’s career, and he scored a rare top-five at his least-favorite track.

“Well, it’s still one of my least favorites because you get run into and you run into people and all that stuff is going on,” Kenseth said. “But, certainly, like any other track, the better you run the more fun it is. We didn’t run horribly bad today. We called the race right and got a good finish.”

TWO TIRES AT THE END WAS THE RIGHT CALL? “If it would have gone green, I don’t think it would have worked but with all the short runs it worked out for us. When you get all of those short runs and everybody starts wrecking, you only run eight or nine laps at a time and with runs like that, four tires wasn’t going to pass you. It was alright.”

RACE SUMMARY
Matt Kenseth • Started 24th • Finished 5th

POINTS SUMMARY
Race Total: 155 points
Season Total: 5593 points, Ranked 12th, 462 points behind first

NEXT UP:
Pepboys Auto 500 • Atlanta Motor Speedway • Hampton, Ga. • Sunday, October 28

Martinsville Preview
October 17, 2007

Martinsville Speedway • Martinsville, Va.
Subway 500 • Sun., Oct. 21 • 1 pm/e ABC

Nextel Cup — #17 R+L Carriers/DeWALT Ford Fusion
• Primary — COT RK-451 (Last outing, Loudon, Sep. ’07, finished 7th; also has one top-five (Phoenix) and four top-10s in five starts)
• Backup — COT RK-458 (Has served as backup in five races in ’07, but has yet to see action)

 
Matt’s Cup Series summary at Martinsville:

Date	S	F	Laps	Led	Reason
04/01/06	33	10	500/500	1	Running
10/22/06	20	11	500/500	0	Running
04/02/06	16	24	493/500	0	Accident
10/23/05	25	12	500/500	19	Running
04/10/05	18	11	500/500	1	Running
10/24/04	25	16	500/500	2	Running
04/18/04	29	8	500/500	0	Running
10/19/03	14	13	500/500	0	Running
04/13/03	34	22	499/500	0	Running
10/20/02	17	19	499/500	0	Running
04/14/02	26	2	500/500	0	Running
10/15/01	22	36	459/500	26	Rear End
04/08/01	25	6	500/500	11	Running
10/01/00	37	34	447/500	0	Running
04/09/00	31	21	498/500	0	Running

      
Matt Kenseth Cup Series totals at Martinsville:

	Races	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles	Laps Led
Spring	8	0	1	4	0	13
Fall	7	0	0	0	0	47
Cumulative	15	0	1	4	0	60

   
Matt Kenseth on racing at Martinsville:

“Well, at some point, our luck has got to change, so maybe it’ll be this weekend at Martinsville, which is a track I usually dread racing at. To me, and I’ve said this a lot, Martinsville reminds me of racing around two light poles in some mall parking lot. There’s very little room to race, it’s slow and just real tight quarters. Forget passing on the outside, I think everyone saw that back in the spring when the second-place car, which was a good bit faster at the time, couldn’t get around the leader for the last 20 laps or so. To me, there’s nothing fun about that.

“We need to just try and focus on getting a solid finish. The last month has been real tough for everyone on the team. They work so hard and for one reason or the other we haven’t been able to finish races here lately. It’s something we aren’t really used to, but everybody goes through these stretches. The promising sign is that our cars have improved a great deal from where we were two months ago and our pit crew is back doing the things they always do and picking up positions on pit road. We just need to have an uneventful day for a change and bring home a good finish.”

Crew Chief Robbie Reiser on racing at Martinsville:

“We feel pretty confident in the COT we’re taking this weekend. It’s run more than any of our COTs and it’s been pretty good on the flat tracks. Hopefully, it’ll be as good this weekend if not better. Martinsville is all about how good we can get the car to turn in the center, pretty much the same philosophy as everywhere else, so that Matt can get on the gas as quickly as possible. You also have to have a good brake package and we’ve done a lot of work over the past year to improve what we take to the track.

“This team doesn’t have any quit in them. We’re realist and we know what we can and can’t do, but for right now, all we’re concerned with is this weekend at Martinsville, trying to win the race or get the best finish we can. Our performance has actually been pretty good over the past four races, but we just don’t have anything to show for it. But, there’s not a thing we can do about that now. All we can do is go forward and try to do the best we can and maybe win a couple races here at the end of the season.”

Martinsville Fast Facts

Since entering the Cup Series in 2000, Matt Kenseth has completed the second most laps of any Cup driver at Martinsville in the past 15 Cup races: 7,395 of 7,500.

Kenseth’s No. 17 Ford will run the last 2007 R+L Carriers paint scheme this weekend. In the previous three outings with R+L Carriers on the hood, Kenseth has finished 12th at Charlotte in May, eighth in Daytona in July, and seventh at Fontana in September.

Kenseth Chase history at Martinsville:

					Points Position
	Start	Finish	Laps	Led	Entry	Exit
2006	20	11	500/500	1	2nd	1st
2005	25	12	500/500	19	9th	9th
2004	25	16	500/500	2	7th	8th

Kenseth’s average finish during the Chase at Martinsville is 13.0; ranking fifth among all Chase tracks.

What a difference a year makes. Last season, Kenseth entered Martinsville only 45 points out of first and exited with a 36-point lead in the Championship Standings. This season, Kenseth has endured one of the worst four-race streaks in his career and currently sits 12th, 442 points out of first.

Charlotte race recap

No. 17 CARHARTT FOR WOMEN/DEWALT FORD FUSION RECAP
MISFORTUNE FINDS KENSETH AGAIN AT CHARLOTTE

n Photos from Charlotte

For Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 team, the 2007 Chase is beginning to feel like a bad scene from the movie Groundhog Day. After leading three different times for 32 laps in the first 134 laps of Saturday night’s event, a series of unfortunate events placed Kenseth in the middle of the pack for the first time all evening. Kenseth reported the car’s handling as being “deathly loose,” even while out front in clean air and that condition only worsened in traffic. So much so that on lap 159, Kenseth spun out while exiting turn four and made contact with the front-stretch wall. After making repairs, Kenseth was close to gaining his lap back before getting involved in another accident, this one not of his doing, on the front stretch. Finally, on lap 224, with the damage to the car far too great to overcome, Kenseth could no longer hang on and after his second spin of the night, came to the garage for extensive repairs. The No. 17 did return to the track late in the race to gain a few spots, but eventually parked it in the 34th position, when there was nothing more to gain with a little more than 10 laps to go.

A crowd of well over 150,000 enjoyed a picture perfect evening at Lowe’s Motor Speedway as Ryan Newman led the field to the green flag at 7:46 PM Eastern time. Kenseth rolled off seventh, his fourth straight top-11 qualifying effort at LMS.

Immediately, Kenseth knew something was amiss with the handling of his freshly designed Carhartt for Women Ford, reporting that the car was “Really good for the first 10 laps of a run, but then something drastic happens to it and it’s really loose from about lap 10 on.”

Though the condition never went away, Kenseth remained running in the top five with the help of some excellent pit stops by the “Killer Bees” and some great pit strategy by Robbie Reiser. As loose as his car was, it became imperative that Kenseth remain up front in clean air.

On lap 63, while running in fifth, the first in a series of problems occurred for Kenseth and company. Kenseth reported to the crew that he had issues with his alternator and as a result was losing battery voltage rapidly. To counter the problem, Kenseth turned off most of the car’s fans and switched to the backup battery. However, to conserve the life of the backup, Kenseth ran the primary while under caution, but warned that if anything should happen on pit road, to where he stalled the car, that he would most likely need a push off, due to the loss of battery power.

Kenseth led on several occasions in the early on thanks to some great pit stops by the No. 17 crew. The most impressive stop came on lap 119, when Kenseth entered in the fourth position, but thanks to a 12.37-second four tires and fuel stop, he returned to the track with the lead.

Throughout the first 138 laps, Kenseth toiled in the top five, and while little seemed to help the “deathly loose” condition of his racecar, by being up front, he was able to enjoy less traffic and cleaner air.

That was until a pit stop under caution on lap 138. Reiser made the call for two tires in order to keep Kenseth up front, which appeared to be the right call, but upon exit from the pit stall, Kenseth had to suddenly slam on brakes in order to avoid hitting the No. 22 car. In the process, the engine stalled, and because of the bad alternator, Kenseth needed a push from his pit crew to get going again. The extra time cost Kenseth nearly 10 positions and he returned to the track in 12th.

Immediately after the restart, Kenseth could tell the difference of running in heavy traffic, reporting the car as being, “So loose, I can barely hang on.” After a couple of good saves, spotter Bob Jeffrey even said to Kenseth, “You’re putting on one heck of a show for Mark (Martin) behind you there.” Kenseth immediately responded, “It’s only a matter of time.”

One lap later, the time came, and Kenseth spun coming off of turn four. The No. 17 Ford slid down on the infield grass before sliding all the way back across the track and making contact with the outside retaining wall. Kenseth came to pit road several times under caution where the team made numerous repairs to the right rear of the car and in the process went one lap down.

Down, but not out, Kenseth fought valiantly, despite a wrecked racecar, to attempt to gain his lap back, and was near the position to be the beneficiary for the “free pass.” Unfortunately, on lap 207, the car running directly in front of Kenseth spun out off of turn four. Kenseth slowed down in anticipation of the car sliding back across the track, which it did, but the car trailing Kenseth failed to slow down and slammed hard into the back of the already damaged No. 17 Ford. Kenseth again returned to pit road for repairs, but got back on the track in 32nd, still only one lap down, but with an even more heavily damaged racecar.

Finally, on lap 224, Kenseth could not longer hang on as the No. 17 Ford spun off of turn two. Kenseth reported, “It just swapped ends on me. I couldn’t drive it any longer and it just wrecked.”

This time Kenseth was forced behind the wall and into the garage for extensive repairs. But, the tenacity of the No. 17 crew was never more evident than when they went to work on the damaged machine and returned it to racetrack 33 laps later. Though Kenseth was well out of contention in 36th place, he did manage to run until he gained as many spots as possible, passing two other wrecked machines to finish 34th. With nothing left to gain or lose, Reiser called Kenseth to the garage with 12 laps remaining to park it for the evening.

"I don't know where to start,” said a frustrated Kenseth. “We had a pretty fast car tonight, we had something weird that we'd run 10 laps and I would get so loose in the corner I could hardly hang onto it. I have absolutely no excuse. I really feel like an idiot out here tonight. I wrecked twice and it seems like we've wrecked for a month straight, so I really want to apologize to my fans. It's kind of hard to stress how these guys work on this car. I really feel bad for these guys. I really let them down."

RACE SUMMARY
Matt Kenseth • Started 7th • Finished 34th

POINTS SUMMARY
Race Total: 66 points
Season Total: 5438 points, Ranked 12th, 442 points behind first

NEXT UP:
Subway 500 • Martinsville Speedway • Martinsville, Va. • Sunday, October 21

Charlotte Busch & Cup Preview
October 11, 2007

Lowe’s Motor Speedway • Concord, N.C.
Dollar General 300 • Fri., Oct. 12 • 7:30 pm/e ESPN2
Bank of America 500 • Sat., Oct. 13 • 7 pm/e ABC

Nextel Cup — #17 Carhartt for Women/DeWALT Ford Fusion
• Primary — RK-317 (Last outing, Fontana, Sept. ’07, finished seventh; also scored four top-fives in ’07 including a win in Fontana, Feb. ’07)
• Backup — RK-340 (Last outing, Pocono, August ’07, finished 14th; also served as backup in eight races in 2007)

Busch — #17 iLevel by Weyerhaeuser Ford Fusion
• Primary — RK-346 (Last ran Kansas, finished second)

 
Matt’s Cup Series summary at Lowe’s:

Date	S	F	Laps	Led	Reason
05/27/07	5	12	400/400	50	Running
10/14/06	11	14	332/334	1	Running
05/28/06	6	5	400/400	1	Running
10/15/05	18	26	326/336	0	Running
05/29/05	3	37	254/400	0	Accident
10/16/04	36	11	334/334	0	Running
05/30/04	37	3	400/400	1	Running
10/11/03	29	8	334/334	0	Running
05/25/03	18	2	276/276	82	Running
10/13/02	7	34	254/334	27	Engine
05/26/02	21	2	400/400	21	Running
10/07/01	32	12	334/334	1	Running
05/27/01	40	18	334/334	2	Running
10/08/00	26	9	334/334	1	Running
05/28/00	21	1	400/400	32	Running
10/11/99	27	40	231/334	0	Accident

 
Matt Kenseth Cup Series totals at Lowe’s:

	Races	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles	Laps Led
Spring	8	1	5	5	0	189
Fall	8	0	0	2	0	30
Cumulative	16	1	5	7	0	219

Matt Kenseth Busch series summary at Lowe’s:

Date	S	F	Laps	Status
09/30/06	1	2	200/200	Running
10/08/05	16	7	200/200	Running
10/09/04	33	33	108/204	Accident
09/29/01	11	4	200/200	Running

 
Matt Kenseth Busch Series totals at Lowe’s:

	Races	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles
Cumulative	4	0	2	3	1

   
Matt Kenseth on racing at Lowe’s:

• Cup: “I’ve always enjoyed racing at Charlotte. It’s a fast racetrack that’s pretty unique and demands a good handling racecar. Sometimes we’ve haven’t had the best of luck there, but other times we have. We’ve been able to run pretty good there from time to time and the fact we won our first Cup race there will always make that place special to me.

“Speaking of luck, we haven’t had much lately. This Chase has been pretty frustrating for sure, because our cars have been the best they’ve been all year, but we have little to show for it. It’s the complete opposite of last year’s Chase when our cars weren’t that good, but we stayed out of trouble and would finish about 12th or 15th. A lot of other people had problems last year and if we would’ve been just a little better on car performance we could have won it all. But, this year, we can’t seem to finish a race.

“Talladega was typical Talladega. Every time we go there, no matter what package we’re running, we always have a big wreck that takes out a bunch of cars. We had been fortunate for the past couple of years not to be in one of those, but last Sunday we weren’t as fortunate. But, there’s nothing we can do about that. All we can do is worry about Saturday night and try to get this really cool paint scheme up front and hopefully a finish that’s representative of how we’ve been running.”

• Busch: “It’s always fun to race at Charlotte. Not only is it pretty much in our backyard, but I’ve also had some success here. This is the race last year where you saw what happens when someone tries to go faster than the car is capable of going. I was going for the win coming off of four and the car just got away from me. Hopefully, we’ll be in position to win again, like last year, except this time, we’ll get a little better results. We’ve had a bunch of good runs lately; we just haven’t been able to pull off a win. Racing in our hometown in front of family and friends is a great motivator, if we can get some good pit stops we should be able to contend for the win.”

Crew Chief Robbie Reiser on racing at Lowe’s:

“We’re taking the same car we ran early in the year a lot and it actually started off with a win and four top fives, three of which came at intermediate tracks like Charlotte. Hopefully, it will be as good on Saturday and we can stay up front and compete for a win.

“This team has worked extremely hard this season to improve on these cars and get them to the point where we can compete. We’ve gotten to that point the last few weeks, but we don’t have anything but a couple of torn-up racecars to show for it. But, we can’t focus on the past. We have to be prepared for Saturday night and I know we will be. This team has too much pride to let the last few weeks get them down, and I’m pretty sure we’ll bounce back strong on Saturday.”

Busch Series Crew Chief Drew Blickensderfer on racing at Lowe’s:

“We had a little break and are ready to get back racing after our off weekend. The time off gave us a chance to turn around our Kansas car and get it ready for Charlotte. This car ran really well at Kansas and almost pulled off the win. Hopefully we can get the No. 17 iLevel Ford Fusion back up front this weekend and get the win we missed out on in Kansas.”

Lowe’s Fast Facts

n Matt Kenseth has scored four career victories at Lowe’s Motor Speedway; 2000 Coca-Cola 600, 2004 All-Star Race, and two Busch Series wins.

n Kenseth’s No. 17 Ford will don a special paint scheme this weekend; the Carhartt for Women scheme will help kick off Carhartt’s first ever line of women’s apparel this fall.

n Kenseth Chase history at Lowe’s Motor Speedway:

					Points Position
	Start	Finish	Laps	Led	Entry	Exit
2006	11	14	332/334	1	2nd	2nd
2005	18	26	326/336	23	7th	9th
2004	36	11	334/334	0	5th	7th

n Kenseth has an average start of 21.6 during the Chase at LMS; ranking eighth among all Chase tracks.

n Kenseth’s average finish during the Chase at LMS is 17.0; ranking seventh among all Chase tracks.

n “Hard times, hard times, come again no more” — Kenseth and the No. 17 team are experiencing an uncanny string of bad luck in the past three weeks, suffering a mechanical failure at Dover while leading three weeks ago, then getting caught up in wrecks the past two weeks at Kansas and Talladega, resulting in finishes of 35th, 35th, and 26th respectively. The last time Kenseth finished three consecutive Cup races 26th or worse was September of 2001, Richmond, Dover, and Kansas.

Talladega race recap

No. 17 DEWALT FORD FUSION RECAP
‘BIG ONE’ CREATES BIG HEADACHES FOR KENSETH AT TALLADEGA

n Photos from Talladega

For the third week in a row, Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 DEWALT Ford team met an unfortunate demise, this time, by way of the “Big One” at the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway. Kenseth, and his Roush Fenway Racing teammates decided to lay back well behind the main pack for the first half of the race. As easy as that sounds, that part wasn’t without incident as Kenseth overcame a flat right-front tire, overheating, and a pit-road speeding penalty to stay on the lead lap and remain in the hunt. With about 60 laps to go, Kenseth began to make his move, charging from the 29th position all the way up to 11th. But on lap 146, while running in the top 10 for the first time all day, Kenseth was swept up in an 11-car melee in turn four that put him behind the wall for extensive repairs. Hard at work, the crew returned Kenseth to the track in time to pick up several positions, but in the end was relegated to a 26th-place finish.

Over 150,000 fans enjoyed a warm, sunny day in Central Alabama as surprise pole-sitter Michael Waltrip led the field to the green flag at 2:21 PM Eastern. Kenseth started 25th, but had his strategy worked out long before the green.

Anticipating the worst, Kenseth and the other Ford drivers from Roush Fenway Racing and Robert Yates Racing decided to drop well behind the main pack and just cruise around for the first half of the race. Having practiced that technique on Friday, the group felt confident they could keep pace with the main pack. They could, and therefore the plan was sprung into action when the green flag waved. Those seven Fords, along with several interlopers fell to the wayside and well behind the pack. As a result, Kenseth spent the first 98 laps riding around in 30th or worse.

Easy enough right? Ride around in the back and bide your time? Wrong. From the start, it seemed obvious that Talladega was going to be filled with landmines for Kenseth and the No. 17 team. The drama started on lap 17 when Kenseth reported his right-front tire going flat. Kenseth dove onto to pit road, under green, to take on right-side tires and exited pit road right in front of the pack; appearing to be in danger of going one lap down. But, a timely caution flag, just before that happened, kept Kenseth on the lead lap.

Fearing the problem was more than just an isolated incident, Kenseth came back to pit road and the crew worked on the front suspension in an attempt to remedy the issue. The precautionary measures taken, Kenseth restarted at the back of the pack and immediately radioed the crew that he had picked up a real bad vibration and may have to come back in.

Kenseth stayed out but on lap 33 reported the car’s water and oil temperature climbing to dangerous levels. Indeed, the grille of the No. 17 Ford had picked up some trash and caused the car to begin to overheat. Needing assistance immediately, Kenseth found the solution on the back of the No. 2 car. Driving the No. 17 Ford up to the back of No. 2 car, Kenseth shut off the cooling fans and got close enough the No. 2 car to take the air off of the nose. When that happened, the trash flew off and another catastrophe was adverted.

Not out of the woods yet, 15 laps later, still under green, Kenseth reported the right front wheel vibrating to the point he was going to have to pit. After communicating to some of his teammates the issue and the need to pit, they accommodated, so that he would keep his drafting partners, and Kenseth, along with that group, dove onto pit road on lap 56. But upon exiting pit road, NASCAR claimed Kenseth was speeding and subsequently had to serve a “pass-through” penalty under green. For the record, NASCAR clocked Kenseth going 60.02 miles per hour in the last segment on pit road, .02 over the limit. Having lost the draft on the pass-through penalty, Kenseth was again in danger of going one lap down, but a timely caution prevented that on lap 63.

Finally, things settled down for Kenseth and sticking with the strategy, he willingly ran in the back of the field until a caution on lap 113. Kenseth restarted in 29th and soon worked with the drivers around him, readying to make his charge. On lap 124, the game was afoot and Kenseth began his march into the fray and towards the front. On lap 131, Kenseth had cracked the top 20 for the first time on the day, and four laps later, he had maneuvered the No. 17 Ford into the 13th position.

When a lap-136 caution slowed the field, Kenseth had made his way up to the 11th position. After coming to pit road for two tires and gas, Kenseth returned to the track in the 13th position. Just before the restart Kenseth radioed the crew, “Well, I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a wreck, but I really don’t know what to do. I’m going to try to get in front of it.”

As the field barreled into turn four on lap 146, Kenseth had finally worked his way inside the top 10. But the No. 43 car, running in the third position, had a problem and suddenly turned left in front of the field. As the No. 43 car slid down the banking it clipped the No. 7 car in the right rear sending the No. 7 nose first up the racetrack, right in front of the oncoming traffic. Kenseth immediately got on the brakes, but at the high speeds (in exccess of 190 mph) and tight packs created by restrictor-plate racing, had no where to go and was one of 11 cars that was collected in the ensuing “Big One.”

Kenseth came to pit road with heavy right-front damage, but was forced behind the wall for extensive repairs. The No. 17 DEWALT crew worked hard and was able to get Kenseth back onto the speedway, only losing 17 laps Because of the crew’s hard work work, they were able to pick up four positions over the final 25 laps. Kenseth brought his wounded Ford home in the 26th position.

“We kind of made a plan to ride around in the back, but that’s not really what everybody pays to come and watch,” Kenseth said. “We rode around for about 350–400 miles and then sooner or later you’ve got to go race and try to get a partner up there and see how your car is going to handle. When we decided to go up there, we got up to the third or fourth row on the inside and then the leader wrecked. When the leader wrecks, there’s not a whole lot you can do to miss it.”

WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE RACING WITH THIS CAR? “It’s the same as every other plate race. You didn’t really get to see a race because even the leaders rode around for the first half because everybody was afraid of wrecking. I don’t know if you really saw a race. I think out of 188 laps, you probably saw 30 laps of racing. That racing was exciting. It’s three and four-wide with people hitting each other and all the crazy stuff you see in every plate race no matter what package we’ve had.”

RACE SUMMARY
Matt Kenseth • Started 25th • Finished 26th

POINTS SUMMARY
Race Total: 85 points
Season Total: 5372 points, Ranked 11th, 318 points behind first

NEXT UP:
Bank of America 500 • Lowe’s Motor Speedway • Concord, N.C. • Sunday, October 13

Talladega Cup Preview
October 1, 2007

Talladega Superspeedway • Talladega, Ala.
UAW-Ford 500 • Sun., Oct. 7 • 1:00 pm/e ABC

Nextel Cup Chassis — #17 DeWALT Ford Fusion
• Primary — COT RK-518 (Brand new, tested in Sept. at Talladega)
• Backup — COT RK-524 (Brand new, tested in Sept. at Talladega)

 
Matt’s Cup Series summary at Talladega:

Date	S	F	Laps	Led	Reason
04/29/07	17	14	192/192	3	Running
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	8	0	0	2	0	66
Fall	7	0	3	4	0	65
Cumulative	15	0	3	6	0	131

   
Matt Kenseth on racing at Talladega:

“I don’t really know what to expect this weekend. I’ve heard several drivers say several different things. Some people think it will all be a single-file line because the cars, when you do get out of line, fall to the back extremely fast. With the old cars you could kind of hold your own a little bit and hang in there, whereas these cars do drop back really fast if you don’t have anybody with you and you get out of line. From what I saw in the draft and all the stuff that we did, the cars are very stable, they suck up really fast.

“I think it’s going to be a crazy race. I think you’re going to be three-wide most of the time and I would be surprised if nobody runs into anybody else because it’s a little more difficult to see out of the COT cars than the other cars and they suck up a little faster in the draft. Plus, they’re really easy to drive, so when all that stuff happens it usually makes everybody pretty brave and maybe do some moves or put their cars in places they maybe wouldn’t put the other cars if they didn’t drive as good.”

Crew Chief Robbie Reiser on racing at Talladega:

“Everything’s going to be new this weekend. The COT car is a virgin at Talladega Superspeedway, so it’s definitely going to be eventful, I think. Just watching the cars draft during the test was interesting and that was with a small draft of only 10 to 15 cars. I think when it comes race time; it will be interesting to watch how all of that plays out. We have to figure out how the car handles and how to cool the car and how to do all of the different things that we normally do to our other cars that we already had figured out. That’ll make it interesting to us. The racing should be interesting by itself.

“So far the Chase hasn’t gone the way we’ve wanted to, but on the other hand, we’ve had cars capable of running in the top five in all three races. That part of it’s good. The luck part of it will hopefully change. Looking back on it, we’ve had two bad races and it really doesn’t have us out of it yet. We can rebound, but we have to do it right now.”

Talladega Fast Facts

n Since the beginning of 2005, Matt Kenseth has an average running position of 9.4 at Talladega, tops among all Cup drivers.

n Kenseth’s average finish during the Chase at Talladega is 7.0 ranking second only to Loudon, N.H., among tracks during the Chase.

n Kenseth ranks fourth in laps completed (2,664) at Talladega since the beginning of 2000; Kenseth’s rookie season in NEXTEL Cup.

n Kenseth Chase history at Talladega:

					Points Position
	Start	Finish	Laps	Led	Entry	Exit
2006	19	4	188/188	0	4th	2nd
2005	11	3	190/190	23	8th	7th
2004	7	14	188/188	0	7th	5th

n Kenseth has an average start of 12.3 during the Chase at Talladega; raking third among all Chase tracks.

n Kenseth’s Driver Rating of 99.6 at Talladega is third best among all Cup drivers since 2005.

n Bad time for bad luck: Despite having competitive cars, Kenseth has ran into some terrible luck the past two weeks, subsequently netting finishes of 35th both at Dover and Kansas. The last time Kenseth finished 35th or worse in two consecutive races was in the fall of 2004 at Atlanta (41st) and Phoenix (36th).