KENSETH TO MAKE 300TH START AT PHOENIX
Cup Series Champion to Reach Racing Milestone in Subway Fresh Fit 500

Matt Kenseth, 2003 NASCAR Cup Series Champion and driver of Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 17 Ford Fusion, will make his 300th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start this weekend, under the lights, at Phoenix International Speedway. Sporting the black DEWALT NANO Technology paint scheme, Kenseth will reach the impressive milestone this Saturday evening in the Subway Fresh Fit 500.

“It’s hard to believe I’ll be making my 300th start,” said Kenseth. “It doesn’t seem that long ago when I was racing for the Reiser family in the Busch Series, with no sponsor, just hoping I could have the opportunity to race in this series some day. I’ve been very fortunate throughout my career. It’s pretty cool to have lasted this long in such a competitive series, but I could not have done it without the support of a lot of great people and a great sponsor like DEWALT.”

Since his 1998 Cup Series debut, Kenseth has accumulated three poles, 16 wins, 80 top-five and 146 top-10 finishes. The Cambridge, Wis., native has logged 113,328.6 miles on NASCAR tracks and led a total of 4,973 laps.

Texas Sprint Cup recap
April 7, 2008

No. 17 DeWALT FORD FUSION RECAP:
KENSETH SCORES TOP-10 FINISH IN SAMSUNG 500

Race Summary Start: 8th Mid-race: 1st 34 to go: 7th Finish: 9th High: 1st Low: 27th Laps in top 15: 1 Laps: 335/339 Led: 68 Status: Running Points: 143/5 Earnings: $173,891 Points Summary Race Total: 143 Season Total: 820 Ranked: 13th, 245 behind first

Photos from Texas

After last week’s disappointing race at Martinsville, Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 DEWALT Ford Fusion team headed into Texas Motor Speedway this weekend looking for a little redemption. Since Kenseth typically runs well at the 1.5-mile Texas track, posting four top fives in his last five starts, the No. 17 team was hoping for another solid run. Over the course of the extended 339-lap event, Kenseth and crew spent 334 of 339 laps in the top 15, posted 28 of the race’s fastest laps and led 68 laps. Despite the impressive stats, handling problems and a late-race gamble that didn’t pay off left Kenseth with a solid, but disappointing, ninth-place finish in the Samsung 500.

Kenseth and the No. 17 DEWALT team enjoyed their best starting position of the season with a qualifying effort of eighth. Though Kenseth reported that his Roush Fenway Racing machine was experiencing “loose” handling conditions, he gained and then maintained sixth place throughout the first portion of the race.

Crew chief Chip Bolin and crew made numerous adjustments to the DEWALT Fusion throughout the day. In spite of their efforts, Kenseth still reported that the No. 17 was handling “tight in the center, loose off.” Though he was not satisfied with the handling of his Ford, Kenseth’s on-track performance did not suffer as he continued to maintain sixth position and turn laps comparable to the race leaders’.

By the caution on lap 108, Kenseth had worked his way up to third place when he entered the pits for four tires, fuel, and an air pressure adjustment. With the express servicing of The Killer Bees, Kenseth exited the pits as the race leader. He would maintain the top running position throughout two more pit stops under caution and a total of 68 laps.

On the lap 180 restart, Kenseth relinquished the lead and by lap 189 had fallen back to fifth place. Though Kenseth reported that the DEWALT Ford was handling “better,” long green flag runs separated the field and he started loosing ground on the leader. A much-needed caution fell on lap 294 and Kenseth was scored in sixth place. Bolin called Kenseth to pit road for a final time for four tires. Kenseth restarted the race with 35 laps to go in seventh place.

By the race’s final caution on lap 329, Kenseth had worked his way back up to fifth position and pit strategy would become key at this point. With just 10 cars on lead lap, a pit stop would be a gamble — come in and risk losing track position or stay out and risk being passed by cars with fresher tires. Bolin directed Kenseth to stay out and on the restart Kenseth fell victim to the competitors with fresher tires. In the final green-white-checker finish, Kenseth was passed by the sixth place car of Clint Bowyer. Bowyer lost control of his car and in attempt to avoid a larger accident, Kenseth was passed by several competitors at the line. He ultimately finished the race in ninth place, a solid, but disappointing finish.

“Tires would have helped a lot at the end,” said Kenseth. “When you’re the first one on old tires and everybody’s got new tires behind you, they’re going to eat your lunch. It was a 50-50 call and we were right in the middle, and we tried it and it didn’t work.”

Before an estimated crowd of 190,000, Carl Edwards won the Samsung 500 — his third of 2008. Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin followed to complete the top five.

The ninth-place finish in Texas boosted Kenseth and the No. 17 DEWALT team from 15th to 13th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings. Kenseth is currently 245 points behind point leader Jeff Burton.

NEXT UP:
Subway Fresh Fit 500 • Phoenix Int’l Raceway • Saturday, April 13 • DeWALT Nano car

Texas Motor Speedway • Fort Worth, Texas
Samsung 500 • Sunday, April 6 • 1:30 pm/e Fox

Sprint Cup Chassis — #17 DeWALT Ford Fusion
• Primary — RK-550 (Raced Fontana in February of this year; started fourth and finished fifth)

  
Matt Kenseth’s Cup performance summary at Texas:

Date	S	F	Laps	Led	Reason
11/04/07	18	2	334/334	44	Running
04/15/07	4	2	334/334	16	Running
11/05/06	35	12	339/339	1	Running
04/09/06	6	2	334/334	14	Running
11/06/05	3	3	334/334	149	Running
04/17/05	39	18	334/334	1	Running
04/04/04	25	16	334/334	0	Running
03/30/03	17	6	334/334	65	Running
04/08/02	31	1	334/334	84	Running
04/01/01	27	20	332/334	0	Running
04/02/00	13	31	288/334	0	Accident

  
Matt Kenseth Cup totals at Texas:

	Races	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Laps Led	Poles
Cumulative	11	1	5	6	374	0

 
Matt Kenseth on racing at Texas Motor Speedway:

“I always look forward to racing at Texas, especially after Martinsville and the troubles we had there. Texas is nothing like Martinsville. It’s fast, there are several grooves, and the racing is a lot of fun. So, to say the least, I’m ready to race there.

“Texas is fast and since the pavement has aged a little bit, there are multiple grooves. You can move around a lot more, especially with the new cars. It’s more challenging and a lot of fun for the driver. I’m sure the racing will be somewhat different with the new cars. We’re bringing the car that I finished fifth with at Fontana earlier this year. I really like that car and have been happy with its performance so far. So, I’m expecting to unload and be competitive from the start. That makes it fun to come to the race track when you have that and hopefully we’ll have that this weekend.”

Sprint Cup Crew Chief Chip Bolin on racing at Texas:

“We’re bringing RK-550 to Texas this weekend. The car we raced at Fontana and finished fifth with there. The car is seemingly really easy to work with and really responds to Matt’s driving style. Texas is always a place I look forward to going. We typically have pretty good results on the track, but we generally eat very well there too. The bar-be-que, steak, and fried chicken are second to none.”

Texas Fast Facts

n Matt Kenseth will make his 12th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) this weekend in the Samsung 500.

n In 11 starts, Kenseth has posted one win, five top-five, and six top-10 finishes. His average start at the 1.5-mile oval is 19.9, and his average finish is 10.3.

n Kenseth has completed 3629 of 3679 (98.6%) laps attempted at TMS. He has led a total of 374 laps there.

n Since the beginning of 2005, Kenseth has a Driver Rating of 103.2, an Average Running Position of 10.4, 92 Fastest Laps Run, and has spent 72.5% of the laps in the top 15. All those figures rank in the top five during that span.

n Runner Up… In Kenseth’s last five finishes at TMS, he has finished outside of the top three only once and has posted three second-place finishes.

n After last week’s 30th-place finish at Martinsville Speedway, Kenseth and the No. 17 team fell from 11th to 15th in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings. Kenseth is currently 238 points behind the leader, Jeff Burton.

n This weekend, as part of DeWALT’s end-user logo program, the Bechtel logo will ride along on Kenseth’s No. 17 at Texas Motor Speedway. Bechtel is a global engineering, construction, and project management company with more than a century of experience on complex projects in challenging locations. They are privately owned with 40 offices around the world and have 40,000 employees. Bechtel was selected to have their logo represented on the No. 17 DEWALT Ford due to their loyal business to DeWALT’s power tool and accessory products.