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Ford
Friday Interview: Texas
October 31, 2008
Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion,
addressed the media at Atlanta Texas Motor Speedway on Friday.
DO YOU THINK THIS CHASE IS COMPELLING? WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
“It depends what you’re after and depends what your expectation
are and exactly what you’re after. Me being a competitor and a fan
for that matter, I want to see the driver-team, the whole
combination that’s done the best job, win the championship. That’s
what I want to see. I don’t want to see somebody win the
championship under an artificial system or something like one race.
I think that over the last five or six years the 48 has been the
best team and I think no matter what system you throw at them
lately, they’re gonna figure out how to win it. I think the best
team should win it.”
SO FIGURE OUT HOW TO ELIMINATE THE 48 FROM COMPETITION?
“I’ve seen Super Bowls that were blowouts by 40 points and I’ve
seen Super Bowls like last year that went down right to the end and
was a real close game. That’s just part of professional sports.
Sometimes there are gonna be teams or a guy that gets on a roll and
is gonna pull away. It gets that way in anything. Even if you have a
seven-game series, some teams win it in the first four and the
series is over. That’s just kind of the way it is.”
IS IT MORE KNEE-JERK REACTION FROM THE MEDIA THAT THINGS NEED
TO CHANGE WHEN IT REALLY DOESN’T?
“I think everybody wishes there could be a three-wide finish,
almost a tie for the win every week, but it’s just not realistic.
Like I said, sometimes you’re gonna have games or series or what
we’ve got going on here, where somebody is gonna pull away and other
times it’s gonna be right down to the wire and you just don’t know.”
DO YOU SEE ANYWAY JIMMIE CAN’T WIN THIS?
“If he shows up every week, I think he’ll win it. I think it
would be pretty tough not to, but anything can happen. He could fall
out the first lap Sunday and you could have a race again, so you
don’t really know until it’s over. Nobody has ever come from that
far behind before, but there’s always a first time, so you don’t
ever know until it’s over, but he certainly is in a good spot.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE MANUFACTURER’S RACE? DOES IT
MATTER?
“It matters when you look at at the end of the year. I think for
whatever manufacturer you’re driving for, but, yet, there’s not a
lot you can do about it when you’re out trying to finish the best
you can every week. You’d like to see them end up with the
manufacturers title, but there’s really not a lot you can do outside
of race as hard as you can.”
HOW WAS PRACTICE?
“It was fine. It was OK. I think it was productive as far as we
found some things that I didn’t like and lap times reflected what I
didn’t like. We found a couple things that I liked better to kind of
find a direction to work in tomorrow, a direction that we probably
don’t want to work in and one that we do want to work in, so it was
productive if we look at that. Our speeds for qualifying, I don’t
know, we were kind of middle of the road, so if we can get that a
little better.”
ARE YOU HAPPY TO QUALIFY THIS WEEK?
“If you look over my numbers, if we can line up in the top 10
and not qualify, that’s not a bad thing for us if you look at how we
are historically, but, yeah, it’s kind of weird on a Friday, it’s
not raining and I’m not laying on the couch in the motorhome, so
it’s kind of fun to get some practice in and go qualify.”
WILL KYLE BUSCH’S SEASON BE JUST A FOOTNOTE BECAUSE OF HOW HIS
CHASE HAS GONE?
“Well, I think it depends on how he finishes the year, kind of,
but, yeah, I would think if you asked him even though he’s probably
had one of the best years overall in history, not winning the title,
I’m sure, will be a big disappointment for him with all the wins he
had early in the year and how strong they looked. It looked like
they were gonna be impossible to beat, but it’s a really
what-have-you-done-for-me-lately type sport. He won all those races
and everybody was talking about him all year and now all of a sudden
you haven’t heard much about him the last few weeks. That’s just how
quickly it changes.”
WHO DID YOU THING WAS THE TOUGHEST COMPETITION GOING INTO THE
CHASE?
“If you looked through probably every interview I’ve done for
the last three years and asked me about championships, I’ve said the
48 has been the car to beat. I didn’t think it was gonna be any
different this year, to be honest with you. I’m not necessarily
saying I thought they were gonna win it for sure, but I thought if
you were gonna win it, or anybody else was gonna win it, they were
gonna have to go through them. Gosh, look at what they’ve done since
they got that team together. Look at what they did last year. Look
at how good Jeff did and Jeff still didn’t win it. To have an
average finish of like fifth, that’s just crazy. I think that would
have won it any other year, ever, and still lost it. For some
reason, they’re just able to rise to the occasion and do better than
everybody no matter how good everybody else does. It’s pretty
amazing.”
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT INTANGIBLE IS?
“It’s never one thing. A team is never above one person, two
people, one thing — it’s about the whole team. Ever since Rick put
that deal together with Jimmie and Chad, it’s just been kind of
magic. It was kind of like when he put that deal together with Jeff
and Ray Evernham and they just really couldn’t be beat. They were
beat once in a while, but they did amazing things. They won those
championships and all those races and, really, this reminds me a lot
of that. As soon as they put those two guys together with that group
they were dominant.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED TO KYLE AND THAT TEAM IN THE CHASE?
“I don’t have any idea. I’ve had so many problems to worry about
myself that I don’t have any idea even where he’s ever finished,
unless I’m racing right beside him I haven’t any idea.”
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE KYLE’S SEASON?
“Like I said, I really haven’t paid attention to know what his
problems were or what his strongsuits were. We’ve had enough going
on with our own deal. I’ll glance at the points after the race, but
I don’t really watch everyone of the top 12 guys and see what
happened in that race or where they finished or how they did or what
happened to them, so I don’t really know.”
WHAT ABOUT HIS REGULAR SEASON IN ONE WORD?
“Dominant. He won the most races and probably led the most laps
and he won pretty much everything he climbed in.”
WHO IS THE NICEST DRIVER BESIDES YOURSELF?
“Probably Mark Martin is the nicest guy in the garage. He’s just
friendly and approachable and honest. He’s been really happy,
especially the last 8-10 years, so he’s just a fun guy to be around.
He’s easy to talk to and I’ve never seen him really give anybody the
cold shoulder and not give somebody advice if they wanted it or not
help somebody or any of that. He’s just always been like that.”
HOW TOUGH IS IT TO BE A PERSONALITY IN THIS SPORT?
“I think everybody is in a different situation. I think if
you’re fortunate to be in Cup for awhile and you’ve got your
sponsors happy and your car owner happy, you can’t really be someone
you’re not to start with, but I think you learn very quickly to just
be yourself. Obviously, there are certain things you have to do or
places you’ve got to go that maybe aren’t you or that you’re not the
most comfortable doing — or comfortable in front of the camera, that
kind of stuff that you have learn to do — but I think, in general,
just be yourself.”
IS IT FAIR TO COMPARE YOU AND JIMMIE — MORE RESERVED
PERSONALITIES?
“I don’t know exactly how to answer that. I don’t know if I’m
really that much of a reserved person. At the track, it’s business
first and it’s racing first. I might not be the guy clowning around
or searching for the camera or doing some of this stuff. It’s
obvious some people just love a camera and think of ways to get on
TV and to do things and whatever, and I’m not that guy but I think I
am myself. I love racing and I love the competition and all that
stuff and that’s really what I concentrate on, and then I do the
rest of the stuff that I need to do, but, for me, it’s just always
racing first and nonsense stuff second.”
ARE THERE THINGS YOU DID IN YOUR TITLE RUN THAT THE 48 IS
DOING?
“It’s really hard to compare every year and what’s going on.
They’ve been the dominant team since they put that team together.
They didn’t win it every year, but they’re going on three straight
and they’ve been the guys to beat. Even the year we won it, they
were pretty dominant and I think it was just a little bit earlier in
Jimmie’s deal and maybe they had a couple of mistakes, I don’t
really remember. But they’ve been able to learn by all that and they
just never really slip up. It just seems like everything they do
works out.”
HAS THIS BEEN A SUCCESSFUL SEASON FOR YOU?
“Yes and no. I think with some of the changes with this car and
changing our group around a little bit, I think it’s been a fairly
successful season. We made the chase, which, in turn, give you a
chance to at least run for a championship, so there’s that aspect of
it. But there’s still three weeks left and we haven’t been to
Victory Lane yet, so that’s very disappointing. We’re out of the
championship hunt, which is very disappointing. We’d like to be a
little more consistent. I don’t really write down goals because our
goal is to try to win a championship and try to be the best and try
to win races. We go to the track every week to try to win, so it’s
really a pretty simple goal. We don’t have to write it down.”
THOUGHTS ON HOMESTEAD COMING UP.
“The track is pretty cool. We actually just worked on our
Homestead stuff the other day and we’re trying to compare it to
somewhere and you really can’t. It’s really unique with the way it’s
built right now and the way the banking is and the elevation changes
and all that stuff, so it’s pretty cool. They did a great job and
spent the money and did the research and they weren’t scared to go
out on a limb and build it like no other track. I think the racing
is really exciting there. There are a lot of different lanes you can
look for. It’s a lot of fun. I think the racing there is as good as
anywhere now.”
— Ford Racing
Texas Sprint Cup Preview
October 29, 2008
Texas
Motor Speedway • Fort
Worth, Texas
Dickies 500 •
Sunday, November 2 • 3 pm/e ABC
Sprint Cup Chassis — #17
DeWALT Ford Fusion
• RK-612 — Brand new car.
Matt Kenseth’s Cup performance summary at
Texas:
| Date | S | F | Laps | Led | Reason |
| 04/06/08 |
8 |
9 |
339/339 |
68 |
Running |
| 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 | |
12 |
1 |
5 |
7 |
442 |
0 |
Matt Kenseth on racing at
Texas:
“I’m really looking forward to racing at Texas. We had a
really good car last week at Atlanta and were able to run up
front most of the day and anytime you can lead laps and be
competitive like that it’s a good day. Texas is fast and since
the pavement has aged a little bit there are several grooves and
you can move around a lot more. It’s a challenging track for the
driver and just a lot of fun to race.
“Since we’re pretty much mathematically out of contention for
the championship, we’re just going out every week and trying to
get the best finishes we can. We get to do what we love for a
living. We get to go try to win a race. There are 30 guys out
there we race against every week that didn’t get to make it, so
I think it’s great we made it. I wish things would have gone
better up to this point in the Chase to where we were a
contender, but, overall, it’s been a pretty good year. There are
certain things that happened this season that were out of our
control and things that happened that we could control — we try
to look at the controllable things and try to fix those and try
to do better the next time and just keep trying to improve. So,
the overall goal is to do better each week — this week in Texas
will be no different.”
Sprint Cup Crew Chief Chip Bolin on racing at
Texas:
“For the second
week in a row we have a brand new car. RK-612 is the piece we’re
taking this week. The car was built very similar to our Atlanta
car, so I’m hoping our results will be just as good, if not
better.
“I can’t say enough about how pleased I’m with how our team
performed last week. The guys in the pits did an awesome job all
day and Matt was Matt and good as usual. Even though we didn’t
get the win we were hoping for, we made a ton of progress and
performed like the team I know we are. I’m hoping this weekend,
everything will fall in place like it should and we get the win
we deserve.”
Texas
Fast Facts
 Matt Kenseth will make his 13th NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series start at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) this weekend in the
Dickies 500.
For the record… In 12 starts, Kenseth has posted one win,
five top-five and seven top-10 finishes.
Kenseth has completed 3968 of 4018 (98.8%) laps attempted at
TMS — he has led a total of 442 laps there.
In the LOOP… According to NASCAR’s Loop Data acquired
over the past three Dickies 500s, Kenseth has a driver rating of
104.9, third best among active drivers. He ranks best in average
finish (6.9) and points scored (1089) among all drivers.
Rewind ATLANTA... Kenseth posted fast times during both
of Saturday’s practice sessions, it looked as though team 17 was
well on their way to a strong run — and they were. From the drop
of the green flag in Sunday’s 325-lap event, Kenseth’s Ford was
among the fastest on the track. Though the Killer Bees were
awesome in the pits, logging pit stops of less than 13 seconds
all day and Kenseth led a race-high 128 laps, three late-race
cautions, lapped traffic and unclean air were hurdles that team
17 weren’t able to cross and Kenseth finished the race in fourth
place.
The Chase is on… After the solid fourth-place run at
Atlanta, Kenseth is currently ranked ninth in the Chase
standings — up one spot from last week. Kenseth trails the point
leader, Jimmie Johnson by 413 points with just three races
remaining in the 2008 Sprint Cup Series season.
On the track… The No. 17 DEWALT team will be unloading
RK-612 this weekend at Texas. This is a brand new Ford Fusion.
Atlanta Sprint Cup recap
October 26, 2008
No. 17
USG/DeWALT FORD FUSION RECAP:
KENSETH AND No. 17 USG TEAM HAVE SOLID
FOURTH-PLACE RUN AT ATLANTA
Kenseth moves up to ninth in Chase standings
|
Race Summary
Start: 10th (points)
33 to go: 2nd
Finish: 4th
High: 1st
Low: 22nd
Fastest Laps: 44
Laps in top 15: 324
Led: 128
Laps: 325/325
Status: Running
Points: 170*10
Earnings: $198,316
Points Summary
Races: 33 of 36
Points:
5835
Ranked: 9th
-413 from leader |
P rior
to Sunday’s Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, No. 17
USG/DEWALT Ford Fusion driver Matt Kenseth was optimistic and
looking forward to racing at the 1.54-mile Georgia track. “I feel
like we’ve got a team that’s capable of winning,” Kenseth stated,
“we just have to figure out how to put it all together. I feel good
about the race this weekend. Our mile and half stuff has been really
strong all year and I’m looking forward to a good race for the USG
team.”
After Kenseth posted fast times during both of Saturday’s
practice sessions, it looked as though team 17 was well on their way
to a strong run — and they were. From the drop of the green flag in
Sunday’s 325-lap event, Kenseth’s Ford was among the fastest on the
track. Though the Killer Bees were awesome in the pits — logging pit
stops of less than 13 seconds all day — and Kenseth led a race-high
128 laps, Kenseth would finish the race in fourth place after
contending with late-race cautions, lapped traffic, and unclean air.
It was a picture perfect day for racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway
when the green flag waved just after 2 p.m. Weather conditions were
quite the opposite on Friday when rain washed out qualifying for the
10th time this season and the set the starting grid per the NASCAR
rule book. Points leader Jimmie Johnson led the field to the green
flag and took off to a quick start, leading the first three laps.
Kenseth rolled off 10th, but fell back to 11th place by the first
caution flag on lap three.
The race restarted on lap six with Kenseth still in 11th
position. By lap 24, Kenseth had gotten a feel for the No. 17 and
reported to crew chief Chip Bolin that his USG Ford Fusion was
“loose in and lacking rear grip.” Kenseth maintained his Roush
Fenway Racing machine for 10 more laps, then caution again fell
permitting him to make his way down pit road for the first time of
the day. In ninth place, Kenseth wheeled the No. 17 into his pit
stall where he received four tires with air pressure adjustments,
fuel, and a track bar adjustment. After the 12.5-second servicing,
Kenseth restarted the race in fifth place when green flag racing
resumed on lap 39.
Over the ensuing 75 laps, which included a green-flag pit stop,
Kenseth worked his way up to second place. A caution on lap 109 set
the stage for Kenseth and the Killer Bees to shine. On lap 110
Kenseth entered pit road in second place. After the Killer Bees
bolted on four tires and filled the No. 17 with fuel, Kenseth rolled
off as the race leader. For just over 100 laps and through three pit
cycles, Kenseth maintained the lead and conveyed his satisfaction to
his team.
But after a routine pit stop on lap 253, Kenseth’s good fortune
began to dwindle. Beaten off pit road by the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin,
Kenseth restarted on lap 257 in second place. He reported being
tight in traffic and thus struggled to pass Hamlin. Kenseth held on
to second place when a caution on lap 288 set up his final pit stop
of the day. Despite a blistering fast 12.6-second pit stop, Kenseth
was unable to pass Hamlin on pit road. He restarted the race second.
The race would be stalled due to cautions on three more occasions
and Kenseth would remain on the track through each yellow-flag
period. With each restart Kenseth did his best to make up ground,
however lapped traffic would hinder his climb to the front and he
fell back to third place on the lap 302 restart. Despite his best
efforts, Kenseth would be unable to make up any ground and
ultimately finished the race in fourth place.
“We were good all day, it’s just that in this day and age of
racing with these cars and stuff we’ve got going on, you can take a
pretty good car and put it in the front and think you’ve got the
best car in the world, and then you put it in second and you’ve got
a pretty average top-five or top-10 car,” Kenseth said following the
race. “It’s just really frustrating. We had a good car. I had good
stops. Denny beat us out of the pits and once he did that, we just
couldn’t get back by him. We were just so much slower behind another
car and then I got beat on that restart by Carl. He laid back a
little bit and got an excellent restart and got by me and then we
were pretty much done. There are certain things that happen that are
out of your control and things that happen that are in your control
you try to look at and try to fix and try to do better the next time
and just keep trying to improve.”
Johnson raced his way back into contention after a pit road
speeding penalty put him a lap down. With just 16 laps to go after
the final caution, Johnson’s pit crew gambled by stopping for new
tires, dropping back to 10th position for the restart. Johnson
wheeled his way passed everyone but Carl Edwards in the final 16
laps on his way to a runner-up finish. Hamlin finished third,
followed by Kenseth. Kyle Busch was fifth and Kurt Busch sixth.
Roush Fenway Racing drivers Jamie McMurray and David Ragan were
seventh and eighth respectively. Jeff Gordon finished ninth and
another Roush Fenway Racing teammate, Greg Biffle, completed the top
10.
After the solid fourth-place run at Atlanta, Kenseth is currently
ranked ninth in the Chase standings, up one spot from last week.
Kenseth trails the points leader, Jimmie Johnson, by 413 points with
just three races remaining in the 2008 Sprint Cup Series season.
NEXT UP:
Dickies 500
•
Texas
Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, Texas •
Sunday, November 2
Ford
Friday Interview: Atlanta
October 24, 2008
Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion,
addressed the media at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday.
IS IT HARD TO COME OUT HERE EVERY WEEK NOW THAT YOU’RE SO FAR
BEHIND FOR THE TITLE?
“It doesn’t really stink. Do you think it stinks for 42 people
right now? Not really. This is awesome. We get to do what we love
for a living. We get to go try to make a race. It’s a lot better to
be in the chase than to be out of it. There are 30 guys out there we
race against every week that didn’t get to make it, so I think it’s
great we made it. I wish things would have gone better up to this
point in the chase to where we were a contender, but, overall, it’s
been a pretty good year.”
YOU DON’T GET DOWN AT ALL AND THINK, ‘IF ONLY?’
“Not really. There are certain things that happen that are out
of your control and things that happen that are in your control you
try to look at and try to fix and try to do better the next time and
just keep trying to improve.”
WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO BEAT THE 48?
“I’m not gonna beat him. I think where Jimmie’s at right now, if
they don’t make a mistake, I think it’s theirs to lose. I don’t
think anybody can win it on pure performance right now. They’ve run
way too good. I don’t think anybody’s gonna beat them by 10 or 15
spots a week, or whatever it would take to beat them, so I just
don’t think that’s gonna happen. So unless they have a mechanical
failure or a wreck or a flat tire or something, they’re probably in
pretty good shape.”
ARE YOU IN A TESTING MODE FOR ’09 NOW?
“Yes and no. We’re always trying to improve and trying to get
our cars better. We’re always trying stuff, but we’re not gonna try
stuff that’s gonna have a chance at dropping us out of races and
taking us out of contention to win a race or losing more points.
We’re not trying stuff like that. We still want to finish as high as
we possibly can in the points. We certainly want to get back to
Victory Lane real bad and we’re out there just trying to bring our
best stuff and do the best we can.”
DO YOU FEEL WITH THE TRACKS LEFT THAT YOU CAN GET A WIN OR
TWO?
“I hope so, but just about every week we go to the track I feel
like we’ve got a team that’s capable of winning, we just have to
figure out how to put it all together. I feel good about them all.
Phoenix is probably our weakest link. For some reason we’ve been
struggling at the flatter tracks like that — at least we have or I
have at the 17 — so, I don’t know. Hopefully, our stuff will run
good at all of them.”
HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT TO SEE THE GOOD LUCK JIMMIE HAS HAD?
“I wouldn’t say it’s all luck. A lot of times you create your
own luck by how you’re running and how your performance is and not
making mistakes and that sort of thing. Talladega, there wasn’t much
we could do about that. We were running second, I think, when we got
wrecked or something like that, but then there have been other races
like New Hampshire. We got caught up in a wreck, but we were running
15th or 17th or something like that. If we would have been running
up front where we should be running, we wouldn’t have got in that
wreck. It starts with performance and they have great performance on
the race track and off the race track and when you have that, your
chances of not having bad luck and getting caught up in the wreck
are much better.”
WITH THE NFL AND WORLD SERIES ON SUNDAY WHY SHOULD PEOPLE
WATCH THE RACE?
“Well, I’m gonna be in it so I’ve got to watch it (laughing). I
think all of the races are exciting. I think, obviously, Jimmie’s
got a pretty good stranglehold on it if he doesn’t have problems,
but I think this is one of the best tracks that we go to as far as
action. Through the last 10 years or so there have been a lot of
last-lap passes and a lot of real close, exciting finishes, so in my
book anyway — and everybody likes something different — but I think
this is one of the best races that we have all year.”
DO YOU FEEL PEOPLE NOTICE WHAT JIMMIE COULD DO THIS YEAR BY
MAKING HISTORY WITH THREE TITLES IN A ROW?
“I think people really notice it. I think maybe being part of
the sport you’re thinking that they don’t notice it as much. Maybe
if you were part of football, maybe you wouldn’t think they were
noticing the football as much. I don’t know. I think they pay pretty
close attention to what Jimmie and that group has done and it’s been
amazing, really, since they put it together.”
ARE YOU GETTING GOOD AT WAITING OUT THE RAIN?
“I’m fine with not qualifying every week. We’re not very good at
it usually, although our qualifying has been much better this year.
If we could take 10th and not qualify here, that would probably be
good for us. This has been probably one of my worst tracks for
qualifying and one of my better tracks for racing, so if we could
start toward the front, that would be alright with me.”
— Ford Racing
Atlanta Sprint Cup Preview
October 22, 2008
Atlanta
Motor Speedway •
Hampton,
Ga.
Pep Boys Auto 500 •
Sunday, October 26 • 1 pm/e ABC
Sprint Cup Chassis — #17
USG/DeWALT Ford Fusion
• RK-616 — Brand new car.
Matt Kenseth’s Cup performance summary at
Atlanta:
| Date | S | F | Laps | Led | Reason |
|
03/10/08 |
38 |
8 |
325/325 |
0 |
Running |
|
10/28/07 |
17 |
4 |
329/329 |
0 |
Running |
|
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 totals at Atlanta:
| Races | Wins | Top 5s | Top 10s | Laps Led | Poles | |
17 |
0 |
6 |
10 |
60 |
0 |
Matt Kenseth on racing at
Atlanta:
“We’re heading to Atlanta; a track that I feel like should be
a really good place for us and our organization as a whole.
Atlanta is a higher banked track and for whatever reason, we’ve
all been successful at the mile-and-a-halves with
higher-banking. We were able to test these cars at Atlanta last
year and raced there earlier this year — we have much more
experience with these cars and I feel like we have a lot of good
information and should be fairly competitive this weekend.
“We had a decent run last week at Martinsville and were able
to get a top-10 finish. And for me there, that’s a huge
accomplishment. It seems that this year we’re either really good
or really bad, we either have awesome luck or we crash. I’m
hoping this weekend we’ll be really good and have awesome luck.
But either way, we’re going to race as hard as we can and
hopefully come home with a top-10 finish.”
Sprint Cup Crew Chief Chip Bolin on racing at
Atlanta: “Since
we raced Atlanta in March, we’ve learned a lot about these cars.
Unlike the old cars, we can’t change anything on the body, so
aerodynamically we’re stuck with what we have. But, certainly,
the areas that we are allowed to work on, we’re trying to
fine-tune to make better, and I think we’re improving. So, this
weekend we’re bringing a brand new car that we built applying a
lot of the information we’ve gained over this last year.
Hopefully, we’re a lot smarter now than we were a year ago and
we’ll have a car that is capable of winning.”
Atlanta Fast Facts
Matt Kenseth will make his 18th NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series start at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend in the Pep
Boys Auto 500.
For the record… In his previous starts at AMS, Kenseth
has achieved six top-five and 10 top-10 finishes. He has led a
total of 60 laps at the 1.5-mile track and completed 5109 of
5452 (93.7%) of laps attempted at Atlanta.
Rewind… After tight handling conditions caused Kenseth to
wreck on lap 114, it looked as though Kenseth’s trip to
Martinsville would again be a disappointment. But, in true Team
17 fashion, through persistence and determination, Kenseth and
company clawed their way back from 39th position one lap down to
capture a solid eighth-place finish, thus improving their Chase
standings to 10th place.
On the track… The No. 17 USG team will be unload chassis
RK-616, a brand new Ford Fusion this weekend at Atlanta.
The CHASE is on… Six races in the Chase for the Sprint
Cup are complete and Kenseth is currently ranked 10th in the
NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings, -408 markers behind point
leader Jimmie Johnson.
Martinsville Sprint Cup recap
October 19, 2008
No. 17
R+L Carriers FORD FUSION RECAP:
PERSEVERANCE AND PATIENCE KEY TO STRONG FINISH FOR
KENSETH AND TEAM AT MARTINSVILLE
Eighth-place finish improves Kenseth’s Chase standing to 10th
|
Race Summary
Start: 11th (points)
50 to go: 12th
Finish: 8th
High: 1st
Low: 39th
Fastest Laps: 2
Laps in top 15: 208
Led: 8
Laps: 504/504
Status: Running
Points: 147*5
Earnings: $123,416
Points Summary
Races: 32 of 36
Points:
5665
Ranked: 10th
-408 from leader |
M att
Kenseth has never tried to hide the fact that he’s not particularly
fond of racing at Martinsville Speedway. Though prior to today’s
Tums QuikPak 500, the Roush Fenway Racing driver had compiled two
top-five finishes and five top-10s at the .526-mile oval, including
a second-place finish in the spring of 2002, those results came over
17 starts, which more often than not produced disappointing outcomes
for Kenseth. So Kenseth and his No. 17 R+L Carriers team weren’t
exactly optimistic heading into today’s 500-lap event at a track
that has historically been a struggle.
After tight handling conditions caused Kenseth to wreck on lap
114, it looked as though this trip to Martinsville would again be a
disappointment. But in true team 17 fashion, through persistence and
determination, Kenseth and company clawed their way back from 39th
position, one lap down, to capture a solid eighth-place finish, thus
improving their Chase standings to 10th place.
Kenseth’s 11th-place starting spot was solidified when the field
was set according to Cup owners points after qualifying was canceled
for the ninth time this season due to rain. It would take just 28
laps for Kenseth to get a feel for his No. 17 Ford and report that
the R+L Carriers machine was “tight.” Kenseth patiently maintained
the No. 17 for several laps and when caution fell on lap 60, he made
his way to pit road for the first time of the day running in 10th
place. After receiving service for four tires, fuel and air pressure
and track bar adjustments, Kenseth’s No. 17 was set for more
competition. The race restarted on lap 67 and Kenseth was scored in
24th position, as not all competitors opted to pit during this
caution period.
Kenseth made his way around the paper clip-shaped oval 47 more
times, before handling problems got the better of him. On lap 114,
Kenseth’s No. 17 was too tight for him to manage in the tight
quarters of the Martinsville corners and he lost control of his
machine. Kenseth made contact with the No. 78 during the accident,
which caused some rear-end body damage, along with a cut tire. From
lap 114 to lap 118, Kenseth saw pit road on two separate occasions
so that the No. 17 team could mend his damaged racecar. Green flag
racing resumed on lap 121 and Kenseth was scored in 38th position,
one lap down to the leaders.
A caution on lap 196 granted Kenseth the Lucky Dog Award and his
lap back. On lap 202, Kenseth was scored in 31st place, back on the
lead lap. Kenseth was able to work his way back up inside the top 15
after two pit stops during caution periods on laps 256 and 380.
Kenseth was running 11th on lap 457 when caution fell once again
and some strategy came into play. With just 13 cars on the lead lap,
Kenseth was guaranteed to finish the race in at least 13th place,
providing he wasn’t passed by the leader. Since he reported that he
was pleased with the handling of the R+L Carriers Ford and his lap
times were comparable to the leaders, crew chief Chip Bolin directed
Kenseth not to pit on lap 460. Green flag racing commenced on lap
467 and Kenseth was scored as the race leader. He maintained his
position for eight laps, but the fresher tires were proving to be
beneficial and Kenseth fell back to eighth place by the lap 485
caution.
With just 15 laps remaining in the race, Kenseth brought the No.
17 to pit road for four tires only. The race restarted with eight
laps to go and Kenseth was running 10th. Caution once again stalled
the race on lap 497 and set the stage for a green, white, checkered
finish. Kenseth took the final green flag in eighth place and
captured the checkers in eighth as well.
Jimmie Johnson won the Tums QuikPak 500 in a commanding
performance on Sunday, leading 339 of 504 laps. Dale Earnhardt Jr.,
Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, and Denny Hamlin followed to complete the
top five.
Following the eighth-place finish at Martinsville, Kenseth and
the No. 17 team improved from 11th to 10th position in the NASCAR
Sprint Cup point standings, 408 markers behind point leader Jimmie
Johnson.
“As far as the Chase goes, from our standpoint, we are basically
mathematically out of it,” Kenseth said. “We haven’t been thinking
championship the last two weeks with the problems that we’ve had, so
we’re just out there racing as hard as we can and trying to get the
best finishes we can.”
NEXT UP:
Pep Boys Auto 500
•
Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hampton, Ga. •
Sunday, October 26
Martinsville Sprint Cup Preview
October 14, 2008
Martinsville
Speedway •
Martinsville, Va.
Tums QuikPak 500 •
Sunday, October 19 • 2 pm/e ABC
Sprint Cup Chassis — #17
R+L Carriers/DeWALT Ford Fusion
• RK-574 — Last outing: Richmond, Sept. ’08: started ninth,
finished 39th after an accident. Also raced Richmond, May ’08,
started 24th, finished 38th after yet another accident.
Matt Kenseth’s Cup performance summary at
Martinsville:
| Date | S | F | Laps | Led | Reason |
|
03/30/08 |
28 |
30 |
496/500 |
0 |
Running |
|
10/21/07 |
24 |
5 |
506/506 |
0 |
Running |
|
04/01/07 |
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 totals at Martinsville:
| Races | Wins | Top 5s | Top 10s | Laps Led | Poles | |
17 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
60 |
0 |
Matt Kenseth on racing at
Martinsville:
“Martinsville is a track I usually dread racing at. To me,
and I’ve said this many times, 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 —
there’s nothing fun about that to me. But, it’s a stop we make
twice a year and I am going to focus on getting the best finish
I can. We had a good showing there in the fall last year — one
of the 17 team’s best, so hopefully this fall race will be much
of the same.
“The race last week at Charlotte was one of many horrible
weekends we’ve had this year. It has been tough for us over the
past several weeks; it’s been borderline miserable for sure.
There have been a couple of bright spots, but even when things
go right they go wrong. But, I race as hard as I can race every
single race. We do everything we know how to do to try to win
races and bring our best stuff and race as hard as we can, and
you can't do any more than that. The second you try to do more
than that is when you end up wrecked, or have problems, or make
mistakes, so we're doing everything we can do. If it all lines
up and something happens and we can win a race or two here
before the end of the season that would be great. Hopefully we
can have our stuff running good enough to be able to get one.”
Sprint Cup Crew Chief Chip Bolin on racing at
Martinsville: “For
the majority of the season I feel like we take two steps forward
and three steps back. A feast or famine season, for sure. With
just five races remaining, I’d like to see our luck change and
end the season on high note. But sometimes the outcome is out of
our control. So, we’ll just continue working hard and trying to
give Matt competitive race cars and do our best to salvage
something out of the rest of this year.
“Martinsville has been a very, very painful place for team
17. Our best finish there is second place — as soon as we kind
of got the track figured out, they reconfigured it. Since then,
our best finish is fifth. I feel like last fall was our best
showing at Martinsville. Matt actually raced his way to a
fifth-place finish. There was no fuel strategy or anything in
that race. He started 24th and finished fifth. Hopefully this
weekend will be much the same.”
Martinsville Fast Facts
Matt Kenseth will make his 18th NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series start at Martinsville Speedway this weekend in the TUMS
QuikPak 500.
For the Record… In his previous starts at Martinsville,
Kenseth has achieved two top-five and five top-10 finishes.
Kenseth has completed 8397 of 8506 (98.7%) laps attempted at the
.526-mile track. He has led a total of 60 laps there.
On the track… The No. 17 will sport the green and yellow
colors of R+L Carriers this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
Team 17 will be unloading chassis RK-574. Kenseth raced this car
at both Richmond races this year. Each time, he was relegated to
less than stellar finishes due to accidents.
Rewind… In Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s
Motor Speedway, Kenseth struggled with what he described as a
“wicked loose” race car for the first part of the race. However
after a number of aggressive adjustments, things were looking up
for Kenseth, but bad luck found team 17 on lap 194 when the
Carhartt Ford was tagged from behind and slammed into the front
stretch wall. The damages incurred were terminal and Kenseth and
crew were sent home with a 41st-place finish.
The CHASE is on… Five races in the Chase for the Sprint
Cup are complete and Kenseth is currently ranked 11th in the
NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings, 360 markers behind point
leader Jimmie Johnson.
Charlotte Sprint Cup recap
October 12, 2008
No. 17
CARHARTT FORD FUSION RECAP:
BAD LUCK ONCE AGAIN BEFALLS KENSETH AND No. 17
TEAM
Accident ruins what could have been a top-10 finish and hurts
Chase standings
|
Race Summary
Start: 9th
34 to go: 41st
Finish: 41st
High: 1st
Low: 41st
Fastest Laps: 2
Laps in top 15: 37
Led: 1
Laps: 194/334
Status: Accident
Points: 45*5
Earnings: $110,796
Points Summary
Races: 31 of 36
Points:
5518
Ranked: 11th
-360 from leader |
S ince
the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Matt Kenseth and the No.
17 DEWALT/Carhartt Ford Fusion team have suffered many setbacks and
obstacles — most due to no fault of their own. Accumulating three
DNF’s over the past five races, Kenseth and company can’t seem to
catch a break. One might even say, if it weren’t for bad luck,
Kenseth and the No. 17 team wouldn’t have any luck at all.
In Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway,
Matt Kenseth struggled with what he described as a “wicked loose”
race car for the first part of the race. However after a number of
aggressive adjustments, things were looking up for Kenseth. But bad
luck found team 17 on lap 194 when the Carhartt Ford was tagged from
behind and slammed into the front stretch wall. The damages incurred
were terminal and Kenseth and crew were sent home with a 41st-place
finish. The disappointing ending to night also upset Kenseth’s Chase
standings — he moved from ninth to 11th place.
“There was just an accident I slowed down for and just got ran
over from behind,” Kenseth said after being checked and released
from the infield care center. “We really struggled with our Carhartt
Fusion tonight, but Chip made a lot of really good adjustments. We
actually had it a lot better there. I think we were probably close
to a top-10 car. It’s nowhere where we want to be, but it was
getting better. I was just slowing up for the accident and got run
over.”
Rain cancelled qualifying for the eighth time of the 2008 NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series season and Kenseth took the green flag in the
ninth position, as point standings set the starting grid for
Saturday night’s 334-lap event. It would take just 12 laps for
Kenseth to get a feel for his No. 17 Ford and report that he needed
“overall grip.” Kenseth patiently maintained the No. 17. Caution
fell on lap 43 while Kenseth was running in 12th place, and he made
his way to pit road for the first time of the night. After getting
service with four tires, fuel, a track bar adjustment, and inserting
a spring rubber, Kenseth’s No. 17 was set for more competition. The
race restarted on lap 48 and Kenseth was scored in 16th position.
Just five laps later another yellow flag would stall the race and
Kenseth would again report that his Carhartt Ford was “way loose.”
Crew chief Chip Bolin directed Kenseth to pit during the caution
period to continue adjusting on the No. 17. Following the stop for
wedge and air pressure adjustments, and the removal of two spring
rubbers, Kenseth rejoined the competition in 29th place on lap 59
when green flag racing resumed.
On the ensuing run, Kenseth reported that the handling of the No.
17 was “wicked loose.” A lap-64 caution permitted Kenseth yet
another trip down pit road and Bolin would call for the most timely
and aggressive changes of the night. As Kenseth entered his pit
stall, the Killer Bees quickly changed right side tires, then
hurried to the left side of the No. 17 where the tires were removed.
Rear tire changer Dave Smith then dove beneath the rear end of the
No. 17 to lower the positioning of the track bar. When he finished,
the left side tires were bolted on and Kenseth exited pit road in
31st position just in time to take the green flag on lap 70.
Kenseth would see pit road on four more scheduled occasions over
the next 116 laps. On each stop, the No. 17 crew would continue to
tweak the Carhartt Ford in hopes of improving the loose handling
conditions that Kenseth reported. By lap 180, Kenseth was running in
18th place, his lap times were more than a half a second quicker,
and he was reporting that his Ford’s handling was much better.
Nonetheless, the success would be short-lived as an accident erupted
in front of Kenseth on lap 194. Though Kenseth had avoided the melee
in front of him, the No. 28 came charging from behind and clipped
the rear end of Kenseth’s Ford. The contact sent Kenseth’s No. 17
into the wall. The damage incurred from the brutal hit crushed
Kenseth’s chances at a top-10 finish and sent team 17 home with a
41st place finish.
“It has been tough for us over the past several weeks, it’s been
borderline miserable for sure,” said Kenseth. “There have been a
couple of bright spots, but even when things go right they go wrong.
At Kansas we had a really good car, got wrecked there. Got wrecked
last weekend with a really good car and then couldn’t really do a
lot about any of that stuff, I don’t think. It’s just been one of
those months. Hopefully, it will get better.”
Following the 41st-place finish at Charlotte, Kenseth and the No.
17 team fell from ninth to 11th position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup
point standings, 360 markers behind point leader Jimmie Johnson.
NEXT UP:
Tums QuikPak 500
•
Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, Va. •
Sunday, October 19
Charlotte
Q&A
October 9, 2008
Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion, sits
ninth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup going into Saturday
night’s race. He spoke about a variety of issues during his Q&A
session Thursday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
YOUR THOUGHTS GOING INTO THIS RACE?
“I look forward to it. I think we all look forward to racing
here at Charlotte for a lot of different reasons, but it’s a great
track. I look forward to being here and close to home where all the
teams are from and, hopefully, getting back on track.”
CARL ADMITTEDLY CAUSED LAST WEEK’S WRECK. DID THAT DO ANYTHING
TO HELP WHAT LAST YEAR WAS ALREADY APPEARING TO BE A PRETTY STRAINED
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND GREG AND CARL
“The first question I guess, our relationship is fine. We pretty
much got over that deal from Martinsville last year and it’s all
been alright. Yeah, I was disappointed there was a wreck, but you
knew there would be wrecks and some of that stuff is gonna happen. I
was disappointed it happened because we were almost out of
contention and I thought we were gonna have a good day and gain some
points and maybe be a contender again if we could get it back around
100 points or something like that, and then we got wiped out. I was
disappointed. I thought that Carl knew better. He’s been preaching
the stuff about being careful and working together and teammates and
all this stuff, so I was disappointed it happened, but yet it was an
accident and that stuff will happen.”
HOW SPECIAL WOULD IT BE TO WIN AT CHARLOTTE AGAIN? IS IT A
BIGGER RACE THAN NORMAL?
“There are some races that seem like they’re bigger than others.
I think they’re all big races. These races are really hard to win.
Obviously, it’s special to come here. The all-star race is a huge
race and then you’ve got the 600 and then the 500-miler in the fall,
so they’re all big races. For us, we haven’t won this year yet, so
for us to get a win anywhere right now is real important and would
be big for us.”
HOW DO YOU ASSESS THE CHASE NOW?
“Anything can happen. Greg and Carl are running awful good,
obviously. Especially after last weekend, Jimmie is probably in the
best position. He had some trouble last week and got a lap down and
still came back and got a top-10 and missed the wreck and did all
that. They’re always difficult to beat, in my opinion. I’ve said
this many times before, but since they put that team together and
him and Chad got together, in my opinion, they’ve been the team to
beat on average every week and every year. So I would have to say in
my book the 48 is probably pretty heavily the favorite right now,
but yet that’s not a lot of points and you know one flat tire or one
broken part can change the way the whole thing looks. I hope Greg
and Carl can get back in it and hopefully have a tight race down at
the end.”
HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF FORMER CHAMPS LIKE YOU AND JEFF DON’T
WIN A RACE THIS YEAR?
“It’s a big deal to win and it’s really hard to win. If we don’t
win a race this year I’ll be really disappointed in that, but I
can’t do anything special to try to get a win in the next six weeks.
I race as hard as I can race every single race. We do everything we
know how to do to try to win races and bring our best stuff and race
as hard as we can and you can’t do anymore than that. The second you
try to do more than that is when you end up wrecked or have problems
or make mistakes, so we’re doing everything we can do. If it all
lines up and something happens and we can win a race or two here
before then that would be great, but, like I said, I don’t feel like
we can try any harder than we’re trying. We think we’ve been
improving here lately, so hopefully we can have our stuff running
good enough to be able to get one.”
IN LIGHT OF WHAT HAPPENED SUNDAY, SHOULD THEY ENFORCE THE NO
BUMP-DRAFTING IN THE CORNER RULE MORE STRICTLY?
“I don’t know. Man, there are a lot of rules and that’s always
kind of a judgment call and in the past you’ve heard people get
warned when it looks kind of crazy and I didn’t really hear a lot of
that Sunday. Talladega is pretty forgiving. It’s got a lot of grip.
It’s really wide. These cars are really, really stable, so we should
all know better that you can’t run into somebody in the middle of
the corner, especially in the left rear. I mean, if you’re squared
up on their bumper and you’re kind of right behind them and you’re
pushing them, you can get away with that a little bit, especially on
restarts or if you’re not going as fast, but when you’re making a
run to the front and you’re running real fast and you’re closing on
somebody, you kind of know you can’t really run into him in the
center of the corner. It’s hard to ask NASCAR to enforce everything
and to make sure we don’t have any wrecks and don’t cause any wrecks
because, I mean, that’s part of racing. Everybody is pushing it to
the limit as far as you can, but, hopefully, you know where that
limit is before it’s a disaster.”
- Ford Racing
Charlotte Sprint Cup Preview
October 8, 2008
Lowe’s Motor
Speedway • Concord, N.C.
Bank of America 500 •
Saturday, October 11 • 7 pm/e ABC
Sprint Cup Chassis — #17
Carhartt/DeWALT Ford Fusion
• RK-550 — Kenseth has raced this car five times this year. He
has logged two top-five and five top-10 finishes in this racecar and
has led 81 laps.
Matt Kenseth’s Cup performance summary at
LMS (points races):
| Date | S | F | Laps | Led | Reason |
|
05/25/08 |
12 |
7 |
400/400 |
1 |
Running |
|
10/13/07 |
7 |
34 |
282/337 |
32 |
Accident |
|
05/27/07 |
5 |
12 |
400/400 |
50 |
Running |
|
10/14/06 |
11 |
14 |
332/334 |
1 |
Running |
|
|
