September 6, 2020
Darlington Raceway (Darlington, S.C.)
500 miles
Start: 26th | Finish: 14th Points: 23 | Standings: 27th
Tonight’s race was the first of the playoffs and the first of three in Round 1 of the Playoffs
Kenseth spent most of the evening fighting for track position. The 42 Chevy's balance was decent throughout, and the team was able to stay inside the top 20 for the better part of the evening.
Kenseth's long run speed was able to pick off several positions late to secure the top-15 finish.
The caution flag was shown seven times for a total of 34 laps
The lead changed 18 times among six drivers
Phil Surgen, Crew Chief, No. 42 McDonald's McDelivery Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE “Our McDonald’s Chevy showed some good speed tonight, and the guys in the pits helped us all race long to make up as many spots as we could from our starting position. The track can change a lot at Darlington throughout the race, and we worked all night to keep up with the track and get the balance where it needed to be. For most of the race, Matt reported the car fired off pretty good on the restarts, but built too loose later in the run as rubber that got picked up from the track under caution was laid back down. Around the midpoint of the race, the car was handling really loose right after the restart, and Matt did a nice job of managing the situation and not making a tough situation worse. Fortunately we got the car handling a little better towards the end and were able to make some passes to finish where we did."
NASCAR heads to Richmond Raceway next week for the Federated Auto Parts 400 and the second race of the 2020 NASCAR Playoffs on Saturday, Sept. 12. NBC Sports, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Channel 90 will have live coverage beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.