Matt Kenseth
Team: No. 17 Smirnoff Ice Ford Taurus
Owner: Jack Roush/Mark Martin
Crew Chief: Robbie Reiser
Chassis: MMR-34 (finished seventh at Michigan earlier this year)
Matt Kenseth on racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway:
“This is always such a prestigious race for the Nextel Cup Series—everybody would like a chance to say they’ve won at Indianapolis at some point in their career. I’m really no different, though I really didn’t grow up following the traditional Indy 500 or anything. It’s a very special event and a lot of teams circle this one on the calendar at the beginning of the year. We had an awesome race a year ago, finishing second to [Kevin] Harvick. I think we’re bringing a pretty good car with us this weekend and we’ll give it everything we’ve got. Maybe we’ll finish one spot better than last year.”
Crew Chief Robbie Reiser on racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway:
“We’re bringing the chassis #34 this week to Indy, which we ran at Michigan. The guys on the crew worked really hard all day last week to adjust on the car over and over again and it really paid off for us. It shows what these guys are capable of on a weekly basis and they’re pretty fired up to come here to the Brickyard and run well.”
Fast Facts
Matt Kenseth finished eighth at Pocono Raceway one week ago. It was his 12th top-ten finish of the 2004 season and it vaulted him one spot forward in the standings to fourth overall.
Kenseth has spent 55 straight weeks inside the “NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Top 10”—the longest active streak.
This week marks the fourth of six events for the No. 17 Smirnoff Ice Ford and its primary sponsorship, which will run in two other events in 2004: September 5th at Richmond and October 3rd at Talladega.
Kenseth has twelve top-ten finishes in 20 starts so far this year.
