ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
GOLDEN CORRAL 500 PREVIEW
3-14-06
Matt Kenseth
Team: No. 17 DEWALT Ford Fusion
Crew Chief: Robbie Reiser
Chassis: RK-267 -Last ran at Atlanta in the fall of ‘05, finished fifth.
-Led most laps at Chicago before finishing second.
RK-280 -Last ran at Atlanta in the spring of ’05, finished 31st.
Kenseth on racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway:
“I feel good about going to Atlanta. I love going there. Probably, for what we have left on the circuit, with Rockingham being lost, Atlanta is probably the most fun track to race on as a driver. You can run all over – the bottom, the top, anywhere. The surface is real wore-out and the car changes a lot from the beginning of the run to the end of the run. I'm looking forward to going there. Of course, I'm looking forward to going anywhere with the way our stuff's running right now.”
Crew Chief Robbie Reiser on racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway:
“We’re bringing one of our favorite cars to the track. The primary last ran at Atlanta and we finished fifth. Before that, it ran at Dover where we ran up towards the front for most of the day before we had a tire go down. Probably the best this car ran was at Chicago last year where we led the most laps and finished second. Right now, this team has a lot of confidence. It’s a night-and-day difference between the start of last year and the start of this year. We’ll be looking to keep it going in Atlanta this weekend.”
FAST FACTS
Matt Kenseth has led the most laps in NEXTEL Cup this season with 214; 39 more than the second most of 175 by teammate Greg Biffle.
Kenseth’s average finish so far this season is 6.0. That’s the second best start of his career, next to the 2004 season when Kenseth started the season with finishes of ninth, first, and first, for an average of 3.6.
By finishing second last week, Las Vegas statistically became Kenseth’s best track, tied with Michigan with an average finish of 8.1.
Kenseth’s average starting position in NEXTEL Cup at Atlanta is 25.4, better than only Homestead (26.0) at all non-plate tracks during his career.
