Matt Kenseth Advance
1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway
Fort Worth, Tex.
FAST FACTS
Matt Kenseth is the all-time lap leader at Texas Motor Speedway in NASCAR competition, leading 612 laps total; 314 in NEXTEL Cup and 298 in Busch. In addition, he’s also led nine laps in IROC.
Kenseth has led the third most laps in NEXTEL Cup competition at TMS with 314.
Kenseth has led the second most laps in Busch Series competition at TMS with 298.
Kenseth has recorded nine top-10 finishes in 11 starts in Busch Series competition at TMS.
Kenseth’s average finish of 9.3 is currently third best among drivers who have competed in all six events in 2007.
Conversely, Kenseth’s average starting spot of 27.3 ranks 31st among drivers who have started every race in 2007.
In the past five races, Kenseth has picked up a total of 125 positions from where he started to where he finished, or an average of 25 spots per race.
Kenseth has completed every lap so far in 2007, one of only three drivers to do so (Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton).
Texas will be the first “Car of Yesterday” race that Robbie Reiser will be at the track since Homestead, last November, 147 days ago from Sunday.
Matt Kenseth – NNCS ADVANCE
Team: No. 17 DEWALT Ford Fusion
Crew Chief: Robbie Reiser
Chassis: RK-317 Last ran: Atlanta in March, finished third
Also in 2007: Won Fontana and finished fourth at Las Vegas
RK-340 Tested Las Vegas, Jan. ‘07
Last ran: Pocono, Jun. ’06, finished fifth
Kenseth on racing at Texas Motor Speedway:
“After two weekends of struggling with the COT (Car of Tomorrow), it’s going to be a lot of fun getting back into the ‘old cars’ this weekend. It helps that we’re going to Texas, which is becoming one of my favorite tracks on the circuit. The track is fast and the groove is getting wider as the pavement ages, which means more room to race. The crowd is great and the fans are second to none. Eddie Gossage and his staff always do a really good job promoting the event and putting on a great show, and I always look forward to going there.
“It’s a night-and-day difference for me going from Martinsville, a track we always struggle at, with a car that gave us fits, to Texas, which is almost the exact opposite for me. That’s not to say we’re going to be good at Texas, although the car we’re taking has been pretty good so far this year, but it’s really going to feel good getting back into the old car, which will immediately handle 10 times better than what we’ve been driving the past few weeks.”
Crew Chief Robbie Reiser on racing at Texas Motor Speedway:
“I just hope I remember how these cars work. No, I’m looking forward to the weekend, that’s for sure and hopefully, we can keep things rolling with this car, which has been really good for us so far this year.
“The last few weeks have been real valuable for us in learning some things on the COT. The Richmond test could not have gone much better for us. I think we learned some things that will help us in the near future with that car. But this week, it will feel good to get back to the old car and not have to deal with some of the issues we’ve been dealing with the past few weeks.
“I’m proud of the guys on this team for doing an excellent job on pit road over the past couple weeks when we weren’t that good on the track. Those guys continued to pick up positions on pit road and keep us in good track position, and are the main reason we’ve been able to salvage decent finishes. Texas has been good to us in the past, so hopefully this week we’ll get the car to where it needs to be in order to contend for the win or at least get a top five out of it.”
