Race 2 Win: Sprint Cup Series Race Notes

Sprint Cup Series

Dodge Challenger 500 - Matt Kenseth Notes

Matt Kenseth
Darlington Raceway – MAY 9-10
Darlington, S.C.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Dodge Challenger 500

FAST FACTS

Matt Kenseth will make his 15th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Darlington Raceway this weekend in the Dodge Avenger 500.

In 14 starts at Darlington, Kenseth has achieved one top-five, five top-10 and six top-15 finishes.

Kenseth’s average start at Darlington is 21.9 and his average finish is 19.4.

Kenseth has completed 4414 of 4635 (or 95.2 %) of total laps attempted at Darlington. He has led a total of 135 laps in Cup races there.

Back in Black… For the third time in 2008, Kenseth’s No. 17 Ford Fusion will be painted black with the DEWALT NANO Technology paint scheme. Kenseth will also sport these colors at the All-Star race, Bristol and the second Richmond race in 2008.

The No. 17 crew will be unloading car RK-516 this weekend at Darlington, a brand new car.

Kenseth and crew are currently 22nd in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings.

In other series…Kenseth will make his 14th NASCAR Nationwide Series start at Darlington this weekend. Sporting the colors of CitiFinancial, Kenseth hopes to enhance his already impressive record at the 1.366-mile South Carolina track. In his previous NNS starts, Kenseth boasts two wins, eight top-five and 11 top-10 finishes.

Matt Kenseth – NSCS Advance
Team: No. 17 DEWALT NANO Technology Ford Fusion
Crew Chief: Chip Bolin
Chassis: RK-516 A brand new car

Matt Kenseth on racing at Darlington Raceway:
“Darlington was always a really cool racetrack. It was unique and challenging and, to me, that made it a lot of fun to drive. Now that it’s been repaved, I’m interested to see what the racing will be like. We always worried about tire wear at Darlington in the past, because the track was just so rough – it was really important to have a good handling car because we slid around so much. With these new cars, this has been an issue every week – the cars really slide around a lot anyway, so it’s going to be interesting because we really haven’t had much luck with the handling on these cars yet. We’ve been struggling with getting the car to turn through the center without getting it too loose on exit. The handling problems we’ve had on top of our just awful luck, has made the past few weeks not a lot of fun for me. So maybe we’ll catch a break this week, and at least finish on the lead lap. “We’re bringing a brand new car this weekend and I honestly don’t know what we’ll have. But, hopefully we’ll continue to improve and make these cars better to where we can start competing for wins again.”

Crew Chief Chip Bolin on racing at Darlington Raceway:
“Darlington should be fun. It’s going to be challenging like it always is, but this time there’s going to be a certain level of uncertainty going in. But, it’s pretty much the same for everybody. “The bottom line is we’ve got to get our stuff running better, so that we don’t run in the back and get caught up in accidents. Our guys have done as good a job as anybody out there, and though our finishes don’t reflect that, we’ve still been running lap times comparable to the leaders each week. We have had just awful circumstances over the past few races, which have made for long dreadful weekends. Our cars aren’t performing good enough to consistently run in the top 10 and challenge for wins right now, and that has to change going forward.”