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 “I was real concerned about that -- having to start in the back by having a chance to get back to the front. But we were able to do it and we had our car really adjustable. We were able to keep up with the changing track conditions [Monday] and that was the key.” |
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Matt Kenseth
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By Denise N. Maloof, CNNSI.com
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Going to the end of the line seems to agree with Matt Kenseth. Both times he’s done it this season, he’s pulled a win out of his hat. And on Monday, it meant the 10-gallon variety in Victory Lane.
Kenseth went from worst to first in Monday’s rain-delayed Samsung/Radio Shack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. He captured his second win of the season -- the first came at Rockingham -- and maintained his pace in the Winston Cup points race. Kenseth entered the weekend trailing leader Sterling Marlin by 70 points. He leaves trailing by the same margin.
“Congratulations to Matt Kenseth,” said Marlin, who finished seventh. “I guess he’s going to put the heat on us.”
A problem piston during Friday’s practice meant changing Kenseth’s engine. It also meant going to the rear of the field under NASCAR’s new one-engine rule, which might not have mattered; Kenseth qualified 31st, so 43rd wasn’t much worse.
“I looked around, and didn’t see anybody behind me,” he said of Monday’s start.
But by the first caution, a NASCAR-mandate to check tire wear on lap 35, Kenseth had jumped to, “somewhere between 15th and 18th,” he remembered. And the momentum continued. Kenseth was 10th on lap 84. He slipped back to 12th on lap 200, but sat second 50 laps later behind then-leader Tony Stewart. From lap 255 to the end of the 334-lap event, Kenseth led all but one -- lap 309. He led three times for a total of 84 laps.
“I was real concerned about that -- having to start in the back by having a chance to get back to the front,” Kenseth said. “But we were able to do it and we had our car really adjustable. We were able to keep up with the changing track conditions [Monday] and that was the key.”
Another key, besides mastering the atmospheric challenges of cloudy, humid conditions at the start, and warm, sunny conditions at the end, was the final pit stop. Roush Racing teammate Kurt Busch blew a right rear tire coming off Turn 4 on lap 309, and Kenseth and crew chief Robbie Reiser chose to change only the right-side tires during the ensuing caution.
It was the correct decision. Kenseth left the pits in first place, and enjoyed as much of a seven-car-length lead on second-place finisher Jeff Gordon during the final laps. Another Roush Racing teammate, Mark Martin, finished third.
“At the end of the race, it was definitely a track position thing,” Kenseth said. “If you could be in front, you could run faster, but, on the other hand, we did have a fast car and we could catch all of the people in front of us -- we were just having a hard time passing them.”
