|
|
Monday September
27th 1999 • Dover - Busch and Cup
- DeWALT Racing Notes
DISAPPOINTMENT
AT
DOVER
After dominating the MBNA 200 for the first half of the NASCAR
Busch Series race at Dover Downs International Raceway, it looked
as though Matt Kenseth was going to walk away with his fifth win
of the year. Unfortunately fate had a different ending to the
story.
Matt Kenseth grabbed his first pole of the 1999 season for the
MBNA 200, his second career Busch Series pole award, with an
average speed of 155.293 mph.
Kenseth took control from the beginning, leading the first 76 laps
before, trading spots with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Matt resumed the top
position a few laps later and led until lap 96 when he ducted into
the pits under the caution flag for his first pit stop of the day.
Jeff Green took the lead off of pit road but Kenseth reclaimed it
on lap 106. Matt was leading the race when Dale Earnhardt Jr.
attempted to make a run for the lead on lap 119.
Dale got under Matt in turn 2 and got loose, bumping into the #17
car. Matt hit the wall, causing severe damage to the car. Kenseth
reported to the garage area for repairs. The damage was too
extensive to fix before the end of the race, relegating Matt to
finish in 38th spot. Kenseth led the most laps, grabbing 10 bonus
points in the championship points race, but lost ground on Dale
Jr., who finished in 30th position.
-
1999 BUSCH SERIES POINT STANDINGS
1 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 3828
2 Matt Kenseth 3715 (-113)
3 Jeff Green 3614
4 Todd Bodine 3346
5 Elton Sawyer 3257
6 Jeff Purvis 3197
7 Jason Keller 3110
8 Randy Lajoie 2972
9 Dave Blaney 2963
10 Mike McLaughlin 2829
- KENSETH GRABS TOP FIVE AT DOVER IN WINSTON CUP RACE
Matt Kenseth grabbed a 4th place finish at Dover Downs International Raceway
in the MBNA Gold 400 on Sunday, September 26, his first top five finish of
1999 in just his third start.
Kenseth qualified for the 400-mile race in 13th spot, his best Winston Cup
qualifying effort this year.
Matt took the green flag and fell back slightly due to a loose handling
problem. After a pit stop on lap 65 and an air pressure adjustment, Kenseth
resumed racing. The handling of the car improved and Kenseth broke into the
top ten on lap 151. The #17 DeWALT Busch team pitted the Winston Cup car all
day and had incredible stops, staying with the lead cars all day long. At
the halfway point of the race, Matt had climbed up to 4th spot and was
eyeing teammate Jeff Burton for 3rd position. Jeff and Matt traded spots
several times during the back half of the race, with Matt eventually taking
the position for good. But Matt couldn’t hold of Tony Stewart before the
checkered flag dropped. Kenseth finished the MBNA 400 in 4th position, his
career best Winston Cup finish.
“I’m happy. The DEWALT Ford ran really well all day. It was too loose in
the beginning of the runs to keep up with those guys. They’d eat my lunch
pretty good for 20-30 laps, but after that I could run real consistent and
the car was real good. Our Busch guys went over the wall today and they did
a really good job. I’m extremely happy with our performance today and
little surprised how good we’ve run the last couple of races.”
-
SKILLS USA TO BE ON CHARLOTTE WINSTON CUP CAR
Skills USA and DEWALT Power Tools will join forces
for the UAW-GM Quality 500 on October 10, 1999 at
Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The Skills USA decal will
be placed on the lower quarter panels and hood of
the #17 DEWALT Ford Taurus for the Charlotte race
to create awareness of Skills USA’s Building
Skills for America Signature Campaign. Skills USA’s
goal is to collect one million signatures from
business and industry employers, employees and
union members stating a skilled work force is
essential for America’s future and to prepare
that work force, America must support
vocational-technical education.
Signatures will be collected at DEWALT’s Rolling
Thunder display vehicle throughout the Charlotte
race weekend.
Friday September
24th 1999
- Matt’s weekend at Dover is
starting out fairly well so far. Matt will be starting on
the Pole in the Busch race and 13th in the Cup race. Dover
is Matt’s favorite track and considering qualifying is not his strong
point, his competition could be seeing a lot of the #17’s rear bumper,
from a distance.
- DeWALT RACING NOTES
Matt Kenseth will make his 80th start in the
Busch Series at Dover Downs this weekend. Kenseth has earned $1,918,040 in
his Busch Series career.
Matt will be making his 3rd Winston Cup start of 1999 with Roush Racing and
DEWALT Tools on Sunday. Matt’s first career Winston Cup start came at
Dover Downs in September of last year when Kenseth substituted for Bill
Elliott in the #94 Ford Taurus and went on to finish in 6th place. Matt will
be running in two additional Winston Cup races in 1999 for Roush and DEWALT,
including Charlotte and Rockingham.
Kenseth is the defending winner of the MBNA 200 at Dover Downs. Matt
captured his third and final win of the 1998 season at Dover last fall.
Kenseth went on to finish second in the Busch Series 1998 championship hunt.
The DEWALT Ford Taurus will be running a new decal for the Dover and
Rockingham Winston Cup races this season. Wood Magazine will be featured on
the #17 DEWALT Ford on the lower rear quarter panel for both races. Wood
Magazine is part of the Better Homes and Gardens family of magazines and is
the largest woodworking publication in the world.
A press conference will be held Sunday morning, September 26, prior to the
Winston Cup race at Dover Downs. DEWALT Tools will announce a decal change
for Matt Kenseth’s Winston Cup car at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on October
10. The unveiling of the new decal on the #17 Ford will promote an awareness
campaign for an educational affiliation of DEWALT’s.
Thursday
September 16th 1999
- Chat
with Matt Tonight at 9pm Eastern
(pushed back one hour from previous time)
Monday September
13th 1999 Richmond VA
- Chat
Live with Matt Kenseth Tonight on CBS Sportsline. 7:30 pm Eastern.
- DeWALT
Racing Notes
ROUGH RACE AT RICHMOND
Matt Kenseth and the DEWALT Racing Team had a disappointing race at Richmond
International Raceway, struggling the entire weekend with an ill handling
racecar.
Kenseth qualified for the 250-lap race in 30th
spot, tying his worst starting position of the season.
Although Matt started the race towards the rear of the field, it didn’t
take him long to begin picking off positions. Kenseth cruised the first half
of the race in the top twenty, climbing to as high as 11th spot by lap 144.
Despite two awesome pit stops by the crew, Kenseth continued to struggle on
the track with a tight handling condition. On lap 173, Kenseth hit the
outside wall, breaking the front sway bar. The handling, which was bad
before, deteriorated. Matt managed to make it to the checkered flag,
finishing in 20th
position, one lap down to the leaders.
- MATT’S THOUGHTS ON RIR
“We’ve been off since we got here. We really struggled with the car and
never quite got it right. We struggled during the race as well, never could
get it how it needed to be to run upfront. The team had some real good
pit stops and worked real hard to get us in a good position. On the
restart I got boxed in behind some slower cars and older tires and couldn’t
get back out of line. I hit the wall and broke the sway bar. It went down
hill from there.”
Wednesday
September 8th 1999
- Chat With Matt!!
Thursday, September 16th
8PM ET/5PM PT
Matt Kenseth, NASCAR Driver
Ladies and Gentleman, start your engines! Come chat with Matt
Kenseth, a world class race car driver for NASCAR. Matt has been
racing cars his whole life. Early in his career, he won the
prestigious Miller Genuine Draft National championships, becoming
the youngest driver to win the title. From Monte Carlo to all the
most famous race tracks on the circuit, Matt has raced them all.
Come chat with Matt as he pushes the pedal to the metal and hear
all about life in NASCAR.
- DeWALT RACE REPORT
MATT KENSETH’S RICHMOND RECORD
Date
Start
Finish Laps
$ Won Status
9/5/97 32
22 248/250
6,800 Running
6/5/98 14
3
250/250 24,965 Running
9/11/98 23
4
250/250 21,525 Running
5/14/99 18
3
250/250 28,865 Running
-
RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY BREAKDOWN
Laps Led: 2 (5/14/99) Laps Completed: 998/1000 = 99.8%
Average Start: 21.75 Top 5’s: 3
Average Finish: 8 Top
10’s: 3
-
NOTES
- With just seven races remaining in 1999, the Busch Series
Championship battle between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth
has heated up. After his third place finish at Darlington, Kenseth
sits behind Dale Jr. by just 26 points.
- Matt will be running the same car at Richmond he raced with at
IRP on August 6 where he grabbed a fourth place finish.
- The last three races at RIR Matt has captured top five
finishes. His average finish in 1998 & 1999 is 3.33.
- Kenseth competed in his second Winston Cup race of the season
at Darlington last Sunday. Matt was racing most of the event in
the top ten before becoming tangled in an accident in turn three.
Matt finished in 38th spot.
- Kenseth will be competing in three more Winston Cup races in 1999
including Dover on Sept. 26, Charlotte on Oct. 10 and Rockingham
on Oct. 24.
- MATT’S THOUGHTS ON THE
BUSCH SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP RACE
“Whoever wins the championship is going to
be the guy who performs the best the next seven races and doesn’t make any
mistakes. If either one of us makes a mistake or has a mechanical failure or
something like that we won’t win the championship. But if we can both make
it through and not make any mistakes these last seven races, I feel like our
whole race team is up to the task of running toe to toe with those guys. I
think it will come right down to the wire if nothing happens to either one
of our cars.”
Monday September
6th 1999
Double Duty at Darlington
- DeWALT
RACE REPORT
Busch Series Report
Matt Kenseth had an awesome race on Saturday at Darlington, with Kenseth
grabbing his 13th top five finish of the season.
Matt qualified for the 147-lap event in 6th
spot, improving upon his 9th place starting position in the
Darlington spring race. It didn’t take long for Kenseth to work his way
into the top spot, taking the lead from Mark Martin on lap 27. Matt lead
four laps before Martin made the move back around Kenseth. But Matt wasn’t
discouraged and reclaimed the lead on lap 39. Kenseth led for the next 12
laps before Mark took over the lead once again. Kenseth cruised the
remainder of the race in 3rd spot, following closely behind Mark Martin and
Dave Blaney. With Matt’s 3rd
place finish at Darlington, and only seven races remaining in
the season, Kenseth now trails Dale Earnhardt Jr. by only 26
points in the Busch Series championship battle.
“In the beginning it looked like we might have something, but we got
looser all day. No matter what adjustments we would have made, I know we
wouldn’t have been able to run with the 93 and 60 cars. But I’m happy,
it’s a real good day for us to run third at Darlington.”
-
1999 DRIVERS POINT STANDINGS
1 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 3579
2 Matt Kenseth 3553 (-26)
3 Jeff Green 3363
4 Todd Bodine 3230
5 Elton Sawyer 3057
6 Jeff Purvis 2967
7 Jason Keller 2892
8 Dave Blaney 2826
9 Randy Lajoie 2733
10 Mike McLaughlin 2657
-
Winston Cup Report
Matt Kenseth qualified for the Winston Cup event in 31st
spot, a disappointing position after practicing much faster.
Matt’s qualifying spot relegated the team to pit on the backstretch, a
huge competitive disadvantage. Despite starting the race towards the back,
Matt quickly learned how to make the moves to the front. The DEWALT Ford
Taurus started the race very tight, but by lap 30 the car began feeling more
neutral and Kenseth was running lap times as quick as the leader. Matt
jumped into 10th spot on lap 93 and was as high as 6th position on lap 117.
After a yellow flag pit stop on lap 132, Kenseth resumed the race in 19th
position but was rapidly picking off positions. While running again in the
top ten and still early in the race, Matt was caught up in a wreck in turn
three ending his day prematurely. Matt finished his second Winston Cup race
of 1999 in 37th
position.
“The DEWALT Ford was running really good today. I did a bad job qualifying
and got us on the backstretch. We were all the way up to 6th before that
last pit stop. I saw the wreck but couldn’t get slowed down or stopped for
it. I think we definitely had a top five car. We ran almost the same times
as the leader all day. Hopefully it’s a sign of things yet to come.”
|
|
