BROOKLYN, MI (August 28, 2004) — Matt Kenseth, driving the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford, finished ninth in the running of Saturday night’s Sharpie 500 at the Bristol Motor Speedway. It was his fifth top-10 finish in the last six races and all but solidified his team’s participation in the final top-10 Chase for the Championship with just two events remaining before the cutoff point.

Rolling off the starting grid from the 23rd position, Kenseth began the race by carefully feeling out his race car and the surroundings. Bristol Motor Speedway is a place where many believe chance and luck play a large part in the outcome — but Kenseth tended to take the cause and effect route on a night with a full moon over the half-mile bullring. There were no less than five separate caution flag periods in the first 100 laps of competition, but Kenseth stayed on the outside of all of them looking in. Meanwhile, he was reporting that his car was tight in the middle of the corner and loose everywhere else.

The most frightening of the five cautions occurred on a lap 89 restart. While the single-file restarts got going on the frontstretch, those in positions further back were hitting the gas at many different moments in the space of a second. As a result, the No. 99 car of rookie teammate Carl Edwards plowed square into the back of the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford as they both came up to speed. Kenseth’s car cut hard for the inside wall, but he made a miraculous save to the right and kept going while mashing the gas headed for the first turn. A lap later, Kenseth keyed his radio and shouted to crew chief Robbie Reiser, “Did you see that save? I thought we were headed for the inside wall for sure!” Fortunately, nobody was too damaged during the minor fracas and everyone kept going at the pace Bristol is famous for — fast and furious.

“The car is just sliding around right now,” reported Kenseth on lap 124. Twenty laps later, he stated the overall chassis had gone tight on him. But progress was just around the corner. Using his fresher tires to his advantage, Kenseth began to creep up on his competitors one by one, chugging past them on the inside line of the track. He was finally in the top-15 running order as he neared a green flag pit stop on lap 220. The crew performed marvelously and sent Kenseth back into competition with a 13.67-second stop. Kenseth cycled out to 24th on lap 221, but had made it all the way to 8th by lap 235 — a difference of seven positions. He briefly went off the lead lap, but was right back on it as others in front of him made their required stops.

From his new vantage point inside the top-10, Kenseth began to make some noise. He moved into sixth on lap 245 and was up to fifth by the 250th circuit — the official halfway point of the 500-lap race. “I’m still tight in the middle, but loose off the corners,” he stated over the next 50 laps.

An extensive green flag run finally came to an end on lap 327, when debris was spotted in turns one and two. Kenseth pitted for four fresh tires and lost no track position, as there were now remarkably only seven cars on the lead lap after then leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. set a blistering pace on the field.

After the restart from the fifth position, Kenseth pulled off a daring pass on the No. 42 car of Jamie McMurray on lap 348 as they both struggled to get around the lapped car of Robby Gordon. Nine laps later, the caution flew once again for debris. Kenseth banked on pitting again for four tires since there wasn’t much track position to lose. On the ensuing restart, a wreck occurred just in front of Kenseth as the lapped car of Robby Gordon gave the No. 88 car of Dale Jarrett a tap from behind. Jarrett had been running in the third position at the time on the lead lap. Kenseth narrowly avoided the wreck by ducking under the spinning UPS-sponsored car. Kenseth was now running in a solid third place behind leader Jimmie Johnson and second place Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Another restart and another fast caution occurred just nine laps apart on lap 388. With the laps winding down, but now solidly in their fuel window, the team decided to pit for tires, in hopes that if there were another yellow flag period, they could stay out for track position on the fresher tires. After restarting in eighth place, the strategy never worked itself firmly in place — as there were no other caution periods, which ended up being very un-Bristol-like. Kenseth reported that the car was tight in the middle of the corner and he was having a hard time making progress.

That’s how the race came to a close for the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford. It was a solid top-10 finish and though even disappointing for Matt Kenseth, was something many a driver would have switched places for when it was all said and done.

Afterward, Kenseth spoke with reporters.

“We did the pit strategy right under green. Robbie did a good job there and kept us on the lead lap. At the end there when we pitted we didn’t get a real good pit stop and we came out one of the last cars on the lead lap. A bunch of cars that NASCAR gave their laps back with that lucky dog thing — Newman and some of those guys — stayed out and it got us so far back in the pack that we restarted ninth and our car was just real tight on the last run and couldn’t go anywhere. I guess we probably should have just stayed out and tried to get in front I guess.”

THERE WERE 200 GREEN FLAG LAPS. THAT WAS ODD. “That was good for us because Robbie did the pit strategy right. We pitted early under green when they did and we were able to put a whole bunch of cars a lap down, so that actually worked out good for us.”

Following the ninth place finish, the team remains fifth in the point standings, now just 224 points out of first place. Next week, the series heads to California Speedway for the second time this year in a race that replaces the traditional Labor Day Southern 500 from Darlington. Earlier this year, Kenseth finished fourth at California Speedway.

CONCORD, NC (August 24, 2004) — As the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series heads to the most brutal arena on the circuit — Bristol Motor Speedway — this weekend, DEWALT Tools is set to hand out some gifts that may come in handy during the race.

As part of their new product launch, DEWALT will be gifting each and every Nextel Cup crew chief with their brand new 18-Volt XRP Reciprocating Saw. The saws will be delivered via UPS Trackside on Friday morning at Bristol. This newer version is the most powerful reciprocating saw on the market, capable of turning 2,900 strokes per minute in a one-inch stroke length. According to Pete Morris, the Cordless Product Manager of DEWALT, the saws have an applicable duty on pit road.

“Though the saw’s primary function centers around the homebuilding markets, it’s a top-notch metal cutter,” says Morris. “It’s 25% faster than our previous reciprocating saw and features a keyless blade change, for quicker blade removal and replacement,” he added.

The new saws may come in handy come Saturday night under the lights. For the record, there is also supposed to be a full moon over the half-mile Bullring, of which brags of “Racin’ the Way it Ought’a Be” action.

A couple of crew chiefs contacted about the gifts had this to say:

“I think it’s a real nice gesture on [DEWALT’s] part, but I have to say in all honesty, I hope we don’t need to take it out of the box during the race,” commented Mike Beam, crew chief of the No. 32 Tide Chevrolet driven by Ricky Craven.

“This new saw is going be a great addition to our crash cart,” said Robbie Reiser, crew chief of the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford. “We use these tools every day and now I guess everyone else is going to get a trial run of one of their best pieces of equipment.”

Matt Kenseth performance summary at Bristol:

DATE	START	FINISH	LAPS	MONEY	STATUS
3/26/00	22	12	500/500	$42,165	Running
8/26/00	22	39	376/500	$35,575	Overheating
3/25/01	24	14	500/500	$57,340	Running
08/25/01	38	33	394/500	$51,295	Accident
03/24/02	6	6	500/500	$74,760	Running
08/24/02	10	5	500/500	$98,375	Running
03/23/03	37	2	500/500	$118,870	Running
8/23/03	10	4	500/500	$122,905	Running
3/28/04	23	5	500/500	$136,098	Running

BROOKLYN, MI (August 22, 2004) — Matt Kenseth brought home his 13th top-ten finish in 23 starts on Sunday in the GFS Marketplace 400 at Michigan International Speedway by finishing eighth on a day where, at times, 20th would have sufficed.

Rolling off the starting grid in 5th place after rain washed out qualifying for the second week in a row, Kenseth’s car started off loose. Real loose. Following two quick caution flags in the first 30 laps, Kenseth brought the car down pit road for adjustments to the air pressure and track bar. In just 13.49 seconds, the pit crew sent Kenseth back out on track in seventh place — gaining two positions on pit road.

Within the first 100 laps, there were several caution periods for debris that did not allow for a sustained green flag run. Even so, Kenseth knew the car was not behaving. “It’s acting up again — like yesterday,” he radioed. Later in the run, near lap 44, Kenseth reported that the car was so loose all the way around the track that it felt like it had no rear spoiler. Kenseth continued to slide all the way back to 18th place.

It was about to get worse.

Following the sixth caution on lap 70, Kenseth pitted for adjustments once more, hoping to get a handle on the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford. The team was in the process of changing four tires when the jack failed. Jackman Russ Strupp quickly grabbed the backup jack from over pit wall to complete the stop, but the damage was done. The extra long stop drop-kicked Kenseth to 31st on the lap 76 restart.

It was right about then that Kenseth started to feel like his car had multiple personalities. The car was no doubt better — or the others cars got worse. Kenseth rocketed to 20th in just 13 laps. On lap 90, the seventh caution brought the cars down pit road once more. He restarted 19th on lap 94, nearing the halfway point of the 200-lap race.

After struggling with the loose condition most of the race, the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford came alive over the next 35 laps. By lap 121, Kenseth was up to 14th — and the day was beginning to look salvageable.

But Kenseth wasn’t through yet. He made it to 10th place by the ninth and final caution of the day on lap 129. After coming down pit road for a 13.66-second stop, Kenseth re-entered the race in sixth place overall for the lap 135 restart.

The car had changed personalities for good. Now it was tight. Real tight. “It’s like a completely different car,” said Kenseth, stating the obvious. What was really obvious was that the car could now hold off the majority of the field.

After pitting for the final time with just 30 laps to go, Kenseth returned to action in 27th, but cycled back to 9th with just 18 laps left.

Kenseth was able to pick up one more spot and finished 8th overall, on a day where all five Roush Racing teams finished in the top 10, including Carl Edwards making his Cup debut in the No. 99 Ford.

Afterward, Matt spoke with reporters:

“It was OK. We didn’t run very well. We finished eighth with a 25th or 30th-place car, so that’s pretty good but we didn’t run well. We had a jack break on pit road. I was afraid we were gonna run like this yesterday. We didn’t run that good in practice either, and just couldn’t get the car to be into the track all weekend.”

DID YOU EVER GET THE CAR GOOD? “We didn’t have it very good. The last two runs were better than what we had it before, but we got it too tight. We were almost too loose the whole race and then had it too tight at the end, so we were just searching all day.”

Following the eighth place finish, the team remains fifth in the point standings, now just 236 points out of first place. Next week, the series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway, home of the unpredictable and the unexpected. It’s times like this that make it good to have a cushion in the points race.

CONCORD, NC (August 17, 2004) — On any given weekend, Matt Kenseth is known by a host of nicknames: The Ice Man, the silent assassin, Mellow Matt or just “Max” as the crew likes to call him … but at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday, Matt becomes the Martian Manhunter. His No. 17 Reiser Enterprises Ford will carry the paint scheme of the Justice League character in the Cabela’s 250.

The weekend event is slated as the Justice League Racing Weekend Presented by Hot Wheels©. The five Roush Racing drivers will each carry a special character paint scheme, but Matt Kenseth is the only driver whose participation is slated for the Busch Grand National event. Mark Martin runs the Batman car, Greg Biffle becomes the Flash, Carl Edwards takes over the role of the Green Lantern for newly departed Jeff Burton, Ryan Newman is the Justice League car, Ricky Rudd carries the Wonder Woman logos, and Kurt Busch is heralded as Superman.

But, back to the subject, Matt Kenseth. So who is this Martian Manhunter anyway?

According to his official background notes, the Martian Manhunter, whose real name is J’Onn J’Onzz, is the last survivor of an ancient Martian race. He has telepathic powers, which should transfer to Matt Kenseth in the cockpit. Thus, Kenseth will know just who has enough fuel to make it the rest of the way and various other pit road strategies will be his for the taking. The Martian Manhunter also has shape-shifting abilities. This should come in handy during those three-wide restarts.

In addition, the Martian Manhunter has the ability to pass through solid objects. Do we see Matt Kenseth having trouble passing a pesky lap down car? No problem. He’ll just move right through it. The Martian Manhunter is also blessed with incredible strength. If you have the misfortune of tangling with Matt Kenseth ontrack during the race, your best bet is to hide in your hauler after the race.

The Martian Manhunter is also tabbed as a bit of a loner, an outsider who is fascinated by the contradictions of the human mind. Matt Kenseth is a little bit of both of the first descriptions, but the third-that he’s fascinated with the contradictions of the human mind — well, that’s hitting the nail on the head. In fact, we’re sure that a few of his victory lane celebrations this year have fallen into that category — especially in regards to his Gatorade sponsorship!

At any rate, it should be a real treat this weekend — a weekend where Superpower meets Horsepower.

Matt Kenseth performance summary at Michigan:

DATE	START	FINISH	LAPS	MONEY	STATUS
08/22/99	25	14	200/200	$25,040	Running
06/11/00	23	17	193/194	$37,650	Running
08/20/00	28	8	200/200	$42,490	Running
06/10/01	31	15	200/200	$54,040	Running
08/19/01	33	4	162/162	$70,050	Running
06/16/02	20	1	200/200	$154,100	Running
08/18/02	21	11	200/200	$65,340	Running
6/15/03	21	4	200/200	$93,275	Running
8/17/03	33	9	200/200	$76,540	Running
6/20/04	18	7	200/200	$119,093	Running

Notable Notes

• Matt Kenseth finished ninth at Watkins Glen one week ago. It was his 13th top-ten finish in 22 starts so far this year.
• Kenseth remains in fifth place in the point standings, but sliced 100 points into the leader, now 257 points out of first place. Kenseth has spent 57 straight weeks inside the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Top 10 — the longest active streak.
• The No. 17 DEWALT Tools team will be bringing chassis #34 to Michigan this weekend. It is the same car used this year at California (fourth), Michigan (seventh) and Indianapolis (16th).
• In ten starts at Michigan, Kenseth has one win, three top-fives, six top-tens and nine top-fifteen finishes.

WATKINS GLEN, NY (August 15, 2004) — Though road courses are admittedly not Matt Kenseth’s specialty, he’s beginning to have doubters in his fan base. For the second time straight, Kenseth scored a top-ten finish at Watkins Glen International Raceway in Sunday’s Sirius at the Glen race. He brought the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford home in ninth place overall, protecting his points position and even gaining some serious ground back to first place as both leader Jimmie Johnson and second place Jeff Gordon had troublesome days.

Rolling off the starting grid from the fifth position after qualifying was rained out on Friday, Kenseth put the car through its paces in the early going. Restarts were often nail-biters, with drivers stampeding out of line trying anything to make up a position on the track where passing comes as a premium. It wasn’t long before trouble found two of the competitors on lap five. “The car is good … I’m a little tight at the top of the hill and a little loose off the corners,” he reported to crew chief Robbie Reiser. After another quick caution occurred on lap 15, Reiser again kept him out on the track, rather than pit too early in the fuel window.

By the lap 19 restart, Kenseth was still running in fifth place. However, just one lap later, he took over fourth with a daring pass of Bobby Labonte. Kenseth ran in the fourth position for eight more laps before his first pit stop of the day on lap 28 — for four tires and no changes. Three laps after returning to action, another caution flag waved — the third of the day — and Kenseth was now shown in 23rd place.

On lap 34, Kenseth restarted in 19th place and the car took off. Lap after lap, Kenseth was finding ways underneath cars and out-braking them for position. By lap 47 and just past the halfway point, he was up to 14th position.

On lap 48, an engine failure on the No. 0 car brought out the fourth caution. To play the fuel window safely, Reiser brought Kenseth down pit road for service and another four fresh tires. Kenseth restarted 17th on lap 51 of the 90 lap event.

Five laps later and the strategy to have just enough fuel to make it to the finish took off in full swing up and down pit road. Cars began to duck onto pit road, confident that they could now make it the rest of the way. The No. 17 DEWALT Tools team stuck to their strategy and played it cool, all the while picking up positions from those unwilling to gamble as long as Kenseth. Each passing lap meant less fuel would have to be filled into the fuel cell in the pits — making for a shorter stop.

Using this strategy, Kenseth made it all the way to second place, tracking then-leader rookie Brendan Gaughan. On lap 64, Reiser called Kenseth in for his final pit stop of the day — no tires and just under three seconds of fuel. The strategy worked as Kenseth returned to track in ninth place.

Over the final 20 laps, Kenseth had a tough time hanging onto the car, which all of a sudden got very tight in the turns, allowing two competitors to slip underneath him, dropping him momentarily out of the top-ten running order.

But trouble with both drivers having the last name Gordon saved the day for the DEWALT Team, as Kenseth made up the positions and one more en route to a ninth place finish.

At the beginning of the day, crew chief Robbie Reiser stated that he would be tremendously happy with a top-10 finish in the final road course race of the season. Just like the year before, he got it when he needed it most.

Afterward, Kenseth spoke with reporters.

“We ran okay. The way we pitted actually worked out okay. We were a 10th-place car, and some guys beat us on fuel mileage and stayed out, and the rest of the guys beat us on performance. About where we finished is about the best we were, so I’m happy with that for a finish.”

Following the ninth place finish, the team remains fifth in the point standings, but picked up 100 points on first and second place, now just 257 behind the leader. Next week, the series heads to Michigan International Speedway, otherwise known as home turf for the Roush Racing teams, for the second time this year.

Matt Kenseth performance summary at Watkins Glen:

DATE	START	FINISH	LAPS	MONEY	STATUS
08/13/00	12	10	90/90	$54,565	Running
08/12/01	38	23	90/90	$44,120	Running
08/11/02	8	33	89/90	$56,075	Running
8/10/03	7	8	90/90	$70,535	Running

Matt Kenseth on Watkins Glen International Raceway:

“Of the two road courses on the schedule, I kind of prefer Watkins Glen to Sonoma. It’s a little less technical and a little more fun to drive. I’m anxious to get the chassis back [37] that we used earlier this year that got wrecked before we could race it. I think it’s a good car, put together with some special touches that will make it pretty responsive. I don’t know what to expect as far as how it will qualify, but I think it’ll be good come race day.”

Robbie Reiser on Watkins Glen International Raceway:

“I’m echoing Matt on this car in that I’m glad we have it all fixed again and we’re ready to see what it can do come Sunday. Our guys on pit road had another great day last Sunday at Indy and I know they’ll keep it up here since track position is every bit as important as it was at the Brickyard.”

Notes

• Matt Kenseth finished 16th at the Brickyard 400 one week ago.
• Kenseth remains in fifth place in the point standings, now 357 points out of first place. Kenseth has spent 56 straight weeks inside the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Top 10 — the longest active streak.
• The No. 17 DEWALT Tools team will be bringing chassis #37 to Watkins Glen this weekend. It is the same car originally set for use at Sonoma, until the team was forced to use the backup car following a practice crash Saturday morning. The chassis is a brand new 2004 chassis, tested one time at Virginia International Raceway.
• In four starts at Watkins Glen, Kenseth has scored two top-ten finishes, including a personal-best eighth place finish in last year’s event.

Matt Kenseth returned to his racing roots night at Madison International Speedway in Oregon, Wisconsin. There was one sharp difference — he left without the trophy and the victory lane photo opportunity on this occasion. Kenseth’s father, Roy, is the track promoter at Madison and was instrumental in getting Matt and fellow Wisconsin racing legend Dick Trickle to attend the Miller Lite Classic, an annual event.

Trickle went on to notch a top-ten in the event, finishing ninth. However, Cambridge native Matt Kenseth had trouble early on in the event and was forced to park his late model in the garage area for the night. The official cause for elimination was listed as electrical, a reason which Kenseth echoed in his comments to the media afterward.

“The power went out for some reason,” said Kenseth. “It’s the electrical system or something. It hasn’t been much fun when things [on the car] can’t stay together,” he added.

Steve Carlson of West Salem, Wisconsin won the 150-lap race with a thrilling pass to the inside of Brian Hoppe with only nine laps to go. He collected the winner’s purse of $12,000.

Overall, it was a successful event for the Madison International Speedway, of which counts Matt Kenseth as its favorite son. Over 6,000 fans jammed the grandstands to watch their favorite hometown hero — even on a Tuesday night.

SPEEDWAY, IN (August 8, 2004) — When it was all said and done, members of the No. 17 Smirnoff Ice Ford Taurus were left wondering what might have been. What celebrations might still be going on had they made it past lap 142 of the 160-lap race. Lap 142 is when Kenseth, in second place at the time and gaining on first, ran over a good-sized piece of debris (rumored to be a brake rotor) and damaged the right front suspension and undercarriage of the car. He pitted instantaneously, thinking he also blew out the right front tire. Though the tire had kept its pressure, the damage did not allow Kenseth to challenge his way back to a respectable finish.

Rolling off the starting grid from the 23rd place, the car showed all of the form it previously had in both Saturday practice sessions. Kenseth rocketed to 15th by lap 13 of the event. He continued his upward climb through the second caution period of the day on lap 22. It was during this pit stop that Kenseth entered pit road in 11th place, but left in sixth for the lap 26 restart. The time on the stop was 13.67 seconds. It earned him five positions.

Kenseth continued his charge to the front with only minor complaints about the car’s handling. One thing he did make clear was that he was going to need some long green flag runs to reel in the frontrunners toward the end of the race. On a day in which the track set a record for caution flags, he wouldn’t get that break. Kenseth moved past Jeremy Mayfield to take over third place in the running order on lap 38 and things were definitely looking up.

He continued in the top-five for the next twenty laps and reported that the car was tight in turns one and two and to continue working on tightening up the chassis setup on pit stops. Kenseth worked himself back to third position by lap 78 as they neared the halfway mark of the event on lap 80.

“The car is tighter now,” reported Kenseth, but it was also loose up off the corner. However, the longer a run went, the better the car would become. On lap 103, Kenseth took second place in the running order. “It needs more side grip in the back,” he said, also stating that his throttle response was normal.

Kenseth complained about being loose on restarts and that it was hurting his overall chances for victory. “Just hang in there and be patient,” was the familiar line. On more caution on lap 125 happened and Kenseth used the opportunity to come down pit road more air adjustments to the rear tires. Just as the picture became a clearer, disaster struck on lap 142.

Coming down the backstretch, he barked on his radio that he had to pit at once for a possible flat tire. In the end, the tire wasn’t flat, but the object that Matt struck was sizeable and it did some heavy damage to the right underside of the car.

“I don’t know what I hit, but it was pretty good,” he radioed to Robbie Reiser. Just as quickly, he ducked onto pit road, thinking his race was over. After pitting to check damage under the right front tire, he roared back onto the track following a timely caution in 17th place.

For once, the changes to the car were not substantial, but there wasn’t enough time to earn a Brickyard Trophy. In the end, the crew got things fixed, had another awesome day on pit road and gained Kenseth finished a respectable 16th place overall.

After yet another late race caution — this one setting off the first use of the new green/white/checkerd flag finish — everyone slowed behind the pace car with just seven laps remaining. “This is ridiculous,” said a disgusted Kenseth over the radio. Like the team, he knew the car was capable of much more on the long runs.

After the damage to the right front of the car, Kenseth was not particularly a threat over the final few laps. Though he faded at the end, he had a top-five car capable of winning the 11th annual Brickyard 400.

In the end, Kenseth finished 16th, not bad for a Sunday afternoon drive at the most famous speedway of them all. Afterward, Kenseth addressed his day on his way out of the garage:

COULD YOU HAVE MADE A RUN AT GORDON? “I think we would have gotten there, but getting there here and passing are way two different things. We were about a tenth better than he was in the long run, but that’s usually not enough to get around someone, so I think we could have got there and made a race out of it if it would have stayed green and we wouldn’t have hit that debris. But I don’t know if we could have beat him or not. He was pretty good all day.”

WAS THE DEBRIS OUT THERE OR DID IT GET KNOCKED INTO YOU? “I don’t know. We were the first two cars to it, so Gordon said he hit it too. I hit it. I don’t know if it was laying there or not. By the time I saw it, I was already right on track to hit it. There’s pretty much one line here and to move off that line is hard to do at the last minute.”

YOU DIDN’T SEE IT THE LAP BEFORE? “No, I didn’t see it. If I would have seen it, I wouldn’t have run it over the second time by.”

FRUSTRATED? “I feel good that we ran good, but I’m real frustrated we didn’t get to finish. It’s disappointing, but we’ve had a couple years of pretty good luck and that’s just something that happens that’s bad luck.”

ABOUT YOUR DAY. “We had a great car. We had a car good enough to run with Jeff. I don’t know if we could have beat him, but in the long run we were a little bit better than he was. We were starting to close the gap there and ran into that piece of brake rotor or whatever was out there, so it was just kind of some bad luck. We’ve had a lot of good luck here the last couple of years, so this is usually the way the business works. It’s usually up and down, but it’s disappointing to have a car that good at a race this big and can’t bring it home with a good finish.”

HOW TOUGH WAS THE PACE TODAY? “We were running hard because we were up front, so we could run hard the whole time trying to catch Jeff, but there were just so many cautions. Usually at a track like this, we don’t get that many cautions. It was difficult to get into a rhythm because of all the cautions and we had a really good long run setup, but not a very good setup on restarts. That made it difficult with all those yellows.”

IS THIS WHY THE GREEN-WHITE-CHECKERED IS BAD FOR THE SPORT? “I don’t know. You knew they were gonna wreck. They knew we were gonna wreck and we knew we were gonna wreck. It’s not a surprise. That’s just gonna be part of it with that rule.”

GORDON THOUGHT A YELLOW SHOULD HAVE BEEN THROWN WITH THE DEBRIS. “Well, yeah. Today is not an example of one of them, but a lot of times you see cautions and we can’t figure out why — for a piece of duct tape or something. When there’s something like that — that was a five-pound bullet.”

WHAT WAS IT? “I think it was a piece of brake rotor off the 40, but I’m not sure. As soon as you see something like that, they definitely need to throw it, but maybe they didn’t see that soon. I don’t know.”

Following the sixteenth place finish, the team fell back up a spot in the points to fifth, 357 behind first place Jimmie Johnson. Next week, the series heads to Watkins Glen, for the series second and final road course event of the year. Kenseth placed eighth last year.

CONCORD, NC (August 4, 2004) - With the prestigious Brickyard 400 set for this weekend in Indianapolis Motor Speedway, we take a look back this week on Matt Kenseth’s run for the victory one year ago this week. For the record, Kenseth, driving the No. 17 Smirnoff Ice Triple Black Ford, took second in this event, finishing two seconds behind winner Kevin Harvick.

Kenseth started the race from the 17th position — who would have thought? In just one lap, he charged all the way to 10th place in the running order. It was an immediate sign that their car was going to contend for the coveted trophy. Early radio transmissions indicated he was loose both in and out of the corners, but tight in traffic.

After a scary incident on pit road involving Dale Jarrett’s crew, the pits were closed — and Matt’s fuel window was closing faster. He had no choice but to duck down pit road on the 40th lap and draw a penalty sending him to the tail end of the longest line. Things looked bad at the moment, but they were about to get a tad worse.

One lap later, the caution flew for a single car accident, but several cars bunched up behind the mishap and as a result, Kenseth ran into the back of Bobby Labonte, slightly damaging his front grille. He reported that the temperature gauge shot up to 260 degrees. The day was beginning to look like a total disaster.

Kenseth was sure that the radiator was leaking, but Reiser calmly advised him to stay out and see if the air under green flag conditions would stabilize the temperature. Pardon the pun, but cooler heads did prevail as the gauge began backing down. By lap 78 of the event, Kenseth had moved into fifth place. By keeping Kenseth out on the track the longest during that pit cycle, Reiser had the 17 car listed as the leader of lap 82.

By lap 109 of the 160-lap event, Kenseth muscled his way to third place on the grid as he slid past Bobby Labonte. On lap 114, he quickly moved into second place as then race leader Jamie McMurray led them to the inside of Robbie Gordon, who was on older tires.

Kenseth retook the lead again on lap 133. Kenseth pitted for the final time on lap 141 for fuel and two tires only. Just fifteen laps from the finish, a wild wreck occurred in turn three, collecting seven cars. Kenseth was running fourth and stayed out on the track instead of ducking in the pits one last time.

With just ten laps to go, Kenseth went to work like he always does at the finish of a race — strong. He passed Robbie Gordon for third, then Jamie McMurray for second. There just wasn’t enough time to catch Kevin Harvick. Kenseth ended up second — in the second most important race of the year. However, it was a victory for Kenseth’s burgeoning point lead. At this point last year, it was 286 over second place as he gained 54 points.

Matt Kenseth performance summary at Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

DATE	START	FINISH	LAPS	MONEY	STATUS
08/05/00	37	26	159/160	$97,435	Running
08/05/01	23	42	2/160	$91,435	Accident
08/04/02	18	3	160/160	$253,750	Running
8/3/03	17	2	160/160	$314,425	Running

“This is always such a prestigious race for the Nextel Cup Series — everybody would like a chance to say they’ve won at Indianapolis at some point in their career. I’m really no different, though I really didn’t grow up following the traditional Indy 500 or anything. It’s a very special event and a lot of teams circle this one on the calendar at the beginning of the year. We had an awesome race a year ago, finishing second to [Kevin] Harvick. I think we’re bringing a pretty good car with us this weekend and we’ll give it everything we’ve got. Maybe we’ll finish one spot better than last year.”

Robbie Reiser on Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

“We’re bringing the chassis #34 this week to Indy, which we ran at Michigan. The guys on the crew worked really hard all day last week to adjust on the car over and over again and it really paid off for us. It shows what these guys are capable of on a weekly basis and they’re pretty fired up to come here to the Brickyard and run well.”

Notable Notes

• Matt Kenseth finished eighth at Pocono Raceway one week ago. It was his 12th top-ten finish of the 2004 season and it vaulted him one spot forward in the standings to fourth overall.
• Kenseth has spent 55 straight weeks inside the “NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Top 10” — the longest active streak.
• This week marks the fourth of six events for the No. 17 Smirnoff Ice Ford and its primary sponsorship, which will run in two other events in 2004: September 5th at Richmond and October 3rd at Talladega.
• The No. 17 Smirnoff Ice team will be bringing chassis #34 to Indy. This is the same chassis used at Michigan earlier this year, in which Matt Kenseth finished seventh.
• Kenseth has twelve top-ten finishes in 20 starts so far this year.
• In four starts at NHIS, Kenseth has posted two top-five finishes.

LONG POND, PA (August 1, 2004) — Without a doubt, this was one of the strangest weekends of the year for the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford. On Friday during the two-hour practice session, Kenseth accidentally wrecked the car coming in from a qualifying practice run. He admitted to having brain fade as he dropped the window net while talking on the radio at the same time. As a result, Kenseth cut the wheel too close to pit wall and opened up the sheet metal all along the driver’s side of the car.

The team immediately went to a backup car and it was a battle-tested one. Chassis 20 had run previously in June at Pocono and was also responsible for both Vegas victories. Luckily also, Kenseth had drawn 47th of 47 cars to go out and qualify. He made the most of it, qualifying in a very un-Kenseth-like 15th place.

Then the rains came. All of Saturday’s regularly scheduled practice sessions were completely rained out — giving Matt Kenseth all of three laps on the entire weekend for the car — and two of those were on a qualifying run. Still, the team approached the event on Sunday with a confident air — as if everything would work out. Eventually, it did — but the day was not without its struggles. Kenseth finally brought the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford home in eighth place for his 12th top-ten of the 2004 season during the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway.

Rolling off the starting grid from the 15th spot, Kenseth knew something was amiss almost immediately. He began to run down a litany of handling problems with the car. It was only average all over the track. It pushed like a dump truck coming out of the third turn. It killed his exit speed. The front end wouldn’t turn and it was so loose, he almost couldn’t drive the car. Crew chief Robbie Reiser and engineer Chip Bolin set in for a long afternoon of major changes as Kenseth clung to what running order he could maintain in between pit stops.

Kenseth pitted for the first time on lap 34 and Reiser tightened up the chassis by making air pressure adjustments and lowering the track bar two turns. It didn’t help at all, according to Kenseth. The car simply would not arc into the corner without the sensation it was spinning out. “Hang on as best you can,” became the familiar refrain from atop the pit box. By a lap 53 pit stop, Kenseth was certain that the front fender was to blame for the massive amount of problems. On an extended stop, the team adjusted the fender, front grille tape, changed tires and made another track bar adjustment.

There was still little change, and Kenseth wallowed in 25th place for several laps. The team was running out of ideas and the prospect of 500 miles was beginning to seem impossible. But the crew never gave up. On the next pit stop, Reiser threw everything he had at the car.

On a lap 84 pit stop, as the race was nearing its halfway point, Reiser elected to change four tires, top off the fuel and drop the track bar as far down as it would go. It was another extended stay on pit road, and Kenseth restarted the race on lap 87 from the 27th position. Three laps later, and there was a spark of hope. “It’s still a little loose, but I think it’s finally coming around,” reported Kenseth. In ten laps, Kenseth picked up five positions and on the next caution, the team decided to roll the dice and only change two tires for the track position benefit. It worked to perfection as the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford leap-frogged to 10th place. As two other cars pitted on the next lap, Kenseth restarted the event from eighth place on lap 103. Then, the cautions began rolling in. Over the next twenty laps, there would be three of them for a combined fourteen laps.

Reiser and Kenseth kept adjusting on the car on each of the stops to make it handle better down the stretch. And it was working. Kenseth would give up track position in order to get everything right, then go right back out and regain his spots. After restarting 25th on lap 132, the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Ford really came alive. Kenseth remarked that the car was awesome coming off of turn three. His added momentum was allowing him to pass cars at will. He vaulted from 25th to 12th over the next 57 laps.

The pit crew picked a great time to have their best stop of the day as well, coming on lap 161. The crew changed all four tires in just over fourteen seconds to send Kenseth back out on the track in seventh place on a lap 164 restart. Kenseth remained in the top ten running order until the final pit stop of the day on lap 177. Fuel was no longer a factor, so Kenseth elected to change all four tires for the final run (or what he assumed would be the final run of the day). He restarted in 16th with just 20 laps to go.

He blasted right back to 11th by lap 183. He popped into the top-ten on lap 189 of the event, which would be slowed by the final caution flag on lap 192. The cars lined up for a single-file restart with just five laps to go — Kenseth hanging on to the 10th spot. In the final dash to the finish, Kenseth picked off the cars of Jeremy Mayfield and pole-sitter Casey Mears to take home eighth place.

Considering where the day began, an astounded Kenseth spoke with reporters afterward:

“We ran terrible all day, but through adjusting the car and doing all the work on it we got back up in the top 10. But we didn’t have a very good car all day. We made some major changes and had to throw everything at it.”

NOT GETTING ANY PRACTICE HURT YOU WITH THIS CAR? “Not in normal circumstances, but we changed our whole aero package on that car to be more like the 6. Maybe we need different setups to run with that. We tried to run what we did last time and it was way too loose, so we just have to keep working on it.”

Following the eighth place finish, the team finally moved back up a spot in the points to fourth, 417 behind first place Jimmie Johnson. Next week, the series heads the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400 — where Kenseth came within one spot of winning the charmed event in 2003.