| | | | | | LIKES THE PLACE | Kenseth deems Dover one of his favorite tracks, ready for Best Buy 400 | |
| | Rea White / SceneDaily.com Matt Kenseth loves Dover International Speedway. It was the site of his NASCAR Cup series debut, the place where he first won a pole and a track on which the Roush Fenway Racing driver has won.
What’s not to love?
Kenseth debuted at the track in 1998, filling in for Bill Elliott, who left the track for personal reasons. In 2002, he returned as a driver in his third full season for the team now known as Roush Fenway Racing and scored his first career Cup pole.
This weekend, Kenseth is making his 18th start at the track where he has a win, 10 top-10 and five top-five finishes. He enters the Best Buy 400 with a resume that includes completing 6,925 of 7,204 (96.1 percent) laps attempted at the track and an average finish of 15.3.
“Dover is probably my favorite track for a lot of different reasons,” Kenseth said. “My first Cup race was there, plus we’ve won a couple times there in the Nationwide Series. Then we got our first Cup win there last year, so we’ve had a lot of good times at Dover. The track is so fast and challenging.”
That’s strong support from a driver who led 192 laps there last fall – while in the Chase For The Nextel Cup – and ended up blowing an engine and finishing 35th.
He admits, though, that this is also a track where luck has played a role for him from time to time.
“It seems every time we go to Dover it’s either all or nothing,” says Kenseth, who has four top-10 finishes and two of 35th in the last six races there. “We either run really well and finish well, or something crazy happens, and we don’t end up with a good finish. We had a really good car there in September and could have won the race if it weren’t for mechanical troubles.”
Obviously, he hopes that those issues don’t dog his team once more. A strong finish in Sunday’s Best Buy 400 could vault Kenseth even higher in the Sprint Cup standings as he works to battle his way back into contention for the championship this season. Kenseth climbed four spots to 16th in the standings with his seventh-place finish last Sunday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. That puts him 190 points behind the 12th-place team, but there’s plenty of time to make up ground. The series has 14 races before the field is set for the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Adding to his potential this weekend is his team’s desire to avenge the win that it felt slipped away last time it was there.
“Team 17 has had some success at Dover in the past, but we’ve also had our share of heartache as well,” said crew chief Chip Bolin, who was with the group in a different role last season. “The last time we raced there we led almost half of the race and looked to be on our way to victory lane, and our engine expired. So I guess you could say this time we’re looking for a little redemption there. We are bringing a good car that Matt has been fairly consistent in this year, so hopefully we’ll get the setup right and be able to go out there and compete for the win.”
| | Posted May 27, 2008 , 7:09 pm EST
Last Updated May 30, 2008 , 11:53 am EST | | | | | | | | | | |
