| | | | | | NICE REBOUND | Kenseth ends dry spell with sixth-place Darlington finish | |
| | Jared Turner / SceneDaily.com Few drivers at Darlington Raceway on Saturday night needed a top-10 finish more than Matt Kenseth. And it’s fair to say no driver was more pleased to snare one.
Mired in one of the most miserable stretches of his Cup career, the Roush Fenway Racing driver charged forward from a 34th-place starting spot to place sixth in the Dodge Challenger 500 at the newly paved Darlington track.
“I was really happy with our finish,” said Kenseth, who had come home better than 30th just once in his previous five outings. “We’ve been running so terrible and having such bad luck, so I was happy for our finish. … It was a great finish for us and we ran pretty good.”
Kenseth was also one of seemingly only a few drivers who managed to reach the checkered flag without at least one noticeable brush with the outside wall during the 367-lap affair.
“It wasn’t as hard for us today as it was for some of them,” said the 2003 Cup champion, who was joined in the top 10 by Roush Fenway teammates Carl Edwards (second) and David Ragan (fifth). “It was hard for us [Friday], but I don’t think I even hit it once today, so that was a good day but it was a little treacherous.”
As is often typical of Kenseth even when he's performing well, his No. 17 car didn’t move into contention until the second half of the race.
But that was still enough to squelch his dry spell and move Kenseth up two spots to 20th in the series standings.
“It just took us that long to get our car right and we had it really good that last run,” he said. “We actually had it good before then, but we got the fender knocked in on pit road [in contact with Dave Blaney] and had to give up all that track position, but everything pretty much went right for a change.”
| | Posted May 11, 2008 , 6:45 pm EST
Last Updated May 12, 2008 , 11:53 pm EST | | | | | | | | | | |
