| | | | | | TURN IT AROUND | Kenseth hoping to turn things around at Richmond with top finish | |
| | SceneDaily Staff Matt Kenseth is having a very un-Matt Kenseth-like year. Instead of rattling off top-10 finish after top-10 finish, the Roush Fenway Racing driver has been saddled with a string of poor races.
Finishes of 36th, 30th, 38th and 41st in the season’s first nine races have also left the 2003 Cup champion in unfamiliar territory. He’s outside a possible spot in the Chase For The Sprint Cup, sitting 19th in the points standings.
But as the Sprint Cup Series heads to Richmond International Raceway this weekend, Kenseth hopes for better results.
“We’ve had two awful races in a row – Phoenix and Talladega were both extremely disappointing for me,” Kenseth said. “I’m hoping Richmond will be where we turn things around. We have the resources to go out and win races and be competitive each week, we just haven’t been, and it hasn’t been very fun.”
Kenseth has one victory at the 0.75-mile Richmond track to go along with nine top-10 finishes in 16 starts. He was 10th and 14th in the two races last year.
“We’ve had some success at Richmond over the years, and it’s one of my favorite places to go,” Kenseth said. “Richmond is a pretty cool race track. It’s pretty wide for a short track, and that usually allows for side-by-side racing. It used to be the only short track that we went to where we could do that, but now you can race side by side at Bristol too."
Crew chief Chip Bolin will be under some pressure, as practice and qualifying are compressed into one day, Friday, while the Crown Royal 400 is scheduled for Saturday night.
“Actually, despite the hectic schedule Richmond is a pretty cool race that I always enjoy,” Bolin said. “Typically team 17 runs competitively to well at Richmond. It’s another one of those long run, finesse, momentum tracks that Matt likes.”
| | Posted April 29, 2008 , 4:04 pm EST
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