Kenseth ready to bounce back after Indy disappointment
No driver was affected more by last Sunday’s tire debacle at Indianapolis Motor Speedway than Matt Kenseth.
And it’s fair to say that no driver is more intent on making up for it this weekend at Pocono Raceway, site of Sunday’s Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500.
Kenseth, who was relegated to a 38th-place finish at Indy after a tire completely shredded and caused extensive damage to his Ford, saw a string of eight straight top-10 finishes come to a halt. In the process, the Roush Fenway Racing driver dropped three positions to 11th in the Sprint Cup Series standings, just six points ahead of the 13th-place driver.
“We’ll be looking to bounce back this weekend at Pocono. Last weekend was a huge disappointment for us at Indy,”
Kenseth said. “We had a decent top-10 car, but with the tire issues, we ended up finishing 38th. It was pretty frustrating all weekend. We unloaded pretty good, with high hopes for a good finish. So blowing a tire like we did and tearing up our car was pretty embarrassing.”
Kenseth’s history at the 2.5-mile Pocono triangle isn’t as strong as at some places, but he does have a trio of top-five finishes and eight top-10s in 17 previous starts at the facility.
He placed seventh when the series last raced there in June.
“This weekend we’re looking to bounce back at Pocono, which has really been one of our tougher tracks,”
the 2003 series champion said. “We’re bringing back the same car we raced there earlier this year, and hopefully we’ll be able to better our seventh-place finish. A solid finish at Pocono would go a long way towards gaining some momentum in this stretch run leading up to the Chase [For The NASCAR Sprint Cup].”
One of the keys to a good run at Pocono will be fuel mileage, crew chief Chip Bolin says.
“We’ve seen it come down to fuel mileage in the past, so we’ve got to do our part to stay on top of pit strategy and be on top of our game and take care of everything that we have control over,”
Bolin said. “After such a disappointing race last weekend, we have to have a solid finish at Pocono.”
