Kenseth, crew find silver lining in rare blown engine
Plagued by a faltering alternator, Chase contender Matt Kenseth knew he was racing on borrowed time Sunday.
Less than halfway into the Dodge Dealers 400 at Dover, Matt Kenseth, who entered the race seventh in the point standings, said his alternator was going out -- his battery was low on voltage, as was his backup battery.
In effort to save power, the driver of the No. 17 switched off unnecessary fans inside the car.
By Lap 366, Matt Kenseth was running on only seven cylinders, his race, one in which he lead 192 of 400 laps, was unraveling at the seams.
On Lap 374, smoke began to bellow from the back end of Matt Kenseth's car, forcing him to the garage for good.
Surprisingly, Matt Kenseth wasn't fuming as much as his Ford Fusion. In fact, he was pleased to have had such a successful run in the Car of Tomorrow, the chassis he and other Roush Fenway teammates struggled with until recently.
"We've never been in contention to win with the COT cars, and we were finally getting it running a lot better, so I've got to thank my guys for that," he said. "So we'll just go get 'em next week."
Of the 13 COT races so far this season, Matt Kenseth has seven top-10 finishes, a performance slightly below his 60 percent season average -- basically a C grade.
Once might figure Matt Kenseth's crew chief Robbie Reiser would be slightly peeved over a blown engine in the NASCAR playoffs. However, his attitude was parallel to that of his drivers: positive and optimistic.
As the crew toiled away on the No. 17 machine in the garage while teammate Carl Edwards continued to lead the closing laps, Reiser said he was happy to have a good run.
"We hadn't run good enough to really be a contender in this thing [the Chase] anyway and we shouldn't have been in the Chase all year," he said. "[Sunday] we went out and raced like we used to race and that makes me feel good. Blowing up wasn't that big a deal."
Matt Kenseth said a blown engine in the Roush stable is a rarity.
"I think this is the first one I've blown up in probably two years, so I can't talk bad about the engine, but my team did a great job and we had a great handle on the job, finally," Matt Kenseth said. "Some things you just can't do much about. I don't have a bad word to say about Roush-Yates engines. They've won more races for me than they could ever lose. They do a great job. They gave me a lot more power. We were real competitive."
And more competitive is what Roush Fenway has become late in the season as the organization makes greater advances in its COT program, one that team owner Jack Roush said he was initially "out to lunch" on.
"It was really clear that I had been asleep at the switch," Roush said as he celebrated Edwards' victory, the 100th race win for the organization.
The Roush Fenway stable started with a COT deficit in the Spring Bristol race that continued through Phoenix.
Roush called on Ford Motor Company for technical help and concentrated on the road races first, then tackled much-needed track testing useful for the Chase.
"Early on we certainly didn't have the information we needed to be able to use it," he said. "In the meantime, we took stock of what we were going to face in the championship run, and practiced and tested and did simulations in the shop to be able to get the data that other teams had before we did."
With five of the 10-race Chase events using COT cars, championship hopefuls must be competitive with the new car.
Roush said for him the COT is "coming of age" and he looks forward to COT races in Phoenix. But not necessarily Talladega in two weeks.
"I understand the drivers don't see very well out the back," he said. "But for [Sunday], we're going to celebrate the fact that we had great cars, the Roush Fenway Ford Fusions were certainly heard from today."
See more at www.nascar.com
