Charlotte: Matt Kenseth NASCAR Sprint Cup Race Preview
Team: No. 17 Carhartt/DEWALT Ford Fusion Crew Chief: Chip Bolin
Chassis: RK-550 Matt Kenseth has raced this car five times this year.
He has logged two top-five and five top-10 finishes in this racecar and has led 81 laps.
Kenseth on racing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway:
“You know, I’ve always enjoyed racing at Charlotte. It will always be a special place for me. It’s where I got my first Cup win, we won the All-Star race there in ’04 and we’ve picked up a couple of Nationwide wins there too. The racing is always a lot of fun and since we tested fairly well there a couple of weeks ago, I feel like we should be competitive.”
"After the disaster we experienced last week at Talladega, we really need to work on making up some points. We just need to concentrate on finishing as high as we can, lead as many laps as we can, get as many points as we can every week and not really worry about what anybody else is doing. There's still a lot of racing to go and hopefully we can climb back in it.”
Crew chief Chip Bolin on racing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway:
“We are bringing back a car that we’ve raced several times this year and each time we’ve raced it, we’ve had a lot of success. So I am fairly confident the car will be decent and we should be competitive from the get-go.”
“We experienced a major setback last week at Talladega, but we knew the race there would be a crap shoot. This week we’re heading to a track where we feel very confident – we’ve run well there many times. I know that we have one of the best drivers and pit crews out there, so if we all do our jobs and take care of business on Saturday night, we should be around with a shot at the end.”
FAST FACTS:
●Matt Kenseth will make his 19th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Lowe’s Motor Speedway this weekend in the Bank of America 500.
●For the Record… In 18 starts, Kenseth has achieved one win, five top-five and eight top-10 finishes.
●Kenseth has scored four career victories at Lowe’s Motor Speedway; 2000 Coca-Cola 600, 2004 All-Star Race, and two Nationwide Series wins.
●On the track…The No. 17 will sport the colors of Carhartt this weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Team 17 will be unloading chassis RK-550. Kenseth has raced this car five times in 2008 (both races at Fontana, Texas, the Coke 600 and Chicago). He has two top-five and five top-10 finishes in this racecar.
●Rewind… Matt Kenseth appeared to be on his way to recording a solid finish in the AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, but a late-race incident took Kenseth out of contention just 17 laps from the finish.
Despite finishing a less than stellar 26th, Kenseth spent 148 of 190 laps in the top 15 and managed to lead three times for five laps.
●The CHASE is on… Four races in the Chase for the Sprint Cup are complete and Kenseth remains in the ninth position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings, 245 markers behind point leader Jimmie Johnson.
