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« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2007, 02:26:27 pm » |
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~Roush Fenway Racing
Misfortune Finds Kenseth Again at Charlotte Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 Carhartt for Womena Ford Fusion Racing Team Lowe's Motor Speedway/October 13, 2007
CONCORD, N.C. (October 13, 2007) -- For Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 team, the 2007 Chase is beginning to feel like a bad scene from Groundhog Day. After leading three different times for 32 laps in the first 134 laps of Saturday night’s event, a series of unfortunate events placed Kenseth in the middle of the pack for the first time all evening. Kenseth reported the car’s handling as being “deathly loose,” even while out front in clean air and that condition only worsened in traffic. So much so that on lap 159, Kenseth spun out while exiting turn four and made contact with the front-stretch wall. After making repairs, Kenseth was close to gaining his lap back before getting involved in another accident, this one not of his doing, on the front stretch. Finally, on lap 224, with the damage to the car far too great to overcome, Kenseth could no longer hang on and after his second spin of the night, came to the garage for extensive repairs. The No. 17 did return to the track late in the race to gain a few spots, but eventually parked it in the 34th position, when there was nothing more to gain with a little more than 10 laps to go. A crowd of well over 150,000 enjoyed a picture perfect evening at Lowe’s Motor Speedway as Ryan Newman led the field to the green flag at 7:46 PM Eastern time. Kenseth rolled off seventh, his fourth straight top-11 qualifying effort at LMS.
Immediately, Kenseth knew something was amiss with the handling of his freshly designed Carhartt for Women Ford, reporting that the car was “Really good for the first 10 laps of a run, but then something drastic happens to it and it’s really loose from about lap 10 on.”
Though the condition never went away, Kenseth remained running in the top five with the help of some excellent pit stops by the “Killer Bees” and some great pit strategy by Robbie Reiser. As loose as his car was, it became imperative that Kenseth remain up front in clean air.
On lap 63, while running in fifth, the first in a series of problems occurred for Kenseth and company. Kenseth reported to the crew that he had issues with his alternator and as a result was losing battery voltage rapidly. To counter the problem, Kenseth turned off most of the car’s fans and switched to the backup battery. However, to conserve the life of the backup, Kenseth ran the primary while under caution, but warned that if anything should happen on pit road, to where he stalled the car, that he would most likely need a push off, due to the loss of battery power.
Kenseth led on several occasions in the early on thanks to some great pit stops by the No. 17 crew. The most impressive stop came on lap 119, when Kenseth entered in the fourth position, but thanks to a 12.37-second four tires and fuel stop, he returned to the track with the lead.
Throughout the first 138 laps, Kenseth toiled in the top five, and while little seemed to help the “deathly loose” condition of his racecar, by being up front, he was able to enjoy less traffic and cleaner air.
That was until a pit stop under caution on lap 138. Reiser made the call for two tires in order to keep Kenseth up front, which appeared to be the right call, but upon exit from the pit stall, Kenseth had to suddenly slam on brakes in order to avoid hitting the No. 22 car. In the process, the engine stalled, and because of the bad alternator, Kenseth needed a push from his pit crew to get going again. The extra time cost Kenseth nearly 10 positions and he returned to the track in 12th.
Immediately after the restart, Kenseth could tell the difference of running in heavy traffic, reporting the car as being, “So loose, I can barely hang on.” After a couple of good saves, spotter Bob Jeffrey even said to Kenseth, “You’re putting on one heck of a show for Mark (Martin) behind you there.” Kenseth immediately responded, “It’s only a matter of time.”
One lap later, the time came, and Kenseth spun coming off of turn four. The No. 17 Ford slid down on the infield grass before sliding all the way back across the track and making contact with the outside retaining wall. Kenseth came to pit road several times under caution where the team made numerous repairs to the right rear of the car and in the process went one lap down.
Down, but not out, Kenseth fought valiantly, despite a wrecked racecar, to attempt to gain his lap back, and was near the position to be the beneficiary for the “free pass.” Unfortunately, on lap 207, the car running directly in front of Kenseth spun out off of turn four. Kenseth slowed down in anticipation of the car sliding back across the track, which it did, but the car trailing Kenseth failed to slow down and slammed hard into the back of the already damaged No. 17 Ford. Kenseth again returned to pit road for repairs, but got back on the track in 32nd, still only one lap down, but with an even more heavily damaged racecar.
Finally, on lap 224, Kenseth could not longer hang on as the No. 17 Ford spun off of turn two. Kenseth reported, “It just swapped ends on me. I couldn’t drive it any longer and it just wrecked.”
This time Kenseth was forced behind the wall and into the garage for extensive repairs. But, the tenacity of the No. 17 crew was never more evident than when they went to work on the damaged machine and returned it to racetrack 33 laps later. Though Kenseth was well out of contention in 36th place, he did manage to run until he gained as many spots as possible, passing two other wrecked machines to finish 34th. With nothing left to gain or lose, Reiser called Kenseth to the garage with 12 laps remaining to park it for the evening.
"I don't know where to start,” said a frustrated Kenseth. “We had a pretty fast car tonight, we had something weird that we'd run 10 laps and I would get so loose in the corner I could hardly hang onto it. I have absolutely no excuse. I really feel like an idiot out here tonight. I wrecked twice and it seems like we've wrecked for a month straight, so I really want to apologize to my fans. It's kind of hard to stress how these guys work on this car. I really feel bad for these guys. I really let them down."
NEXT UP: Subway 500 .526-mile Martinsville Speedway Martinsville, Va. Sunday, Oct. 21, 2007
About Roush Fenway Racing
Roush Fenway Racing is NASCAR’s largest team operating 14 motorsports teams, five in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup with drivers Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and David Ragan; five in the Busch Series with Kenseth, Biffle, Edwards, McMurray, Ragan, Todd Kluever, Michel Jourdain Jr. and Danny O’Quinn Jr.; and three in the Craftsman Truck Series with Edwards, Peter Shepherd, Travis Kvapil, Erik Darnell and T.J. Bell; and one in the ARCA/REMAX Series with Colin Braun and Darnell.
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