Kenseth back in Chase contention, earns best career Daytona finish
By Rea White - Associate Editor
Sunday, July 06, 2008
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Roush Fenway Racing's Matt Kenseth continues to move in and out of the potential Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup field, but he gained significant ground on that front Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway.
Kenseth finished third in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Coke Zero 400, a performance that moved him not only back into the top 12 - he entered the event 13th in the standings, just 15 points outside of the elite group - but more comfortably so than he has been all season.
He's now ninth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, though he is only 23 points ahead of the 13th-place driver in what is proving to be a hard-fought battle for those final Chase positions.
Still, Kenseth left Daytona a happy man. His third-place finish is a career-best for him at the track and came following a wild race in which several frontrunners were involved in late incidents.
For once, Kenseth wasn't one of them - not even when he was among the leaders for the green-white-checkered restart that lengthened the race and led to one final wreck that caused the race to finish under caution.
"It was crazy," he said. "You know you never know what's going to happen with the green and white [and] checkered – [you're] pretty sure you had a place and there's going to be a wreck and you hope you're not in it basically.
"[The] restart was really odd, kind of about 20 car lengths late and everybody was running into each other like crazy. I've never been hit so hard and hit people so hard before through a green. So that kind of got it sort of started and I guess Carl [Edwards] must have had a little run on Jeff [Gordon, who was leading] and Jeff got spun out."
After that, he was trying to push Edwards to the win as Kyle Busch challenged on the outside but eventually got shuffled behind Busch. In the end, Edwards settled for second with Busch winning the race.
"Down the back I was trying to push Carl because we had such a good restart, and Kurt [Busch] was behind me pushing me like crazy, but he was trying to look different directions on Kyle and Kyle was blocking like crazy," Kenseth said. "He was all over the straightaway I was fearing hitting him and spinning out. And Kyle went up to block him and I got sideways and I was going to wreck and had to get off the gas.
"If Kyle could have got straight and we could have got a farther back run on Kyle, I think we both could have went by him and maybe raced for the win, but we just couldn't quite get that figured out exactly right. Anyway, happy I finished third, best I ever finished at Daytona the guys made great adjustments and we were pretty competitive, so it feels good."
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Matt Kenseth
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