Late pit stop is key to top-five finish for Roush Fenway's Matt Kenseth
FORT WORTH, Texas - Roush Fenway Racing's Matt Kenseth knew he was going to need fuel to finish the race, so he went ahead and stopped with 25 laps to go in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
That strategy paid off well as Kenseth went on to finish third in the race - behind the only two teams that made it to the end following an earlier round of pit stops.
"We were 10 laps short so we did everything we could," Kenseth said. "These guys did a really good job on this team this weekend. We were pretty slow when we got here. We qualified 30th and had an uphill battle all day, and I think we would have finished about third or fourth on performance, and the way everything shook out, we still ran third, so, overall, I’m happy with that.”
Kenseth said that at one point, he thought that everyone might run out or have to pit late. Kyle Busch, who led 232 laps, did run out inside the final three laps, and others dove down pit road as their tanks began to run dry in the closing miles.
Kenseth looked like he just might have a shot at taking his third win of the season - and first in 32 races.
In the end, though, he said he was pleased to see former teammate Kurt Busch and his Penske Racing team win. After all, they had led 89 laps during the race and spent much of the rest of the laps running second to Kyle Busch.
"I thought when we came and got tires with 25 to go and fuel that we actually had a shot to win, if some of those guys didn’t make it, but yet the 2 [of Busch] was real fast all day and [crew chief] Pat Tryson is famous for calling fuel-mileage races," Kenseth said. "I’m happy Kurt won because at least he was really fast all day and it wasn’t like somebody running 20th ran around half-throttle and won the race. So it was cool that Kurt pulled that off.
"I’m really happy for them. They were able to go a couple extra laps and be fast, and be able to stay out there, but we just got tires and raced as hard as we could all day."
Kenseth remained 14th in the standings, 32 points behind Kyle Busch in 13th with two races to go this season.
