Kenseth Rebounds from Eight Years off to Finish Sixth at Watkins Glen
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (August 11, 2007) - An addition to Matt Kenseth's Busch Series schedule midseason had him back racing at Watkins Glen for the first time since 1999. In the past Kenseth hasn't faired so well at the 2.45-mile road course, but this time he turned that around with a top-10 finish. The team built a brand new road course car and took it to Watkins Glen to see what they had only to get in half the allotted practice time on Friday due to some rainy weather in the area. Kenseth still managed a 16th-place starting position and gained 10 spots on his previous high finish of 16th at the Glen earning at sixth-place finish.
Kenseth steadily gained positions lap-by-lap. By the ninth lap he had moved into the top 10 when crew chief Drew Blickensderfer made the call to come down pit road for fuel only. Road course races have been proven to be won on pit strategy and fuel mileage. Fellow competitors took similar approaches to the 82-lap event and by the time the field cycled through stops Kenseth was back in 10th by lap 22.
The No. 17 Aflac Ford Fusion was handling well and Blickensderfer reminded Kenseth to "save fuel." Kenseth took his advice, but thanks to a great handling car continued to gain track position. The second caution of the day came out on lap 37 while Kenseth was in the eighth position. The team took advantage of the yellow flag conditions to perform its one tire changing stop of the day. Kenseth came down pit road on lap 39 for four tires, fuel and a slight air pressure adjustment on the left front. Watkins Glen is the only track in which the cars enter pit road from the opposite direction setting the team up for a backward pit stop. Kenseth's over-the-wall crew took on the challenge of the backwards stop and pressure of only having one stop to get everything right and excelled. They gained him track position on pit road which once again had Kenseth in the top 10 for the green flag restart.
The team did all they could to help him and from there it was up to Kenseth to finish out the race. Blickensderfer gave him one more reminder to "save gas" and he was on his way. Kenseth worked his way up to the third position, but eventually settled back to the sixth position on lap 60. The remaining 22 laps proved uneventful as the field spread out on the track. Kenseth maintained his track position, but just didn't have the enough at the end to break into the top five and finished sixth.
"I thought that was a really good finish," said Kenseth. "That was the first Busch race I ran here in, like, eight years, so I'm actually extremely happy with that. We ran pretty competitively, had a great strategy, had great pit stop, everything went right. If I was a little better at it, I'd have probably had a shot at the win, but with one hour of practice in a new car, and me not being here a lot, that's the best we could do."
