Kenseth, who won a rain-shortened Daytona 500 last week to open the 2009 Sprint Cup season, had to endure four short rain delays in the season’s second race. But with the help of his pit crew, which several times got the No. 17 Ford off pit road first, Kenseth became the first driver since 1997 to win a season’s first two points races.
The last driver to start the season with two victories was Jeff Gordon, who fought furiously to deny Kenseth this time but settled for second.
“I thought he was going to pass us,” Kenseth said. “As many laps as were left, I honestly thought we were going to be too loose at the end, and he was going to catch us.”
FIN CAR DRIVER 1 17 Matt Kenseth 2 24 Jeff Gordon 3 18 Kyle Busch 4 16 Greg Biffle 5 2 Kurt Busch 6 11 Denny Hamlin 7 99 Carl Edwards 8 14 Tony Stewart 9 48 Jimmie Johnson 10 83 Brian Vickers 11 42 Juan Montoya 12 9 Kasey Kahne 13 12 David Stremme 14 0 David Reutimann 15 55 Michael Waltrip 16 26 Jamie McMurray 17 6 David Ragan 18 28 Travis Kvapil 19 33 Clint Bowyer 20 96 Bobby Labonte 21 47 Marcos Ambrose 22 43 Reed Sorenson 23 77 Sam Hornish Jr. 24 7 Casey Mears 25 19 Elliott Sadler 26 20 Joey Logano * 27 1 Martin Truex Jr. 28 39 Ryan Newman 29 44 A.J. Allmendinger 30 7 Robby Gordon 31 34 John Andretti 32 31 Jeff Burton 33 171 David Gilliland 34 41 Jeremy Mayfield 35 8 Aric Almirola 36 36 Scott Riggs 37 98 Paul Menard 38 29 Kevin Harvick 39 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 40 5 Mark Martin 41 82 Scott Speed * 42 66 Dave Blaney 43 187 Joe Nemechek
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