Continuing to add to his stellar list of accomplishments, Matt Kenseth drove to victory Tuesday night at the Madison International Speedway in dominating fashion in the First Supply All-Star Challenge presented by Capitol City Harley-Davidson to notch his first win in the annual late model special.
“Im just glad I didn’t have to race against any other Pathfinder Chassis, ” Kenseth commented alluding to his potent ride that led 78 laps of the 100-lap event. “From the first lap on the race track, I knew we had a great car, ” Kenseth continued, “It turned so great in the middle it was just fun to drive. ”
Starting from the inside of the second row, Kenseth followed early leader Steve Carlson for the opening 21 laps before seizing an opportunity to take command of the race with an outside move exiting turn two on lap 22.
”He’s (Carlson) so smooth, I knew he wasn’t going to miss the bottom, ”Kenseth stated, describing his early battle for the top spot. “So I just went to the outside and gassed it. ”
Once out front, Kenseth was never seriously challenged, easing out to a substantial lead following restarts through six caution periods before driving to a twelve car-length victory over Mark Eswein and Nathan Haseleu.
Eswein and Haseleu provided the best drama on the speedway in the closing laps as they raced door to door for the runner-up spot with Eswein edging Haseleu at the finish.
“I’m real proud of our team and the effort, ”Eswein stated. “My two favorite NASCAR drivers are Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart (who finished 7th) and Nate (Haseleu) is my good friend, so it was a fun night. ”
“We just missed it in the second half, ” Haseleu said after following Kenseth for most of the night before being nipped for second by Eswein. “We were pretty loose there at the end and the halfway break hurt us because we made the wrong adjustments. ”
Eddie Hoffman used a late race charge to capture the fourth spot at the checkered flag while Jacob Humphrey ran what may be considered his best race to date, coming home with a solid and respectable fifth place finish. Jeremy Lepak crossed the stripe in sixth place and NASCAR Nextel Cup star Tony Stewart raced among the top-runners all night to notch a seventh place result.
“This is only my fifth pavement late model race, ” Stewart told an enthusiastic crowd estimated at 8,000. “I got a chance to follow Matt (Kenseth) earlier and picked up three tenths. There’s a lot of good guys out here so in 100 laps, I was bound to learn something. ”
Dave Feiler, Chad Wood, and Bobby Wilberg rounded out the top ten finishers in the large 36-car field.
Steve Carlson launched into the lead at the start from his outside front row starting position while Kenseth and Jeremy Lepak battled for second with Kenseth taking the position on lap three. A spin by Trent Snyder in turn four drew the first caution flag on lap nine with Carlson leading Kenseth, Lepak, Wilberg, and Dave Feiler. As racing resumed, Carlson and Kenseth once again marched ahead of the pack while Haseleu moved up to challenge Feiler and Wilberg for positions in the top five.
Andy Monday found the wall in turn four on lap 15 and the event was slowed under the yellow flag again. This time as the green flag appeared, Kenseth was able to stay with Carlson and after dogging him on the inside for a few laps, moved up to the outside groove to pull alongside on lap 21. As the two leaders exited turn two on lap 22, Kenseth was able to build momentum on the high side and he raced by Carlson and into the lead.
A minor tangle between Gregg Ruffalo and Kyle Kinder in turn two on lap 44 brought out another caution flag on lap 44, just before the field took a mandatory break at the halfway mark on lap 50 with Kenseth leading Carlson, Haseleu, Eswein, and Humphrey.
The race’s second half was conducted relatively incident-free as Kenseth maintained his lead while Haseleu worked on Carlson for second. Haseleu eventually made his bid work on lap 62, moving to the inside to take the spot while Eswein closed in fourth. Carlson found himself slipping up the speedway and by the time he could regroup, both Eswein and Humphrey had made their way by. A spin by Tommy Pecaro off turn two on lap 80 set up a twenty-lap dash to the finish. The field barely received the green flag when mechanical problems on Kelly Bires’ car created a logjam that sent Dennis Prunty nosing along the frontstretch wall as the yellow reappeared.
This time as racing resumed, Kenseth was able to leap out ahead of Haseleu who had his hands full with Eswein while farther back Eddie Hoffman began to come to life, racing around Stewart and charging through the field. With Kenseth comfortably in the lead, Eswein moved alongside Haseleu to challenge for second, finally making the move stick with four laps to go while Hoffman continued his charge, maneuvering around Humphrey to grab fourth. At the finish, Kenseth took the checkered flag first to score the win followed by Eswein and Haseleu while Hoffman and Humphrey finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Haseleu topped the speed charts in qualifying after touring the speedway in 17.683 seconds. Trent Snyder was the winner of the first qualifying race over Chad Wood and Todd Kluever. Matt Kocourek and Nick Hammer rounded out the top five. Dexter Bean took the win in the second qualifying heat race over Jonathan Eilen and Steve Rubeck. Dennis Prunty and Gregg Ruffalo were fourth and fifth respectively.
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