Kenseth on racing at Martinsville Speedway:
“Well, at some point, our luck has got to change, so maybe it’ll be this weekend at Martinsville which is a track I usually dread racing at. To me, and I’ve said this a lot, Martinsville reminds me of racing around two light polls in some mall parking lot. There’s very little room to race, it’s slow and just real tight quarters. Forget passing on the outside, I think everyone saw that back in the spring when the second-place car, which was a good bit faster at the time, couldn’t get around the leader for the last 20 laps or so. To me, there’s nothing fun about that.
“We need to just try and focus on getting a solid finish. The last month has been real tough for everyone on the team. They work so hard and for one reason or the other we haven’t been able to finish races here lately. It’s something we aren’t really used to, but everybody goes through these stretches. The promising sign is that our cars have improved a great deal from where we were two months ago and our pit crew is back doing the things they always do and picking up positions on pit road. We just need to have an uneventful day for a change and bring home a good finish. ”
Crew Chief Robbie Reiser on racing at Martinsville Speedway:
“We feel pretty confident in the COT we’re taking this weekend. It’s run more than any of our COTs and it’s been pretty good on the flat tracks. Hopefully, it’ll be as good this weekend if not better. Martinsville is all about how good we can get the car to turn in the center, pretty much the same philosophy as everywhere else, so that Matt can get on the gas as quickly as possible. You also have to have a good brake package and we’ve done a lot of work over the past year to improve what we take to the track.
“This team doesn’t have any quit in them. We’re realist and we know what we can and can’t do, but for right now, all we’re concerned with is this weekend at Martinsville, trying to win the race or get the best finish we can. Our performance has actually been pretty good over the past four races, but we just don’t have anything to show for it. But, there’s not a thing we can do about that now. All we can do is go forward and try to do the best we can and maybe win a couple races here at the end of the season. ”
Matt Kenseth .. 526-mile Martinsville Speedway
Martinsville, Va.
Race Schedule
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series: Subway 500
Sunday, October 21
1:00 PM Eastern - ABC/MRN
FAST FACTS
* Since entering the Cup Series in 2000, Matt Kenseth has completed the second most laps of any Cup driver at Martinsville in the past 15 Cup races (7,395 of 7,500).
* Kenseth’s No. 17 Ford will run the last R+L Carriers paint scheme for 2007 this weekend. In the previous three outings with R+L Carriers on the hood, Kenseth has finished 12th at Charlotte in May, eighth in Daytona in July, and seventh at Fontana in September.
* Kenseth Chase history at Martinsville Speedway:
Points Position
Start Finish Laps Led Entry Exit
2006 20 11 500/500 0 2nd 1st
2005 25 12 500/500 19 9th 9th
2004 25 16 500/500 2 7th 8th
* Kenseth’s average finish during the Chase at Martinsville is 13.0; ranking fifth among all Chase tracks.
* What a difference a year makes – Last season, Kenseth entered Martinsville only 45 points out of first and exited with a 36-point lead in the Championship Standings. This season, Kenseth has endured one of the worst four-race streaks in his career and currently sits 12th, 442 points out of first.
Kenseth in the 2007 NEXTEL Cup points standings: 31 of 36 races
Rank Points Dif. 1st Wins Top 5s Top 10s Poles Earnings
12th 5438 -442 1 8 17 0 $5,285,832
Matt Kenseth – NNCS Advance
Team: No. 17 R+L Carriers/DEWALT Ford Fusion
Crew Chief: Robbie Reiser
Chassis: RK-451 Last outing: Loudon, Sep. ’07 – finished seventh Also: Has one top five (Phoenix) and four top 10s in five starts RK-458 Has served as backup in five races in ’07, but has yet to see action
Kenseth, NNCS at Martinsville Speedway:
Date Event S F Laps Led Status Money
4-1-06 Goody’s 500 33 10 500/500 1 Running $130,266
10-22-06 Subway 500 20 11 500/500 0 Running $118,716
4-2-06 Advance Auto Parts 500 16 24 493/500 0 Accident $113,491
10-23-05 Subway 500 25 12 500/500 19 Running $116,461
4-10-05 Advance Auto Parts 500 18 11 500/500 1 Running $118,186
10-24-04 Subway 500 25 16 500/500 2 Running $108,203
4-18-04 Advance Auto Parts 500 29 8 500/500 0 Running $113,728
10-19-03 Subway 500 14 13 500/500 0 Running $68,400
4-13-03 Virginia 500 34 22 499/500 0 Running $66,725
10-20-02 Old Dominion 500 17 19 499/500 0 Running $55,875
4-14-02 Virginia 500 26 2 500/500 0 Running $97,165
10-15-01 Old Dominion 500 22 36 459/500 26 Rear End $37,725
4-8-01 Virginia 500 25 6 500/500 11 Running $57,750
10-1-00 NAPA 500 37 34 447/500 0 Running $32,700
4-9-00 Goody’s 500 31 21 498/500 0 Running $38,625
Races Wins Top5s Top10s Poles Led Money
Spring 8 0 1 4 0 13 $735,936
Fall 7 0 0 0 0 47 $538,080
Cumulative 15 0 1 4 0 60 $1,274,016
| 
|