Kenseth Fights Ill-Handling Car at Memphis
October 25, 20096:12 PM
Concord, N.C. (October 25, 2009) – Saturday afternoon Matt Kenseth made his first NASCAR Nationwide Series start at Memphis Motorsports Park since 1999 and he did so without practicing or qualifying the No. 16 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. set up the car while Kenseth was with his Sprint Cup team at Martinsville Speedway. Kenseth arrived in Memphis just in time to start the race and it didn’t take long for the CitiFinancial team to realize they were in for a long afternoon. Kenseth struggled with the car’s handling during the caution-filled race. He slowly made it into the top 10 but was never in position to fight for the win. After 254 laps, the CitiFinancial Ford Fusion crossed the stripe in 11th place.
Stenhouse, Jr. qualified 18th but in accordance with NASCAR rules, Kenseth was required to drop to the end of the field for the start. He was 31st when the first of 14 cautions came out on lap seven. Kenseth told the team he was “not bad, just a little loose off.” Three more cautions fell before crew chief Eddie Pardue called Kenseth down pit road for the first adjustments of the day. By this point, Kenseth had gotten “pretty tight in the middle.” The CitiFinancial Ford Fusion came in on lap 63 for four tires and an air pressure adjustment and restarted 23rd. Kenseth broke into the top 10 on lap 87 but was still complaining about being “too tight in the middle.”
He was up to seventh when another caution came out on lap 124. Kenseth told the team he was “quite a bit tight still.” Pardue called for four tires, track bar and air pressure adjustments. On the next run, the CitiFinancial Ford Fusion quickly dropped back through the field. Kenseth said he was “terrible” on lap 146 while running 12th. The car’s handling had gotten so bad, Kenseth questioned if something was broken in the front end. Kenseth was still 12th when the caution fell on lap 154 and he came in for a few much-needed adjustments. The CitiFinancial team gave Kenseth four fresh tires as well as air, track bar and wedge adjustments. The changes seemed to help and Kenseth was back inside the top 10 on lap 165. He was shown as high as fifth on the next run but dropped back to ninth, saying the car “plows no matter what I do.”
The last stop of the day came on lap 229. With just 21 laps left in the race, Kenseth told Pardue not to make any adjustments because the car had been “okay for 10 or 15 laps before it tightens up.” The CitiFinancial Ford Fusion restarted ninth on lap 232. Three more cautions came out before the checkered flag flew. Without many green flag laps to work with, Kenseth was unable to gain ground and finished 11th.
“I don’t know what the problem was today,” said Kenseth. “I thought the CitiFinancial Ford Fusion was going to be okay earlier on but the car was just terrible after that one stop. I don’t know if it was a bad set of tires or what, but I couldn’t do anything out there. It’s pretty frustrating – with all those cautions it felt like we hardly did any actual racing.”
The NASCAR Nationwide Series is off next weekend. Kenseth returns to the CitiFinancial Ford Fusion in two weeks at Texas Motor Speedway.
About Roush Fenway Racing
Roush Fenway Racing operates nine full-time motorsports teams, five in NASCAR Sprint Cup with drivers Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and David Ragan; Three in the Nationwide Series with Kenseth, Biffle, Edwards, McMurray, Ragan, Erik Darnell, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Colin Braun; and one in the Camping World Truck Series with Braun. For more information on any of the Roush Fenway Racing teams, log onto www.RoushFenway.com. For sponsorship inquiries, please contact Robin Johnson at 704.720.4645.
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