Kenseth, No. 17 Team Struggle to 27th-Place Finish at Phoenix
April 19, 20096:09 PM
AVONDALE, Ariz. (April 18, 2009) – Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 DEWALT team experienced a tough outing Saturday night in the Subway 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. The team struggled the majority of the race en route to a 27th-place finish. The handling on Kenseth’s DEWALT Ford took an unexpected turn for the worse just past the midpoint of the race, with Kenseth falling as far back as 33rd on lap 189. The DEWALT team was never able to recover, as Kenseth was forced to simply hang on to the car for much of the race.
“We just didn’t have a good race,” said Kenseth. “We struggled at times in the pits and the car was impossible to drive at times. Nothing we seemed to do with the car was able to make it better, and it actually got worse as the race went on. We have to go back to work and get these issues fixed moving forward. The competition is too tough out here to have off nights.”
Kenseth, who was fifth and 11th fastest in the two Friday practice sessions, started the race 17th after a solid qualifying session, but he struggled early with the car’s handling. The team struggled in the pits under its first two stops, costing valuable track position, and Kenseth dropped as far back as 21st.
It briefly appeared they had solved the issues with the car, as Kenseth reported that the car was the best it had been all evening, as he moved back up to 17th on lap 150. Unfortunately, the car’s handling would take a massive turn for the worse after the team stayed out under the fourth caution of the race just moments later. With the car so loose Kenseth could hardly ‘get into the gas’, the team took four tires and fuel on lap 167 under the fifth caution of the race. The fresh tires would do nothing to aid the car’s issues and the veteran fell all the way to 33rd by lap 189.
He was able to advance as high as 24th for the final restart on the race on lap 305, but was unable hold position, falling back to 27th by the checkered flag.
With the finish, Kenseth dropped to 12th in the Sprint Cup owner points, 296 points out of first place.
The team will return to action next weekend for the circuit’s second restrictor-plate race of the season at Talladega Superspeedway. Kenseth and the team won the first restrictor-plate race of the season earlier this year in the Daytona 500 – their first win in a plate race.
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