Any of you who know me, and I guess any who reads this blog knows I follow Nascar. And really, unless you’re blind you can easily see I throw my support behind the #17 team in the Crown Royal Roush Fenway Ford driven by my boy, Matt the brat Kenseth.
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Now, being a fan of Kenseth and that team, is kind of like being on an emotional roller coaster. He’s an extremely talented driver, drives one of the fastest cars, which is owned by one of the biggest names, has one of the best crews and has wonderful sponsors. So I guess I ask myself aside many folks that say, “why isn’t this guy in victory lane more often?”
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It’s been 76 races since Matt drove that 17 car into victory lane. After pegging off the Daytona 500 and Fontana a week later to start the 2009 season…it just wasn’t happening. He’s made the chase every year and is constantly in the top 10. Other racers agree that the last person they want to see in their rear view is the Brat. Always pushing your rear bumper, always disrupting your air, and always making you nervous. Rarely seems to get by though.
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Matt Kenseth is truly a victim of circumstance.
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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched this guy beat his way up the field to blow a tire, get clipped by a rookie…heck, he even hit a bird denting his door yesterday in Texas. It always seems like something, beyond their control keeps them out of the winners circle.
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Well not yesterday. Nothing was stopping him. That FR9 Ford motor that they plopped in that liquor painted race car was fast. Really fast. In fact, so fast that the only thing that kept the field up to him was cautions and pit stops. And even then it was a bit of a joke…almost like a kitten toying with a ball of string. Paul Tracy even said in his twitter post: “Bit of a boring race, 8 sec lead.” Well, for him maybe it was boring, but for us Roush fans in was awesome.
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It’s Matt’s 2nd win I believe at that track and 19th in his overall career. He now holds the track record for most laps led and get this, those 169 laps he led were 61 more than he led last year combined. It knocked him up 6 places in the Nascar points contest into 3rd behind Kyle Busch and teammate Carl Edwards who finished 3rd to re-gain 1st place.
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Jimmy Fennig Matt’s crew chief congratulated Matt as his spotter easily and calmly said “Going to checkered”. He was calm..but I was jumping around like a kid at Christmas.
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It’s been quite the up and down following this team. When Roush sent him out in 2000, he was tied up with Nascar’s poster boy Dale Earnhardt JR. and between my Chevy lovin’ buddies and me it’s been a rivalry ever since. Matt took rookie of the year over Dale that year and quickly earned the car number 17 to have a sticker on the window of my truck.
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In 2003, he won the Championship…without winning a race. Consistency is the key here..that and a wicked pit crew no doubt. Since then he’s always made the chase, but couldn’t seem to get it done. Mind you, kinda hard with Jimmie Johnson circling the track like a shark and winning 5 cups in a row. But we sure did see something at Daytona eh. When this new setup or 2 car drafting came to play, everyone else needed cool clean air, but Kenseth, for almost the whole race pushed people around launching blazing lap times. Every Ford fan out there kinda raised a brow and said…”I think they figured it out.” It’s no secret that Jack Roush, the team owner isn’t here to lose…and with Carl Edwards winning the Nationwide race in the Mustang and now Matt winning the Nascar race in the Fusion, looks like the play by play is in the books.
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I want to send out a congratulations to Matt and the team, us here at Woods Racing have always stood behind you and let this be just the start of many victories in the 2011 season.
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Cheers boys, hats off for a job well done.
Apr 10th by Bannon
