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Sprint Cup
CUP: Kenseth Almost Ends Winless Streak
Ford driver loses late-race battle with Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Office Toyota, and Matt Kenseth, driver of the #17 Crown Royal Black Ford, lead the field two wide during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
Matt Kenseth was running pell-mell toward something he hasn’t seen since February 2009 – a Sprint Cup victory, and he ran so hard he lost the shot.
Kenseth traded first place with Denny Hamlin in a wild match race for the lead in the closing moments of the AAA Texas 500 Sunday before Hamlin dove low and claimed first for good as Kenseth slid high on the next-to-last lap.
The two leaders were within a few inches of hitting each other as they wrestled for first at the end of a long and often frantic day for both drivers.
They took the day’s final green flag with three laps to go with Hamlin first and Kenseth second. Kenseth drove low and charged into first place a lap later, but, on the opposite end of the track he slowed and slid high. Hamlin avoided hitting Kenseth by diving low and taking first.
“I got a really good restart, and he pulled as close as he could to me to get the wind off of me, which in lap 100 you wouldn’t do that to somebody because they’d be mad, but over last 10 laps that’s totally fair,” Kenseth said. “I’d probably be trying to do the same thing as much as I could to get the inside guy loose and get him uncomfortable.
“So, surprisingly, my car was pretty stable and it lasted for a lap, and I just lifted real early because we were side by side and I wanted to actually keep him outside of me, and I thought if we left turn two at least nose to nose and I could get into three and still have him outside of me that we’d have a shot to the finish line. I lifted real early when he lifted, and then I got back to the gas real early, and he must have slipped a little bit, and I got a really good run. When Mike [spotter] told me clear, I was a little surprised we cleared him, and I just pulled up in front of him and started getting off the corner.
“I probably shouldn’t have been holding the wheel as much as I did, but I wanted to get a nice run off the corner, and as soon as he got away from my side for whatever reason and got behind me, my car just took off. It just felt like it raised the car half an inch and went straight, and I had to get out of the gas, so I had to keep from hitting the wall. Part of that is the way I tried to drive the corner and part of it was maybe from not having him outside me anymore, not having the car turning as loose as it was when he was there. I don’t know. It was a heck of a race down to the finish. Like I say, you hate it when you get beat.”
The second-place run was Kenseth’s best since the fourth race of the season.
“Our pit stops were really good today,” he said. “They were better than they have been. I didn’t speed on pit road today, which was a bonus. I've been doing that too much lately. All day we had a mistake-free day. Even when we had trouble (he lost a lap early in the race when he had to pit because of paper on his car’s grille), we were able to stay calm and fix our problems and get back in the lead lap and be able to pit the race.
“Everything went just right today in the pits and on pit road and pretty much on the track, too. I wish I could do the last one more time and try something different, but other than that, everything went as good as we could have expected today.”
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
Kenseth traded first place with Denny Hamlin in a wild match race for the lead in the closing moments of the AAA Texas 500 Sunday before Hamlin dove low and claimed first for good as Kenseth slid high on the next-to-last lap.
The two leaders were within a few inches of hitting each other as they wrestled for first at the end of a long and often frantic day for both drivers.
They took the day’s final green flag with three laps to go with Hamlin first and Kenseth second. Kenseth drove low and charged into first place a lap later, but, on the opposite end of the track he slowed and slid high. Hamlin avoided hitting Kenseth by diving low and taking first.
“I got a really good restart, and he pulled as close as he could to me to get the wind off of me, which in lap 100 you wouldn’t do that to somebody because they’d be mad, but over last 10 laps that’s totally fair,” Kenseth said. “I’d probably be trying to do the same thing as much as I could to get the inside guy loose and get him uncomfortable.
“So, surprisingly, my car was pretty stable and it lasted for a lap, and I just lifted real early because we were side by side and I wanted to actually keep him outside of me, and I thought if we left turn two at least nose to nose and I could get into three and still have him outside of me that we’d have a shot to the finish line. I lifted real early when he lifted, and then I got back to the gas real early, and he must have slipped a little bit, and I got a really good run. When Mike [spotter] told me clear, I was a little surprised we cleared him, and I just pulled up in front of him and started getting off the corner.
“I probably shouldn’t have been holding the wheel as much as I did, but I wanted to get a nice run off the corner, and as soon as he got away from my side for whatever reason and got behind me, my car just took off. It just felt like it raised the car half an inch and went straight, and I had to get out of the gas, so I had to keep from hitting the wall. Part of that is the way I tried to drive the corner and part of it was maybe from not having him outside me anymore, not having the car turning as loose as it was when he was there. I don’t know. It was a heck of a race down to the finish. Like I say, you hate it when you get beat.”
The second-place run was Kenseth’s best since the fourth race of the season.
“Our pit stops were really good today,” he said. “They were better than they have been. I didn’t speed on pit road today, which was a bonus. I've been doing that too much lately. All day we had a mistake-free day. Even when we had trouble (he lost a lap early in the race when he had to pit because of paper on his car’s grille), we were able to stay calm and fix our problems and get back in the lead lap and be able to pit the race.
“Everything went just right today in the pits and on pit road and pretty much on the track, too. I wish I could do the last one more time and try something different, but other than that, everything went as good as we could have expected today.”
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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