February 16, 2009
By Ron Felix
Matt Kenseth didn't win a single race in 2008, and although he did make the "Chase for the Championship", not bringing home a victory humbled the former Cup Champion. Kenseth managed to regain some of that confidence lost by driving from 39th place -- when the race started -- to winning the rain shortened Daytona 500 on Sunday.
"To be honest, it really hasn’t sunk in," Kenseth explained. "I woke up this morning not really thinking I was gonna win the Daytona 500, especially when you come to a speedway. It’s really more about the team than it is about the driver. It’s always about the team, but, really, they make the cars go fast and I wasn’t happy with my 500 car and it ended up getting wrecked in the 150s anyway, and as soon as we unloaded this car it drove much, much better. I kept complaining about it and they kept adjusting on it all night and did the right stuff at the end, so it was pretty unbelievable to sit here and be able to actually be in the Daytona 500, much less win one. It’s just a dream come true.”
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Kenseth Celebrates Victory
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Kenseth was in the right place at the right time when rain halted the race on lap 152 of 200. NASCAR thought they could get the track dried -- but high humidity in the area prevented that from happening.
“It’s gonna be really wet out here because I’m crying like a baby," Kenseth said. "I’ve just got to thank my team and thank the Lord for giving me this opportunity. After last year, winning a race means a lot to me."
It was the first victory at Daytona for Kenseth and the 17th of his career in 239 races. This is Kenseth’s first victory since the 2007 season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Two years ago it was Kenseth pushing Kevin Harvick to the victory and Harvick repaid the favor by shoving Kenseth to the lead and eventually the win today.
"It’s Drew’s (Blickensderfer) first race as a Cup crew chief, that’s pretty cool, and Chip (Bowlin) - former crew chief) for sticking in here with us and really going through the deal and trying to make the team stronger – putting egos aside and making the team as strong as we can – and these guys have been fired up and working hard," said Kenseth. "I didn’t know if I was ever gonna do that again and then to pull off the Daytona 500, it’s just unbelievable."
This is Roush Fenway Racing’s first-ever Daytona 500 victory. It is Roush Fenway’s third all-time win at Daytona.
“I’m just pleased to be here with Chip and with Drew. I don’t know if Drew deserves this," Roush said jokingly. "I had to wait over 20 years and this is Drew’s first race as a crew chief. Chris Andrews gave us a great engineering package behind the cars. Robbie Reiser, of course, managed everything in the shop and managed Drew and sometimes managed me to my dismay, so there are a lot of good people that formed the organization that helped make this possible.
"Of course, Matt is at the center of it. Matt Kenseth is as good at this business as anybody has been and on days when he can’t do what he needs to it’s because I haven’t given him the tools. Last year I let him down by not being able to do for him what I needed to. Matt should have won last year."
A.J. Allmendinger, in a fantastic run for Richard Petty Motorsports, finished third.
"I was hoping it was going to rain when Elliott (Sadler) was leading and Reed (Sorenson) was second and I was fourth," Allmendinger said. "That would have been a really great result for the team. I was trying to push Reed and Elliott as much as I could. They are the ones that got me into the race. It was my turn to return the favor and try to get them the win."
Clint Bowyer was fourth and Sadler finished fifth. Rounding out the top ten were David Ragan, Michael Waltrip, Tony Stewart, Reed Sorenson and Kurt Busch.
Rookie Joey Logano managed to wreck again, he had a miserable start to his NASCAR career. Wrecked in the ARCA race, wrecked in the Nationwide race on Saturday and in the Daytona 500, he checked up to avoid hitting Scott Speed and Greg Biffle clipped the rear of Logano's car, sending him hard into the inside wall.
“It looked like the 82 (Scott Speed) kept getting loose in front of me so I jumped down below him in the middle of the corner just to try to get some air on my car because it was tight and as he kept checking up I ended up next to him on the corner," said Logano, "It was either I was going to dump him or hopefully not do anything at all. The 16 (Greg Biffle) just came up and got us. It’s a racing deal, but it’s a bummer for all the Home Depot crew here. This wasn’t the way we wanted to finish the (Daytona) 500.
“It wasn’t his (Scott Speed) fault. He was loose and it was partially my fault for not getting around him after seeing he was loose a few laps before. My car was so tight that every time I got underneath him I wasn’t able to clear him up off the corner and I had to get out of the gas. I was content just riding there to get through a few laps to our next pit stop and as he kept going up the race track I was going to check-up and get underneath him and I just drove in underneath him and it didn’t work.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn't fare much better. Earnhardt missed his pits on one caution period and on another, he slid over the line for service and NASCAR held him for two minutes, putting him a lap down to the field. Then he clipped the rear of Brian Vickers' car with 75 laps to go, triggering a ten car pileup. Some were suggesting that Earnhardt was retaliating for a move that Vickers had just made, forcing Earnhardt below the yellow line. Earnhardt denied the charges.
"We worked real hard to get our lap back," Earnhardt said. "That was my mistake coming on to pit road and missing my box. On the back straightaway, I was a lap down trying to get my lap back and I had a really, really good run and Brian (Vickers), he was side-by-side with somebody for the lead and I went on the inside and he drove me down, down almost into the grass below the line and I didn’t have much control over the car at that point. I was just trying to get back on the race track and I hit him in the quarter panel and spun him out. “If he’d have just held his ground, I was the lapped car. I wasn’t even racing for position. That was unfortunate.”
Earnhardt chalked it all up to bad luck, rather than taking responsibility for his actions and was stunned to learn after the race that anyone was considering a penalty for wrecking Vickers.
"Penalize me? For what? I got ran in to and sent below the line," Earnhardt exclaimed. "What the hell? I don't want to go down there, I didn't aim to go down there, and I got sent down there. What the hell am I supposed to do? Then what am I supposed to do? Stay down there? No. I got to get back up on the race track. It was unfortunate man. If he wasn't so damn reckless, we would have never had that problem, that would never happen. As far as I am concerned, it is all his responsibility. I just had some bad luck. Every time I would get in the front, some bad luck would take me to the back. Something I would do or something else."
Scott Speed scored a 35th-place finish and claimed Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the first time this season. Speed made his first start in the Daytona 500 and his first in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series restrictor plate race.
Kyle Busch led twice for 88 laps to earn WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race honors in tonight’s Daytona 500. Busch has led a total of 174 laps in the last two Daytona 500 races. He led 86 laps in 2008 on the way to a fourth-place finish. Busch was involved in an accident on lap 125 which ended his night. He was credited with a 41st-place finish.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the second race of the 36-race for the 2009 Sprint Cup Championship. The Auto Club 500 will be on February 22nd, at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The race begins at approximately 3:00 p.m. eastern time with live, high-definition coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 2:30 p.m. eastern time. The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128 and MRN radio.
For full final race results...
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