February 23, 2009
By Ron Felix
Say what you will, Matt Kenseth is two for two, back-to-back and doubled down for the 2009 season. After not winning in 2008, if the past two races are any indication, Kenseth can't lose. Certainly he won't run the table and win all 36 points paying races but you'd never know it from the way he's started this year.
It's these guys behind me, I've got such a great race team," Kenseth said. "I miss my son Ross though, him and dad have missed the last two in a row."
CIA Stock Photo
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Kenseth Celebrates Second Victory
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Kenseth beat Jeff Gordon out of the pits on a green-flag pit stop with 123 laps to go. Gordon was leading, Kenseth was running second. Both drivers pitted and it was Kenseth's crew who won the battle of 'Who would get out first'.
From that point to the end of the race, the two drivers and their cars were pretty much equal. Gordon would close on Kenseth and then Kenseth would stretch it out on the next lap. That continued until the end of the race and on the final two laps it was apparent that Gordon had worn his tires out trying to close on Kenseth.
We got out in clean air and that's such a huge difference," said Kenseth.
Gordon had nothing left for him and settled for second place.
"Those guys (Kenseth's crew) were incredible in the pits. I mean, he was good on the track," said Gordon. "They made some good adjustments. But I feel like if they didn't get out front, it would have been a different race. They're off to a great start. I think they're going to be really strong this year.
"I have so much respect for Matt. We've had our differences over time, but I've always had a ton of respect for what kind of racecar driver he is. I tell you, you know, you can say that the pit crew won him the race tonight, but Matt didn't make one mistake. I put a lot of heat on him. I drove as hard as I've driven in a long time. He didn't make any mistakes. Maybe one little slip up, but just wasn't enough for me to do anything with him."
It was Kenseth's 18th victory in 330 career races. Kenseth now has three wins at Auto Club Speedway and became the first driver to win the season's first two races since Gordon did it in 1997. Kenseth led for 84 laps, including the last 38.
Jack Roush has won five consecutive fall races at Auto Club Speedway.
Kyle Busch was third and Greg Biffle fourth.
Busch's third place run, added to his two victories yesterday in the Truck Series and the Nationwide Series, made for a pretty good weekend.
“It was a great weekend. We had a great run there," said Busch. "We wish we could have been a little bit better, but a third -place finish isn’t too bad. We’ll take that. It’s a great run for us. All the guys on the team did a great job working all weekend trying to get it there for me. They were trying -- you know we wanted to win that thing and get the ‘triple,’ but we just ended up tick short.”
Comeback driver Kurt Busch finished fifth followed by Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Brian Vickers to round out the top ten.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. broke something inside his engine.
"Something broke in the motor and they are looking at it right now," Earnhardt explained. "We were just sittin' there run good, just had a caution and got caught back up. We were sittin' there looking at maybe drivin' in to the top-10 for the first time tonight and it broke a valve spring probably."
Mark Martin had engine problems -- he tried to make the motor last until the team could figure out the weather that was threatening, but it blew up with 72 laps to go.
"Our guys worked so hard this weekend and really took a good car and made it great. I hate this for all of them,” said Martin.
Kevin Harvick also blew an engine and smacked the wall.
“The motor blew up and I just got in my own oil going in the corner there," said Harvick. "We just broke a motor there going into Turn 1 and it just didn’t give me any warning. We were full speed all the way to the end of the straightaway and the bottom fell out there and just went straight. We got off a little bit that run and tightened it up a little bit too much. But we had a top 10 car. We just didn’t quite finish there, butI feel fine.”
Joey Logano scored a 26th-place finish and took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the first time in 2009. Logano and Scott Speed are tied for the lead in the Raybestos Rookie standings (21-21).
“I learned a lot. Just you know working around the racetrack, different lines, different grooves make your car do different things," Logano said. "Working the bottom, working the top, coming in the pits, it’s things like that that you go by racetrack to racetrack to keep learning and it takes time.”
The race was slowed by five caution periods for a total of 43 laps. There were 12 different race leaders -- and 19 lead changes.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the third race of the 36-race for the 2009 Sprint Cup Championship. The Shelby 427 will be on March 1st, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. The race begins at approximately 3:30 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 PRN radio.
For full final race results...
(Insider Racing News)
For top-40 Sprint Cup drivers points...
(Insider Racing News)
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