Sunday, April 30, 2017

Matt Kenseth is on a Roll

Matt Kenseth is on a Roll Will Start Today’s Monster Energy NASCAR Race from Pole #TOYOTAOWNERS400


Matt Kenseth Will Start Today’s Monster Energy NASCAR Race from Pole #TOYOTAOWNERS400


After a weekend off, NASCAR’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returned to action last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, despite a rather soggy weather forecast. Rain in the area on Friday washed out qualifying and forced the starting line-up to be set according to the rulebook. This meant that Matt Kenseth and his No. 20 DEWALT FLEXVOLT™ Toyota started 22nd. Teams were able to get both practice sessions in on Saturday, but heavy rain washed out Sunday’s events and postponed the race until Monday afternoon. Kenseth started from 22nd and was able to fight his way through the field to earn his second top-five finish of the season, finishing fourth.

This Wednesday, the team’s press conference germinated erroneous rumors that “Matt the Brat” would be retiring soon. Luckily for this Kenseth fan, the topic turned out to be a new sponsor for Matt’s No. 20 team.

Circle K will serve as Kenseth’s primary in six upcoming races — Richmond (April 30), Talladega (May 7), Charlotte (May 28), Kentucky (July 8), Texas (Nov. 5), and Phoenix (Nov. 12) — and is multi-year deal, according to team owner Joe Gibbs. 


Circle K will serve as Matt Kenseth’s primary in six upcoming #NASCAR races.


Circle K is the largest independent convenience store operator in terms of number of company-operated stores in North America, and the brand currently has over 6,000 stores located in 41 states throughout the United States.


“The thing about racing at Richmond is that both ends of the track are quite a bit different from each other. Turn 2 gets really tight off of that corner without a lot of room, and the entry to Turn 3 is just very unique. Richmond’s track surface is worn out and slick so that makes it hard to find your balance there. You want your car to be turning really well, but you also need to have some traction up off the corner and that can be tough to put together. This weekend is always a really big weekend for Toyota with it being their entitlement weekend, and we’re really excited to have Circle K aboard the No. 20 for the first time this season, so I’m looking forward to a good weekend ahead.” Matt Kenseth

KENSETH BY THE NUMBERS AT RICHMOND: In thirty-four Monster Energy Cup Series career starts at Richmond, Matt Kenseth has an average finish of 15.9. He’s completed 13,229 of 13,616 (97.2 percent) career laps, and has led for a total of 760 laps. Kenseth has earned two wins with his most recent coming in September of 2015, one pole, six top-five and sixteen top-10 finishes at the 0.75-mile track.


Well let’s make that two poles.

Matt Kenseth captured his first pole of the season, and the 19th of his career, in qualifying for Sunday's Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

Kenseth’s lap of 121.076 mph scored the pole. His last came in October of 2016 at Kansas Speedway. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has now won at least one pole a year for seven straight seasons. It’s Kenseth’s second career Richmond pole.

“This year has not been a good year for us, obviously,” said Kenseth, who enters the weekend 20th in the point standings. “We finished strong at Bristol but we didn’t get to qualify because of the rain. That put us in the middle of the pack. We haven’t been getting any Stage points, we’re buried in the points.

“Hopefully we can start up front and stay up front this week.”


Related Posts:

  1. Happy Birthday to "The Intimidator"
  2. In Their Words: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Rick Hendrick on Retirement (4)
  3. Preview of Toyota’s Spring Race Weekend at Richmond International Raceway
  4. Anything But 'Average' at Richmond
  5. In Their Words: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Rick Hendrick on Retirement (3)


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