Kenseth seeks redemption at Lowe’s Motor Speedway

Lowe’s Motor Speedway will always be a special place for Matt Kenseth.

In 2000, during his rookie season, Kenseth notched the first victory of his NASCAR Cup career when he won the Coca-Cola 600 at the track that will host Saturday night’s Bank of America 500.

“I’ve always enjoyed racing at Charlotte,” the driver of the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford said. “The racing is always a lot of fun and since we tested fairly well there a couple of weeks ago, I feel like we should be competitive.”

Kenseth returns to the 1.5-mile trioval after earning his first top-10 finish there since 2006 when he placed seventh in this year’s 600.

Although Kenseth has just one victory at LMS, the 2003 Cup champion does have five top-five and eight top-10 finishes in 18 starts.

Kenseth has also put his disappointing 26th-place finish in Sunday’s Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway behind him.

“We really need to work on making up some points,” Kenseth said. “We just need to concentrate on finishing as high as we can, lead as many laps as we can, get as many points as we can every week and not really worry about what anybody else is doing. There’s still a lot of racing to go, and hopefully we can climb back in it.”

Kenseth’s crew chief, Chip Bolin, says the team will be racing one of its top intermediate cars in Saturday’s race.

“We are bringing back a car that we’ve raced several times this year, and each time we’ve raced it, we’ve had a lot of success,” Bolin said.

Bolin also said he is relieved Talladega is over and feels confident his driver can bounce back in the standings in the Chase For The Sprint Cup on Saturday night.

“We experienced a major setback last week at Talladega, but we knew the race there would be a crapshoot. This week we’re heading to a track where we feel very confident – we’ve run well there many times,” Bolin said.

“I know that we have one of the best drivers and pit crews out
there, so if we all do our jobs and take care of business, we should be around with a shot at the end.”

With six races remaining in the Chase, Kenseth is currently ninth in the series.
*****from Jim Modlin, courtesy of scenedaily.com*****