News Article

Kenseth Wins the Neighborhood Excellence 400 presented by Bank of America

June 4, 2006
Brian Smith

Photo by VPS Images

Matt Kenseth made a bit of an executive decision late in Sunday's Neighborhood Excellence 400 presented by Bank of America.  When crew chief Robbie Reiser asked him to come in for tires, Kenseth looked at the track position around him and silently declined.

The decision ended up paying off, as Kenseth collected his first NEXTEL Cup win at Dover International Speedway and second win of the season, topping teammate Jamie McMurray by .787 seconds.

"At the time, I knew about where we were on tires," Kenseth said.  "I thought we were a little faster than the four cars in front of me, and they all stayed out.  I just thought was our best chance to win.  There really wasn't a discussion - he told me to pit, and I decided on my own to stay out.  When I went down the front stretch and saw the look on his face, I knew I'd better finish good or it was going to be a long couple of months." 

Photo by Getty Images

Kenseth had sat on the pole twice at Dover, but had never won in 14 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup starts. He finally conquered the Monster Mile with true grit, jumping from third to first in three laps. 

McMurray and Kevin Harvick had been battling with around 10 laps to go, but with six laps remaining Kenseth overcame Harvick and set his sights on McMurray.

The final pass came with three laps remaining.  Kenseth was able to drop underneath McMurray and come ahead out of the turn.  Harvick held on for third, followed by Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch in the top five.   

"I caught those guys pretty good because they were racing each other side by side," Kenseth said.  "I was able to get under Kevin and thought I had the pass made, and I got real loose and lost a big amount, 10 or 15 car lengths.  At that point I didn't think I was going to get by either one of them. 

Photo by Daniel Pope

"I knew I had to regroup and come up with a plan to get into the right place. I could get three-quarters of the way buy them, but then you get into the straight and it was hard to finish the pass.  I just caught him at the right time and was able to barely squeeze by both of them." 

But what if the gamble hadn't worked?

"I probably wouldn't have been that mad," Reiser said.  "We've been doing this for a long time and we've put him in a lot worse situations than this.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, and everyone on this team has a hand in it.  As we make decisions, we make mistakes, and we live with them." 

Kenseth could have just as easily been racing Harvick instead of McMurray.  With 13 laps to go, Harvick had a chance to make a move on McMurray, but the lapped car of Derrick Cope got in the way.  

Photo by Getty Images

"[McMurray] was where I needed to be," Harvick said.  "He was up a couple lanes, then was able to dive up and come back down off the corner.  I had to pinch my car, I couldn't door slam him and take a chance of wrecking us both. It was a great race.  I had a lot of fun.  It was definitely just a few feet from being where we needed to be, but I just didn't get quite clear."

But the fact that McMurray was in the running at all was a feat in itself.  He qualified ninth, but had to start at the tail end of the field after his crew was forced to change engines yesterday.  He was 27th as late as 60 laps into the race, and at one point had actually gone a lap down. 

But his fortunes started to change around lap 265, when a 145-mile green flag run ended with the first of six cautions for 37 laps between lap 265 and 327. 

"We had a very lucky day," McMurray said.  "I eventually got the lap back because of the cautions."   

As it turned out, McMurray's pit stop at lap 293 was of great benefit.  When most of the other cars pitted just past the 300-lap mark, McMurray was able to stay out, and he took the lead on lap 302.  He ended up holding it for 95 laps.  

"I didn't think the car was that fast until I could look up and see how fast I was getting away from Kevin," McMurray said.   

But as the last 51 miles progressed, McMurray started to slow. 

"We made an air pressure adjustment and probably went the wrong way," he said.  "We'd struggled all day long on new tires.  We made an adjustment there at the end that was good on short runs, but gave up on us in the end. 

"When I went up to block Matt, I lost all my momentum.  When he got out in front of me, I knew I had no chance unless something happened to his car." 

Despite the second-place finish, McMurray was happy.

"We made a crew chief change and changed cars and did all these things," he said.  "At the beginning of the year we were just trying to take a 25th place car and get a top-10 finish.  So for us to be in the running to win definitely feels good today."

Kenseth remains in second place in the points chase, closing the gap to 74 points behind Jimmie Johnson - a 35-point gain.  Johnson had a rather remarkable day - he had to start 42nd after spinning out in qualifying on Friday, and he was mired in 28th position at the halfway point.  But he steadily climbed through the second half of the race and finished sixth. 

The caution at lap 265 was a blow for Mark Martin.  He led the race two times for a total of 39 laps, and was ahead when the yellow flag flew.  But Martin left the pits minus a left-front lugnut, and the subsequent return to pit road knocked him back to 11th.  He climbed back as high as third, but finished ninth.

"We had a winning race car and had a bad day with it," Martin said.

Photo by Getty Images

The anticipated driver change for the No. 20 Home Depot team came at lap 38 and went as smoothly as could be expected.  Tony Stewart was helped out of the car with assistance from a crew member, and Ricky Rudd scrambled in.  The crew secured him in the car quickly enough to beat the pace car back out, and Rudd scrambled around the track and back into the pits for two tires and fuel.  However, the caution period didn't last long enough to change the other two tires or make any adjustments to the car.  Those had to wait until lap 114.

"I feel like I got beat up," Stewart said after he got out of the car and climbed atop his pit box.  "We did what we had to there.  It was a lot longer run than we were hoping for, obviously.  It's not very much fun, I can tell you that.  It's hard to explain to people how hard it is to get out of your own race car.  When you own a car, you know you have another driver.  But this is the one time of the week I cherish more than anything else in life right now.  So it's not a very fun way to spend the day."

To see the complete results from the Neighborhood Excellence 400 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race at Dover International Speedway, click here.

NOTES:  Kenseth recorded his 12th career NEXTEL Cup victory and third overall win at Dover, going along with two Busch Series wins at the Monster Mile... it was Kenseth's eighth top-10 finish in 15 career races at Dover... Kenseth has now finished in the top six in six of his last seven races... McMurray recorded his fifth top-10 finish and best overall finish of the season... Harvick recorded his sixth top-10 finish... Greg Biffle finished eighth and has climbed from 23rd to 12th in the overall point standings over the last four races... Denny Hamlin was the highest-finishing rookie, placing 11th... the race took three hours and 38 minutes with an average speed of 109.865 mph... it was slowed by nine cautions for 51 laps, and there were 23 lead changes among 12 drivers.