Sprint Cup - Kenseth Completes Roush Fenway Monster Sweep

DOVER, May 16, 2011: Matt Kenseth took two tires under the race’s final caution, restarted second, quickly took the lead and drove right into victory lane to give Roush Fenway Racing the weekend sweep in NASCAR’s top two series at Dover International Speedway (Carl Edwards won the Nationwide Race on Saturday). The weekend continued Roush Fenway’s dominance of the track deemed “The Monster Mile.”

“I’m just blessed to be standing here,” said Kenseth, who scored his 20th career Sprint Cup win and his second of 2011. “We were going to do four tires (under the last caution) and we got in the stall and decided to do two and that was the key. I have to thank Wiley X for jumping on the car this weekend and Crown Royal. If Doug Yates were here, I’d probably give him a kiss; we had so much horsepower and it made our job so much easier.”

Carl Edwards, who had one of the field’s most dominate cars and led 117 laps, finished seventh. Greg Biffle had an issue with the throttle early and battled back to a 19th-place finish, and David Ragan - who had an early incident on pit road - finished 28th in the race.

Edwards looked to make a strong bid for the win, but opted for four tires after the race’s final caution on lap 361 of 400. Kenseth opted for two tires and restarted second. He needed only two laps to take the lead from Mark Martin on lap 368 and he never looked back, leading the final 33 laps and taking his second-career checkered flag at Dover and his first there since 2006.

“I didn’t think that many guys would take two,” said Edwards, who won yesterday’s Nationwide race and has recorded three NASCAR wins at Dover. “I thought Bob’s (Osborne) call was a good one, but it just didn’t work out – those guys (who took two) were just screaming fast. Congrats to Matt Kenseth and Wiley X. We had a good weekend over all. It was going really good there for a while and I thought we were going to win the race.”

The win is Roush Fenway’s third in the Sprint Cup Series this season. It is the team’s ninth at Dover in the Cup Series and its 15th overall NASCAR victory at Dover. It marked just the second time (June, 2004) that the team has swept the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races in a single weekend at “The Monster Mile.”

With the finish, Edwards increased his Sprint Cup points lead to 24. Kenseth moved up to sixth place in the standing; the victory gives him two for the season and all but assures the No. 17 team a place in the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup. Biffle leaves Dover 12th in the points and David Ragan is 21st.

The teams take a break from points racing next weekend for the Sprint Cup All-Star race at Charlotte Speedway. Roush has won the event three times.