NASCAR WCUP: Kenseth shoots for top five finish in New Hampshire
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
July 18, 2001Matt Kenseth's thoughts on New Hampshire:
"This track has not been one of our best tracks in the past. It's a flat one-mile track with not much banking at all. The New England area is always a really pretty place to go, so it will be nice to visit the area."
Kenseth's thoughts on the safety of New Hampshire:
"The track itself is as safe as you can get. The thing is when you are coming off of the backstretch you can reach speeds of about 150 mph. Its pretty fast coming off the straightaways, so you have to have a good handling car otherwise you will end up against the wall. Unfortunately, last year we lost two great racers on this track. There is a lot of speculation about the walls and stuff, but I think it will be fine. I wear the HANS device and have all year. I don't think this weekend will be any different from the rest of them as far as racing goes."
Your finish last week in Chicago was the second best finish of the season. Is this the beginning of some momentum for the DEWALT team? "Well, I hope so. You never know. We have struggled this year in all aspects, but are 11th in points. That is better than last year. We are consistently finishing in the top 20. Its not as good as we want to be running but it looks good from a points standpoint. So far this year we have been bad on the tracks we ran well on last year, and have turned in good performances on the tracks we were terrible at last year. We were in the top-20 last year at New Hampshire, so I hope to better that this year."
Crew Chief Robbie Reiser's thoughts on New Hampshire:
"We are taking car No. 1 to New Hampshire. It's the car we raced in Martinsville and Richmond. They were two of our best finishes this year. The main thing we will focus on this weekend is getting the car to handle good for Matt. Chassis setup and brakes are the two main things that will count the most at the track. If those two are good then the car will be fast."
Notes of Interest:
Car No. 1…
The car the No. 17 team is bringing to Loudon finished 6th in Martinsville and 8th in Richmond this year.
Testing…
Kenseth and the team will head to the Brickyard in Indianapolis for a testing session on July 24th and 25th.
Text provided by Amy Walsh
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