Matt Kenseth - PRE-RACE ADVANCE

1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway

NSCS: UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 - Mar. 2, 3:30 p.m. Eastern on Fox/PRN No. 17 USG Sheetrock/DEWALT Ford Fusion

FAST FACTS ● Matt Kenseth has led 368 laps for his career at Las Vegas in Cup competition, 110 laps better than any other driver. ● Kenseth’s average finish at Las Vegas in the Cup Series in 7.6; second among all drivers with at least six starts at the track (Jimmie Johnson 6.0). ● In Kenseth’s eight starts at Las Vegas, he has completed all but one lap or 2,019 out of a possible 2,020. ● Kenseth recorded back-to-back wins at Las Vegas in 2003 and 2004. His 2003 win at Vegas was his only win during Kenseth’s 2003 NASCAR Cup Championship season. ● Kenseth will run the USG Sheetrock paint scheme on Sunday for the first of three times this season. The other two USG Sheetrock races in ‘08 are Chicago in July and Atlanta in October. ● Chip Bolin served as crew chief on an interim basis last season at Las Vegas and after starting 37th, led the No. 17 team to a fourth-place finish.

Kenseth on racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway: "I’ve always enjoyed racing at Las Vegas. It’s a cool place to visit and the track is a top-notch facility. I thought it was fine before they reconfigured it and we ran pretty good out there on the old configuration. Now, the track has a ton of grip with the new surface and the high-banked corners make it extremely fast.

“We had a good finish there last season, even though our car wasn’t that great, the guys on pit road kept gaining positions for us and we were able to get a really good finish out of it. Much like they did yesterday at California. We probably had a fifth to 10th-place car, but because our pit crew did such a good job, we were able to finish fifth. Last year in Vegas, we didn’t have near a fourth-place car, but because we had so many pit stops with the reduced fuel cell that we ran out there, our pit crew was able to pick up three or four positions every time and we were able to get the track position at the end and finish fourth. Hopefully, we can get the cars performing at the same level as our pit crew and we should be able to contend for some wins.”

Crew Chief Chip Bolin on racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “When we did the Goodyear tire test at Vegas in December we were happy with the car, but not ecstatic. At the open test in February, Goodyear brought a harder tire, and we were lacking overall grip, and struggling to get through the bumps down into turn one. Hopefully we’re better this weekend than we were when we tested.

“I was very pleased with the way the guys performed on pit road this past weekend. They were the ones that did the most work to get us from 10th up to running in the top five. If they hadn’t been on their game we wouldn’t have finished where we did. It’s nice to have them to fall back on. Even when our cars aren’t where they need to be, they can still make us look good.

“Yesterday was the very first race with running that car on that style of racetrack; the intermediate track. We’ll all know more about how the cars will react this weekend than we did going into last weekend. But, I tend to think Vegas will lend itself to a pit-strategy game, because the tires won’t fall off much over the course of a run and you’ll see guys taking on two tires or no tires towards the end of the race for track position.”