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Kenseth wins at Dover

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Wisconsin NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth captured his first Sprint Cup race of 2016, holding off Kyle Larson to take the Triple “A” 400 in Dover, Delaware.

The Cambridge native led for 48 of the 400 laps to win his third career race at the one-mile Dover track and his 37th overall in NASCAR’s top circuit.

Kenseth is also on the verge of clinching a berth in this fall’s Chase for the Sprint Cup title series, as he moved up two spots to 12th in the season point standings.

Paul Menard of Eau Claire placed eleventh at Dover, moving up one spot for the year to 22nd.

Menard gets Year’s First Top-Ten Finish

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Paul MenardEau Claire native Paul Menard earned his first Top-Ten finish of the year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit.  Menard took eighth on Sunday at the S-T-P 500 in Martinsville, Virginia, and he rose one place in the season point standings to 21st.

Matt Kenseth of Cambridge placed 15th, and he remains Wisconsin’s top driver in the Sprint Cup standings in 14th, one spot higher than last week.

Kyle Busch won the race and Kevin Harvick remains the Sprint Cup series’ leader.

 

Kenseth falls on final lap at Daytona

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Matt Kenseth (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

Matt Kenseth (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

Cambridge native Matt Kenseth went from first to 14th on the final lap of the Daytona 500 on Sunday.

Kenseth had the lead with less than a half-lap to go when teammate Denny Hamlin tried to make a push.  Kenseth tried to block the charge but Hamlin bumped him, forcing Kenseth into the wall.  He avoided a crash but slipped to 14th by the time he crossed the finish line.

Hamlin won the race in a photo finish over Martin Truex Jr.

Kenseth started second after his original car was repaired.  Paul Menard of Eau Claire moved up from his 37th-place start to finish 18th.

Late crash costs Kenseth in Daytona Beach

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Matt Kenseth

Matt Kenseth

Wisconsin’s Matt Kenseth has lost his front-row starting spot for Sunday’s Daytona 500.  The Cambridge native got into a six-car crash on the final lap of Thursday night’s second 150-mile qualifying race.

Kenseth will have to use a backup car for Sunday’s Sprint Cup season opener, and that means he’ll start at the bottom of the 40-car field for the Great American Race, losing the number-two spot he earned in last Sunday’s pole qualifying.

Kenseth led for 23 laps and was in second for 22 more before the crash sent him, Martin Truex Junior, Jimmy Johnson and A-J Allmendinger to the infield care center.  All four escaped injury.

Paul Menard of Eau Claire finished second-to-last after his engine overheated.  He’ll start 37th on Sunday.

 

Kenseth says he’s ‘unfairly’ being made an example

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Matt Kenseth

Matt Kenseth

Wisconsin’s Matt Kenseth says NASCAR is “unfairly” making him out to be an example with his two-race suspension for retaliating against Joey Logano.

The Cambridge native failed to have his suspension reduced or overturned Thursday in two appeals before a national motor-sports panel and final appeals’ officer Bryan Moss.  Moss did reduce Kenseth’s probation from six months to the final three weeks of this season.

Kenseth says NASCAR has no clear rules for penalizing drivers who retaliate, and he won’t change his style due to what happened.

Logano knocked Kenseth out of the Chase for the Spring Cup three weeks ago by spinning into him at Kansas.  Last Sunday, Kenseth retaliated by driving Logano into a wall at Martinsville, all but eliminating Logano from season title contention.

Kenseth, the 2003 champion, can return for the year’s final race at Homestead-Miami in two weeks.

 

Kenseth to appeal suspension

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Matt Kenseth

Matt Kenseth

Matt Kenseth’s racing team says it will appeal a two-race suspension handed down by NASCAR on Tuesday, for intentionally causing an accident that may have ruined Joey Logano’s chances of winning the Sprint Cup title.

Joe Gibbs Racing says the penalty is more severe than others in the past for similar incidents.

The Cambridge native was nine laps behind when he drove Logano into a wall last Sunday at Martinsville.  Two weeks before, Logano made Kenseth spin, which led  to the Wisconsin driver’s elimination from the Chase for the Sprint Cup with four races left.

NASCAR says Kenseth had no chance of winning last Sunday, and he intentionally altered the outcome of the race.  It dropped Logano to last in the current field of eight, with only a slim chance of making the final four this weekend.

NASCAR chairman Brian France says a strong penalty is justified, because Kenseth should not have taken such payback into his own hands.

Danica Patrick was fined $50,000 for wrecking David Gilliland’s car on purpose in the same race.

Kenseth captures third Cup race this season

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Matt Kenseth

Matt Kenseth

Cambridge, Wisconsin native Matt Kenseth led for 146 of 200 laps, winning Nascar’s Pure Michigan 400 on Sunday.

Kenseth started in the lead and stayed there for much of the race, earning his third Sprint Cup victory of the season and 34th of his career.  It was also the fifth win in the last six races for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Kenseth led for 73% of the laps on Sunday, the highest percentage by anyone in a Sprint Cup race this year.  He remains in 7th positions in the point standings.

Eau Claire’s Paul Menard finished 12th and Janesville’s Travis Kvapil was 40th.

 

Kenseth captures Windows 10 400

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Matt Kenseth - Photo: Courtesy of Getty Images

Matt Kenseth – Photo: Courtesy of Getty Images

Cambridge, Wisconsin native Matt Kenseth took the checkered flag, winning the Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday.

Kenseth captured his 33rd career win after Kyle Busch ran out of gas on the final lap.  Busch, who had won the last three Sprint Cup races, finished 21st.

Brad Keselowski, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Biffle rounded out the top-five.

Kenseth made it five wins in the last six races for Joe Gibbs racing.  It’s his first win at Pocono.  Kenseth locked up a spot into the chase for the Sprint Cup Championship shootout.

 

Matt Kenseth claims checkered at Bristol to snap 51-race drought

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Matt Kenseth

Matt Kenseth

Cambridge-native Matt Kenseth failed to win a NASCAR Sprint Series race in 2014, and had not crossed the finish line first since September 22, 2013.

That span of 51 consecutive races without a win ended Sunday when Kenseth took the checkered flag of the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Racing from the pole for the first time this season, Kenseth and the rest of the 43-car field had to wait through a 90-minute rain delay before starting their engines. The race was then halted three more times, including a near four-hour delay that push the overall race day past nine hours. [Read more…]

Kenseth lands spot in the “Chase” field

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Kasey Kahne grabbed the lead on a restart following a caution with 23 laps to go and held off Matt Kenseth in a two-lap shootout to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday night.

It’s Kahne’s first win of the season and earned him a spot in the Chase for the Sprint cup.  Kenseth also qualified for the Chase on points.

Tony Stewart’s much-anticipated return to racing ended a little more than halfway through the race.  He hit the wall for the second time after his right front tire blew out on Lap 172, ending his night with a 41st place finish.

Kenseth began the night fifth in the points race, but not yet locked into the Chase because he had no wins.  Kenseth needed to finish seventh or better to secure his place in the playoffs.