Michigan Win Gives Kenseth Momentum

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JACKSON, MI - RIS - Matt Kenseth’s convincing victory in Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 proved one of two points based on theory.  As tough at the cars were reported to be to drive, Kenseth must be one of the best in the business or he was lucky in that most of the usual suspects had bad days.  Either way, it was his third win of the season which puts him in position to move on after Richmond in a few weeks.  Many will not have that opportunity.  The win clearly gives him momentum as the Chase nears.

There were only to passes for the lead except for restarts and pit stops in the entire race.

Kenseth won the pole and dominated the race while stars like Jimmy Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, and Joey Logano faltered.  The top five consisted of Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex, Jr., Austin Dillon, and Denny Hamlin.  Logano and Keselowski finish in seventh and ninth places respectively while Gordon finished 17th and Johnson was 39th at the end.  Johnson had a rough day on the track and on pit road.

Johnson, the six-time champion and the other Hendrick Motorsports teams are in a slump and the slump is really starting to affect Johnson, as he  completely forgot where his pit stall was as he passed it during a stop. Johnson hit the brakes immediately and worked his way back.

With a car having to be completely in the stall for crew members to work on it, Johnson had to finesse his way in via reverse like a person who is bad at parking in a shopping mall.

Kenseth led 146 of the 200 laps, including 64 of the last 75, in a race that did little to excite anyone not wearing Kenseth gear. NASCAR's experiment of its high-drag package is batting 0-for-2 as it produced little of the drafting and slingshot passing that it was designed to do.

"I definitely felt like we had the fastest car by a fair margin for today's day and age," Kenseth said. "I was glad I didn't mess that up."

Mess it up he didn’t.  On a day when the drivers didn’t like the new high drag package NASCAR used at Indianapolis and here, and fans were yawning in the stands, it was Kenseth’s day.  Now back to the regular 2015 package at Bristol has everyone looking forward to the half-mile short track.  It’s night race time, so that means Saturday night under the lights and no experiments this time.

When asked if he would like to see this new package used again, Logano probably spoke for drivers, fans, and television executives when he answered, “No.”

Ron Fleshman

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2015, Issue 8, Posted 7:05 PM, 08.18.2015