Kenseth Using Brand New Chassis at Martinsville

Kenseth has one of his better career finishes at Martinsville in spring (6th)

Matt Kenseth
Team: No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion
Crew Chief: Jimmy Fennig
Chassis: Primary: RK-790 (brand new chassis)

Kenseth on racing at Martinsville Speedway: “Probably the most challenging part for me at Martinsville is being calm, thinking through things, and not doing something because you are mad. I don’t like getting run into and I don’t like running into other people and it’s bound to happen there since it’s such a small track. There is no room to move and there is not an outside groove where you have another choice to pass. It is one of the tracks that takes all the patience that I have usually. The first thing is getting the car to go fast all the time, be smooth and drive it like I am supposed to there. After that, it’s being patient and using your head to get the best finish you can.”

Crew chief Jimmy Fennig on racing at Martinsville Speedway: “At Martinsville, there’s always a lot of racing for position since it’s a typical short-track with little room to pass. Qualifying is really important at short tracks so that you can get the advantage of track position from the start. It’s also important to make sure that our Crown Royal Ford drives well in the turns. We don’t have the long straightaways at Martinsville like you do at other larger tracks in order to be able to make passes. Because of the limited space on the track, our No. 17 Ford needs to turn well in the center of the turns and have good grip off the turns in order to race down the short straightaways.”

FAST FACTS:
• In 23 Cup starts at Martinsville, Kenseth has completed 11,409 of 11,519 laps (99.0 percent) and led for 68 laps

• Kenseth has an average starting position of 23.3 and an average finishing position of 15.8 at Martinsville

• Kenseth has achieved two top-five and seven top-10 finishes at Martinsville in the Cup series

• This weekend at Martinsville, Kenseth will pilot the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion

• Entering the weekend at Martinsville, Kenseth is currently second in the NSCS driver point standings

- Roush Fenway Racing, Press Release