Matt Kenseth, sporting the special copper and black Carhartt paint scheme on his No. 17 Ford Taurus, scored his first top-five finish of the season at the Michigan International Speedway on Sunday. The No. 17 was able to break out of the rut it has been in for much of the season to post a fourth-place finish and gain three positions in the NASCAR Nextel Cup point standings.
Rolling off in the 21st starting position, Kenseth quickly drove his way into the top ten, landing in the tenth spot by lap 21. When the first caution flag of the afternoon flew on lap 41, Kenseth had worked his way up into the fourth position. Kenseth elected to come down pit road for fresh tires, and also received air pressure and wedge adjustments, as the car was a little tight in the center of the turns. Kenseth lost a couple of spots on pit road as the No. 17 Carhartt/DEWALT crew let a tire get away from them, and restarted the race in the sixth spot on lap 47.
The second caution flag of the day slowed the field just four laps later for debris on the racetrack, but the No. 17 elected to stay out, having worked its' way into the third position. When the race restarted on lap 59, the Roush Racing entries of Mark Martin, Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth made up the top three.
Kenseth continued to run in the top five during what would be a long green flag run between the second and third caution periods. Running fourth, Kenseth came down pit road on lap 91 for his first green flag stop of the afternoon. The Carhartt/DEWALT crew gave the No. 17 four fresh tires and fuel, along with air pressure and wedge adjustments, in just 13.2 seconds, and Kenseth found his way into the third spot once the cycle of green flag pit stops was completed.
Kenseth completed another green flag pit stop on lap 134, maintaining his fourth-place position as the stops cycled through. Kenseth would remain in the top-five for the rest of the event, running as high as second. The No. 17 was running second with under ten laps to go when the tires started to go away. Kenseth lost a couple of spots as the final laps ticked off, but ended the race with a season-best fourth-place finish.
"I'm glad we were able to finish in the top-five today. It's hard to believe it's the first one of the season. All year we've known we were capable of running and finishing up front, but it seems it's been one thing or another for us this year," said Kenseth, after the race. "This was a great weekend to run well with Carhartt and Roush both being here in Michigan. We've believed all along that we had the equipment and the team to be competitive but it just hasn't all come together for us like this. Our goal is to finish consistently up front for the remainder of these first 26 races and work our way into the Chase."
The No. 17 DEWALT Ford Taurus will be competing in the first road course race of the 2005 season next weekend in Sonoma, California.
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