The latest auto news, reviews, prices, product and vehicle releases. Apr
27th
Stay connected Subscribe to our RSS feed
Less than two days after NASCAR stripped Matt Kenseth of his Kansas Speedway pole, he was back on top in Richmond.
"One of our goals this weekend was to come here this weekend and sit on the pole and try to quiet down some of the noise," Kenseth said. "I was pretty glad we were able to accomplish that. It's not been historically a good qualifying place for me -- it's probably one of my worst qualifying tracks on the circuit -- but I've been really champing at the bit to get to the track this weekend."
The double irony is that Kenseth is not known for winning poles. In 481 races this is only his ninth pole because he was stripped of that pole he won last week due to a technical, underweight connecting rod, issue.
On Thursday he said he was upset, but, focusing on the next race.
"I think almost every person that I've talked to has been very supportive," he said after his pole. "I just kind of left it behind me. I'm just going to let the appeals process work out and see what happens. Whatever it is it is. We'll have to deal with the consequences then and move on. For now, it's just business as usual.
"There's absolutely nothing we can do about anything that happened last week at this point so you just put that out of your head. It's only a distraction if you let it become one."
And Kenseth did it in style with his Toyota with a track-record run at 130.334 mph (20.716 seconds), Kenseth edging previous record holder Brian Vickers (130.303 mph), who was subbing for injured Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, for the third straight week, by .005 seconds.
Jeff Gordon qualified third, followed by Kasey Kahne and Clint Bowyer as the top five drivers broke Vickers' 2004 track record of 129.983 mph (20.772 seconds).
"One of our goals this weekend was to come here this weekend and sit on the pole and try to quiet down some of the noise," Kenseth said. "I was pretty glad we were able to accomplish that. It's not been historically a good qualifying place for me -- it's probably one of my worst qualifying tracks on the circuit -- but I've been really champing at the bit to get to the track this weekend."
The double irony is that Kenseth is not known for winning poles. In 481 races this is only his ninth pole because he was stripped of that pole he won last week due to a technical, underweight connecting rod, issue.
On Thursday he said he was upset, but, focusing on the next race.
"I think almost every person that I've talked to has been very supportive," he said after his pole. "I just kind of left it behind me. I'm just going to let the appeals process work out and see what happens. Whatever it is it is. We'll have to deal with the consequences then and move on. For now, it's just business as usual.
"There's absolutely nothing we can do about anything that happened last week at this point so you just put that out of your head. It's only a distraction if you let it become one."
And Kenseth did it in style with his Toyota with a track-record run at 130.334 mph (20.716 seconds), Kenseth edging previous record holder Brian Vickers (130.303 mph), who was subbing for injured Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, for the third straight week, by .005 seconds.
Jeff Gordon qualified third, followed by Kasey Kahne and Clint Bowyer as the top five drivers broke Vickers' 2004 track record of 129.983 mph (20.772 seconds).