MATT KENSETH MAKES BOLD MOVE TO WIN FONTANA BUSCH RACE

Source: NASCAR
Date: 02/25/2007

Matt Kenseth ran with the top of the field all night in the NASCAR Busch Series race at California Speedway and then made his move when it counted most to go on to win the Stater Bros. 300.

Kenseth’s trip to victory lane was brought on by a bold and powerful pass of Jeff Burton with 22 laps remaining, just after a restart had bunched up the field in the closing laps of the race.

Casey Mears, who started his first NASCAR Busch Series race for Hendrick Motorsports, made a charge during the final 10 laps but ran out of time to catch Kenseth, who bested Mears by .484 seconds. Kyle Busch came home third, followed by Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle.

"That was a lot of fun,” said Kenseth. “These are the guys that make it good. It's all about the cars that you drive and these guys give me great cars. Drew Blickensderfer gave me a great car today. He's the crew chief for this thing this year. Jimmy (Fennig) did a good job of getting this group together, and Drew has done a great job over the winter of even making the cars a little better. The best pit stops that I think we've had in a Busch car probably in a year and a half."

The dominating cars for most of the race were Kenseth and Burton. Kenseth led three times for 48 laps while Burton led six times for 46 laps.

The NASCAR Busch Series win for Kenseth was his fourth at the two-mile Los Angeles area oval, putting him first among all NASCAR Busch Series drivers at the track. Roush Racing teammate Greg Biffle is ranked second with three career wins at the track. Team owner Jack Roush scored his sixth series win at the track, the first win for Roush since he and Boston Red Sox owner John Henry formed Roush Fenway Racing.

Rounding out the top 10 were Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin, Regan Smith and Dave Blaney. Blaney’s top-10 finish follows his strong runner-up finish in the Bill Davis Racing Toyota last week at Daytona International Speedway.

The NASCAR Busch Series heads to Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City next week for the Telcel-Motorola 200 on the 2.52 mile road course.

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