With the help of a call on pit road early and improvements throughout the day, Matt Kenseth drove his Constantine Sealing Ford Fusion to a 15th-place finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Sunday afternoon.
“We were just way off Friday and then in the race we got some decent track position with some good strategy by Matt (Puccia),” Kenseth said. “We were off on the pit stop and something happened. We got in the back and got my fenders banged in, so we had to fix that. We were just behind the whole day after that, but our performance today was a whole lot better than Friday for sure.”
After the start was delayed due to rain in the area, Kenseth began battling a tight-handling No. 6 machine. Just 15 laps in the caution came out when Puccia called the Ford Fusion to pit road for an early stop and service. That stop allowed Kenseth to stay out at the competition yellow (lap 35), where he’d restart fourth at lap 39.
He maintained his position inside the top-10 for the 12-lap green flag run before losing a few positions later in the run to cars with fresher tires, ending the stage in 19th. After restarting 24th to begin stage two, the Cambridge, Wisconsin, native quickly gained some spots back pushing forward to 21st to end the segment.
The 2003 NASCAR Cup Champion would restart the final stage in 25th, but improved seven spots by lap 200 up to 18th. He improved to 16th some 20 laps later, before hitting pit road for green flag stops. Kenseth would leave the pits 15th, which is where he’d finish the 301-lap event.
Kenseth returns to the track in the No. 6 at Pocono Raceway next weekend. Race coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday on NBCSN and MRN.
RFR PR/Photo Credit Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images
