After one of his best qualifying efforts on the season on Saturday, Matt Kenseth drove his Oscar Mayer Ford Fusion to a 25th-place finish Sunday night at Darlington where the 2003 Cup Champion and Oscar Mayer teamed up to replicate one of his early 2000s schemes to celebrate NASCAR’s Throwback weekend.
It took a little longer than expected to get the race going after lightning proved to be an issue on two different occasions prior to the green flag. Once the green dropped, Kenseth quickly reported he was battling a stiff Ford, reporting he had zero grip through the opening laps.
The opening stage would go caution free forcing Kenseth to settle into the 21st position as the team began work on the ill-handling machine. The first non-stage break caution would come at lap 127 allowing the team to once again make the needed adjustments on the Oscar Mayer Ford. The adjustments seemed to help in the beginning of the run, but fell of later forcing the No. 6 to lose positons by the time the second green-checkered wave where he was 24th.
After lining up 21st for the final 167-lap state, Kenseth stayed right around that spot up until a green flag stop at lap 285, where he was served a pass through penalty for a commitment line violation on pit road. He went on to take the wave around a series of times through some late cautions, gaining a couple spots in the closing laps to finish 25th.
Kenseth returns in the No. 6 next weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Race coverage begins on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on NBCSN and MRN.
RFR PR/Photo Credit Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
