[media-credit name=”David Yeazell” align=”alignright” width=”240″]
[/media-credit]For the first time in 30 years it looked like Daytona was going to be swept. Matt Kenseth came within half a lap of winning the 2012 Daytona 500 and Coke Zero 400 before Tony Stewart passed him on the backstretch.
Kenseth ended up finishing third after leading a race high 89 of 160 laps. His No. 17 Zest Ford for Roush Fenway Racing was the class of the field and dominated early from the pole. But when it came down to tandem drafting at the end, he and teammate Greg Biffle were again unable to make it work.
“I guess you need to be happy when you finish that good, but also when you have restrictor plate cars that fast it doesn’t happen very often and you sure want to figure out how to win with them,” Kenseth said afterwards. “You always second guess your moves but I feel we had one of the fastest cars here all three races this year so I’m happy to get third, but yet on the other hand I’m incredibly disappointed because I feel my team kind of deserved to be down there holding the hardware and I kind of let them down.
“But overall, we had a really fast car. We had a pretty good race and made our way back to the front after the pit road thing and we were in contention, we just didn’t get it done that last lap.”
Right from the green flag it was clear that Kenseth was the driver to beat. Easily picking up where he left off in February. He and Biffle teamed together and stuck their Fords on the yellow line, where they were stayed and were able to fend off all challenges.
The competition repeatedly tired to overtake them on the outside, but were continually unable to make the lane work. The only problem that Kenseth had all night was pit road, when he came down for his pit stop on lap 124 and seven cars wrecked behind.
Instead of stopping for service he continued through pit lane and escaped without penalty. But he gave up all his track position. No worries, he and Biffle wasted no time in showing their strength and rejoining the fight at the front.
The final restart put Kenseth back together with Biffle, Stewart with Kahne on the outside. Going down the backstretch Stewart got a hard enough push from Kahne to charge ahead of Kenseth and take the lead. It was the winning pass and Kenseth fell to third when another wreck started off turn four.
For Kenseth he did everything he could to keep Biffle with him, deciding to drag the brake when Biffle got disconnected. That move was just enough for Stewart to clear Kenseth and take another win away. Kenseth had been unable to charge for the win at Talladega when he and Biffle became disconnected there.
“If he was by himself [Stewart], I knew we would pass him as long as me and Greg could get rolling again,” said Kenseth. “I knew we would pass him somewhere over by turn four, hopefully, so I got him [Biffle], made a run and tried to go outside of Tony and he made a block real high and I still kind of had position and then from there I’m not really sure what happened. They just started wrecking behind us.”
Hindsight is always 50/50 and it’s no different for Kenseth and what he might have been able to do differently. There were a few things he said, but you never know how they would have played out or what turn the race would have taken.
He remains the point leader heading into New Hampshire, now 25 up on Dale Earnhardt Jr. But, it won’t make missing out on a rare NASCAR accomplishment any better.
“Daytona has been wonderful to us this year, really starting last July when we were able to push David [Ragan] to his win and finish second,” he said. “Obviously, we had a really good Speedweeks [this year] and then to come down here and sit on the pole and be able to lead – the most laps I would think – so, we were up front most of the night and had one of the fastest cars.
“We didn’t get caught up in a wreck and still got a good finish, so it’s hard to be disappointed with that, but the racer in you, when you have a car like that, you certainly want to figure out how to try to win with it.”
