Team: No. 17 Best Buy Ford Fusion
Crew Chief: Jimmy Fennig
Chassis: Primary: RK-821 (brand new chassis)
Kenseth on racing at Chicagoland Speedway:
“I always look forward to racing at Chicagoland since it’s the closest track to Wisconsin and it’s always fun going there with so many friends and family around. Chicago’s been a pretty good track for us in the past, and hopefully we can start off the Chase on the right foot this weekend. We ran really well at Chicago last year and got the pole. We were leading on the last restart, but unfortunately we just didn’t have good fuel mileage and got a bad finish for our day, but I feel good about heading there this weekend.”
Crew chief Jimmy Fennig on racing at Chicagoland Speedway:
“Looking ahead to this weekend, I think we had a good car last year but fuel mileage just got us in the end. We really had a car capable of winning the race but just came up a half a lap short. Matt has a great record at 1.5-mile tracks so I think we’ll look at coming into the weekend with a similar set-up as what we ran there last year and see if we have similar handling this year. We’re bringing a brand new race car so I’m looking to see how it performs this weekend as we start the Chase.”
FAST FACTS:
• Kenseth will be signing autographs Friday, Sept. 14th at the Jewel-Osco store located at 16625 West 159th Street, Lockport, IL from 6:30pm-7:30pm on behalf of Gatorade
• Kenseth has an average starting position of 18.4 and an average finishing position of 12.3 at Chicagoland
• Kenseth has finished second twice at Chicagoland (2005 and 2007)
• Kenseth has completed 2,937 of the 2,940 laps at Chicagoland Speedway (99.9%) and led for a total of 346 laps in the Cup Series
• Kenseth has two top-five and four top-10 finishes in 11 races at Chicagoland, but is still searching for his first win at the 1.5-mile track
• This weekend at Chicagoland, Kenseth will pilot the No. 17 Best Buy Ford Fusion
• Entering this weekend, Kenseth is currently eighth in the Sprint Cup Series Chase driver point standings