Crown Royal will end its sponsorship with Roush Fenway Racing at the end of the year- much like OSG Sports told you about Red Bull leaving NASCAR last week as they focus their, um, energies on Formula 1 and other racing circuits.
Crown Royal has sponsored Matt Kenseth for the last two seasons, and had put their names on Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray's cars before that.
Parent company Diageo is ending its official sponsor deal with NASCAR as well, but they will keep their title sponsor for the Richmond race... and that's it...
Roush Fenway knows that 3M and driver Greg Biffle are good for next year, but Carl Edwards and AFLAC and David Ragan and UPS are still in play...
Now add Kenseth... RFR is batting .250 for 2012...
More when we know more...
Here's the last good stuff between Kenseth and Diageo from Dover...
((HT: NASCAR on FOX/youtube))
Showing posts with label Matt Kenseth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matt Kenseth. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Friday, May 8, 2009
Not How The 48 Wanted To Do Darlington
((HT: The State))
Jimmy Johnson said right before his lap, crew chief Chad Knaus' "final words were, 'Go like hell,' and off I went and didn't make it back."
Johnson qualified on owner's points and will start 42nd, his worst opening spot in 11career Cup races at Darlington.
"I hate that happened to Jimmie," Jeff Gordon said. "I know they've got another great car in the truck. They're a championship caliber team. They'll rebound, I'm sure, in a big way."
Kenseth's hopes his fourth career pole - and first since Kansas in October 2005 - leads to a rebound in confidence.
He won the Daytona 500 and then the next week at Auto Club Speedway in Los Angeles. However, he's just one top 10 finish in the past eight races.
Kenseth had felt good during practice, then came an afternoon rain that threatened to wash off much of the grip Sprint Cup drivers had spent the morning laying down.
To Kenseth's surprise, his car held its line and led to the quickest lap in Darlington's 60-season history.
"It's the most confident I've been in my car since, I don't know," Kenseth said.
Here's his run, thanks to NASCAR.com
Ryan Newman qualified third, followed by improving Sam Hornish Jr. and Darlington first-timer Joey Logano.
Defending Darlington champion Kyle Busch, who swept last week's Nationwide and Sprint Cup races at Richmond, will start 14th.
Brad Keselowski made it into his first Cup race since winning Talladega two week ago and starts 31st.
Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Speed failed to make the 43-car field.
Johnson, sixth in the points, had hoped a strong qualifying lap would end a run of bad races. He was 30th at Talladega and 36th a week ago at Richmond.
"Unfortunately, I tore up a race care but we have great backups and we'll be out there tomorrow night," he said. "I'm looking forward to it."
((HT: NASCAR/Speed))
Jimmy Johnson said right before his lap, crew chief Chad Knaus' "final words were, 'Go like hell,' and off I went and didn't make it back."
Johnson qualified on owner's points and will start 42nd, his worst opening spot in 11career Cup races at Darlington.
"I hate that happened to Jimmie," Jeff Gordon said. "I know they've got another great car in the truck. They're a championship caliber team. They'll rebound, I'm sure, in a big way."
Kenseth's hopes his fourth career pole - and first since Kansas in October 2005 - leads to a rebound in confidence.
He won the Daytona 500 and then the next week at Auto Club Speedway in Los Angeles. However, he's just one top 10 finish in the past eight races.
Kenseth had felt good during practice, then came an afternoon rain that threatened to wash off much of the grip Sprint Cup drivers had spent the morning laying down.
To Kenseth's surprise, his car held its line and led to the quickest lap in Darlington's 60-season history.
"It's the most confident I've been in my car since, I don't know," Kenseth said.
Here's his run, thanks to NASCAR.com
Ryan Newman qualified third, followed by improving Sam Hornish Jr. and Darlington first-timer Joey Logano.
Defending Darlington champion Kyle Busch, who swept last week's Nationwide and Sprint Cup races at Richmond, will start 14th.
Brad Keselowski made it into his first Cup race since winning Talladega two week ago and starts 31st.
Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Speed failed to make the 43-car field.
Johnson, sixth in the points, had hoped a strong qualifying lap would end a run of bad races. He was 30th at Talladega and 36th a week ago at Richmond.
"Unfortunately, I tore up a race care but we have great backups and we'll be out there tomorrow night," he said. "I'm looking forward to it."
((HT: NASCAR/Speed))
Monday, February 23, 2009
Kenseth Makes It 2 In A Row
((HT: ESPN/NASCAR Images/FOX))
John Buccigross has the highlights with appropriate color commentary from John Anderson...
Hey, kids, Matt Kenseth won again...
Kenseth took the lead from Jeff Gordon in the pits under caution with 38 laps to go in the 250-lap race and stayed ahead, pulling away over the last 20 laps. But it took a while for the winner to shake Gordon, who went also went winless last year and is desperate to get back to Victory Lane.
"I honestly thought that we were going to be too loose at the end and he was going to catch us," Kenseth said. "Especially [when] I couldn't get away from him that time he ran me down and got right on my bumper [on lap 231]."
But get away he did, beating Gordon's No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to the finish line by 1.464 seconds -- most of the front straightaway. It is the first time a Cup driver has won the first two races of the season since Gordon did it in 1997 on the way to the second of his four championships.
The key to Kenseth's win Sunday was a near-perfect pit stop that put him in the lead on lap 213.
"It's such a great team," Kenseth said. "I just thank these guys [on the crew]. They gave me a great stop and got me in clean air and that's just a huge difference.
"Our car handled really good all day and we had excellent pit stops. About the fourth one from the end, I started complaining and then, all of a sudden, they started getting me three or four spots every stop."
Earlier in the race, Kenseth, who led a race-high 84 laps, got out ahead and Gordon caught and passed him on a long green-flag run. But, after the final restart on lap 216, Kenseth found a way to stay in front.
Both Kenseth and Gordon were much faster than the rest of the field at the end. They steadily pulled away from the pack. But Gordon was unable to get to Kenseth's rear bumper and get a real run on the No. 17 Roush Fenway Ford.
"I thought he was going to pass us again," Kenseth said. "Some people think I'm a pessimist, but I think I'm more of a realist. ... I don't even know what we changed. It wasn't easy, but we were able to hold them off."
John Buccigross has the highlights with appropriate color commentary from John Anderson...
Hey, kids, Matt Kenseth won again...
Kenseth took the lead from Jeff Gordon in the pits under caution with 38 laps to go in the 250-lap race and stayed ahead, pulling away over the last 20 laps. But it took a while for the winner to shake Gordon, who went also went winless last year and is desperate to get back to Victory Lane.
"I honestly thought that we were going to be too loose at the end and he was going to catch us," Kenseth said. "Especially [when] I couldn't get away from him that time he ran me down and got right on my bumper [on lap 231]."
But get away he did, beating Gordon's No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to the finish line by 1.464 seconds -- most of the front straightaway. It is the first time a Cup driver has won the first two races of the season since Gordon did it in 1997 on the way to the second of his four championships.
The key to Kenseth's win Sunday was a near-perfect pit stop that put him in the lead on lap 213.
"It's such a great team," Kenseth said. "I just thank these guys [on the crew]. They gave me a great stop and got me in clean air and that's just a huge difference.
"Our car handled really good all day and we had excellent pit stops. About the fourth one from the end, I started complaining and then, all of a sudden, they started getting me three or four spots every stop."
Earlier in the race, Kenseth, who led a race-high 84 laps, got out ahead and Gordon caught and passed him on a long green-flag run. But, after the final restart on lap 216, Kenseth found a way to stay in front.
Both Kenseth and Gordon were much faster than the rest of the field at the end. They steadily pulled away from the pack. But Gordon was unable to get to Kenseth's rear bumper and get a real run on the No. 17 Roush Fenway Ford.
"I thought he was going to pass us again," Kenseth said. "Some people think I'm a pessimist, but I think I'm more of a realist. ... I don't even know what we changed. It wasn't easy, but we were able to hold them off."
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Kenseth Wins Another Rain-Shortened Daytona
Matt Kenseth passed Elliott Sadler with two laps to go before the rains came and ended up winning the 51st Daytona 500 Sunday.
Kenseth was the proud owner of a 36-race winless streak heading in to the the race, and had to start back in the 39th position in the grid. The race was shortened to 152 laps, or 380 miles, because of the rain in the area. NASCAR's head honcho Mike Helton told the Fox network race team that the race itself would not have kicked back in until close to 11:00 eastern time after the track would have been cleared of the rain and dried to meet safe driving conditions.
This daytona was the 4th race shortened in the history of the event- the last being Michael Waltrip's 2003 win.
Kenseth vowed to a columnist, who in 2003 wrote the drive had no personality, that was going to paint the town plaid.
Here are your highlights and Kenseth post.
Jonathan Coachman has the highlights. MRN's Winston Kelly is on the mic:
((HT: ESPNEWS/NASCAR Media Group))
Kenseth was the proud owner of a 36-race winless streak heading in to the the race, and had to start back in the 39th position in the grid. The race was shortened to 152 laps, or 380 miles, because of the rain in the area. NASCAR's head honcho Mike Helton told the Fox network race team that the race itself would not have kicked back in until close to 11:00 eastern time after the track would have been cleared of the rain and dried to meet safe driving conditions.
This daytona was the 4th race shortened in the history of the event- the last being Michael Waltrip's 2003 win.
Kenseth vowed to a columnist, who in 2003 wrote the drive had no personality, that was going to paint the town plaid.
Here are your highlights and Kenseth post.
Jonathan Coachman has the highlights. MRN's Winston Kelly is on the mic:
((HT: ESPNEWS/NASCAR Media Group))
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