NNS Race Recap: Kenseth capitalizes on Busch’s flat tire

Matt Kenseth celebrates winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series DHP 200 on Friday in Darlington Raceway’s Victory Lane. (Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)
By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

DARLINGTON, S.C. (May 8, 2009) — Maybe Matt Kenseth’s luck has turned again.

On Friday afternoon, Kenseth was the surprise pole winner for Saturday’s Southern 500 Sprint Cup race at Darlington Raceway.

On Friday night, he completed the daily double with a victory in the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 Nationwide Series race at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped track, after misfortune struck the dominant car of Kyle Busch in the closing circuits.

Continue reading “Nationwide Series Recap: Kenseth wins at Darlington”

The Final Lap – ESPN Denver
Today, 5:16 PM
Kerry chats with John Morrisey of ESPN Radio Denver AM1600 on the show Full Throttle. We discuss Kyle Busch being the real deal, who the next up and coming driver will be plus a Darlington Preview and more.

Listen Here
2.2 MB

Related Link:

http://www.espnradio1600.com/weekend

1 17 Matt Kenseth
2 24 Jeff Gordon
3 39 Ryan Newman
4 77 Sam Hornish Jr.
5 20 Joey Logano #
6 31 Jeff Burton
7 9 Kasey Kahne
8 2 Kurt Busch
9 99 Carl Edwards
10 47 Marcos Ambrose
11 16 Greg Biffle
12 5 Mark Martin
13 07 Casey Mears
14 18 Kyle Busch
15 6 David Ragan
16 1 Martin Truex Jr.
17 33 Clint Bowyer
18 14 Tony Stewart
19 19 Elliott Sadler
20 26 Jamie McMurray

Continue reading “Darlington Cup Series Lineup: Kenseth on pole”

The Race: Southern 500 Presented by GoDaddy.com

The Place: Darlington Raceway (1.366-mile oval)

The Date: Saturday, May 9

The Time: 7:20 p.m. ET

Race Distance: 500 miles/367 laps

TV: FOX , 7 p.m. ET

2008 Polesitter: Kyle Busch

2008 Winner: Greg Biffle

Schedule: (All times local ET) Friday–Practice, 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m., Final Practice, 1:30–3 p.m., Qualifying, 5:10 p.m.

Greg Biffle (No. 16 3M Ford) has finished last only four times in his 232-race career. One of those four took place last year at Darlington Raceway.

Still, Biffle could be considered a favorite going into this weekend’s Southern 500 Presented by GoDaddy.com.

Despite the 43rd-place finishing, Biffle still owns some of the top Loop Data statistics since the stats’ inception in 2005.

That’s largely because the last-place finish was as deceiving as they get. Biffle had as good a shot at winning as any driver in the field, leading 95 laps.

In fact, he had the fourth-best Driver Rating that race of 108.6, along with an Average Running Position of 16.1, 33 Fastest Laps Run and a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 61%.

So those totals already added to the impressive lot that was racked up during back-to-back wins in 2005 and 2006.

Continue reading “Greg Biffle a Darlington favorite?”