Kenseth praises RIR's pavement after top five

RICHMOND, Va. -- Had Bill Murray been unavailable to participate in the filming of Groundhog Day, Matt Kenseth could've easily been cast as Phil.

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It may be a new weekend, but it's the same ol' story.

In identical fashion to his march to the 2003 NASCAR championship, Kenseth qualified badly for the Chevy American Revolution 400, but with patience and pit strategy rallied to post a top-five finish at Richmond International Raceway.

"We were good on long runs, but when the driver qualifies 29th or 30th all the time that really doesn't help our cause much," Kenseth said. "We had a pretty good car, were just really loose on restarts and couldn't get going. That really hurt me a lot."

Kenseth's woes on short runs were ultimately balanced by his prowess on long, green flag runs.

"For 10 laps, it'd be really loose and I couldn't get going, but on the long haul it seemed like we were as good as anybody," he said.

That was evidenced by the final 46-lap green flag leg of the 400-lap event. The caution came out on Lap 344 when Scott Riggs blew an engine. On the restart, Kenseth started a march to the front.

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"I was racing him during that last run, and his car was real fast," said Brian Vickers, Saturday's pole-sitter and eighth-place finisher.

"He was definitely one of the best cars at the end, too. I don't know how he was compared to (winner, Dale Earnhardt) Junior or Jimmie (second place Johnson), but he was real good."

	Kenseth goes high to pass Johnny Sauter early in the Chevrolet American Revolution 400. Credit: Autostock

Early on the in the race Kenseth hugged the bottom groove on the newly repaved track, which heading into the weekend everyone thought was far superior to the top groove. But he quickly realized that wasn't necessarily true.

"The track was surprisingly good. Whatever they did here and at Homestead, they hit a home run," Kenseth said. "I was hugging the bottom and wasn't going to the top, even if my life depended on it.

"Then, all the sudden I see the leaders running up there, and I went up there and there was a lot of grip. So it was really amazing that somebody figured out the asphalt that good, to be able to make Richmond that good the first time by. That was amazing. I didn't really expect that.

"Overall we were pretty good. Any time you finish in the top-five in Nextel Cup racing you've got to be happy. That was a really good run for us."