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Matt Kenseth's final stop gave him the Subway 400 win. Credit: AP
Matt Kenseth's final stop gave him the Subway 400 win. Credit: AP

Sunoco Pit Move of the Week: Rockingham

By Ryan Smithson, Turner Sports Interactive February 24, 2004
3:03 PM EST (2003 GMT)

Lost in all the controversy in the Subway 400 at Rockingham was the fact that Matt Kenseth's pit crew won him the race on pit road.

Which is a shame. The No. 17 crew turned in the finest pit road performance of this young Nextel Cup season.

 Subway 400
 Kenseth nips Kahne
 Results
 Nextel Cup Standings
 Ganassi disputes pit call
 Jarrett's good run disappears
 Johnson's streak snapped
 Dale Jr. retains points lead
 Photo Gallery

With 44 laps to go, Kenseth's crew gave him a 14.5-second pit stop. The stop helped Kenseth beat Kasey Kahne out of the pits -- Kahne had pitted in sequence with Kenseth.

"They were on top of their game today," Kenseth said. "I think they wanted to come out and win the race today and show those boys on pit road what they're made of too.

"This is the second year that these guys have been together as a group, and you can really feel it."

As it turned out, track position was everything -- Kahne wasn't able to get around Kenseth despite having a faster car in the closing laps.

 VIDEO CLIPS
Final laps
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Victory Lane
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"Matt got out a little bit (ahead) on us," said Kahne, who had rallied after being penalized for a stuck ratchet halfway through the race.

Because Kahne didn't beat Kenseth out of the pits, he was forced to restart behind Kenseth on the outside lane. Because of this, he lost of lot of time trying to get around the lapped machine of Mark Martin.

Kahne wasn't the only one who had to deal with lapped traffic after the final round of stops.

Rusty Wallace's crew had a problem on his 17.5-second final pit stop, which dropped him from second to sixth. He also had to start on the outside lane, which is not the preferred line on new tires at Rockingham.

"When you get back in the pack in the outside lane and all those cars lined up to the inside, you just can't get back up there," said Wallace, who ended up seventh.

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