Kenseth keeps Cup regulars atop BGN
By Associated Press,
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 27, 2003
FONTANA, Calif. - Matt Kenseth held off Michael Waltrip on a restart with seven laps to go Saturday and won the Californiaspeedway.com 300.
Kenseth built a lead of nearly two seconds over Waltrip in the Busch Grand National race before Tony Raines was knocked into the wall by another car on Lap 139 of 150. That brought out the last of six caution flags and gave Waltrip one last shot.
On the restart on Lap 144, Waltrip's Chevrolet drew alongside Kenseth's Ford, but the leader stayed ahead and steadily increased his lead. The winning margin was 0.882 seconds, about 10 car lengths.
Kenseth, the Winston Cup points leader, averaged 129.419 mph.
"I was concerned about Michael," Kenseth said. "It was a good race when we got side by side. Luckily, I had enough power under the hood to get away from him."
Waltrip said, "I'm glad I made Matt work for it a little bit, but he was just a little better than I was."
Kenseth lost ground under caution when he left the pits on Lap 42 with a loose lug nut and had to pit again on the next lap to get it tightened. He came out 17th, the last car on the lead lap.
"Since we still had a lot of laps left, I didn't feel too bad going to the back," Kenseth said. "I knew if we kept running good and got a couple of yellows, we'd be able to catch up."
The winner got to the lead on Lap 97, lost it briefly when he pitted on Lap 110 and led the final 32 trips around the 2-mile oval.
It was the 13th series victory for Kenseth and first in four races this season.
Pole-sitter Kevin Harvick was third, giving Winston Cup regulars a sweep of the top three. Full-time Winston Cup drivers, known as "Buschwhackers," have won eight of nine BGN races this year.
Kasey Kahne was fourth, followed by series leader Todd Bodine. Bodine increased his points lead from 78 to 99 over Ron Hornaday Jr., who finished 10th.
THUNDER VALLEY NATIONALS: Rookie Brandon Bernstein led Top Fuel qualifying for the first time, topping the field for today's NHRA eliminations in Bristol, Tenn. Bernstein broke Bristol Dragway records with a time of 4.530 seconds in the quarter mile at 328.22 mph to end Doug Kalitta's season-long top qualifying streak.
Warren Johnson took his 129th No.1 qualifying position in Pro Stock in 6.862 seconds at 200.62 mph. Tony Pedregon led the Funny Car field with a track-record run of 4.765 at 322.81.
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