Matt Kenseth’s final Chase with Roush Fenway Racing hasn’t gone according to plan — to say the least.
At a track where the Roush cars are traditionally strong, Kenseth struggled. Throughout the day he fought the handling of his No. 17 Ford. On Lap 309 he hit the outside wall in Turn 2. Moments after a restart on Lap 317, with his car still damaged, he wrecked in Turn 4.
The resulting 35th-place finish dropped Kenseth to 12th in the Chase standings, 72 points behind Keselowski and, for practical purposes, out of contention for the championship.
“In two out of three Chase races something either fell off or broke, so obviously that’s not good,” said Kenseth, who will drive the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing next year. “Our performance hasn’t been very good either, so I don’t know.
“Today was a struggle. This is probably the worst we’ve run here for as long as I can remember. We just really missed it. From the first lap on the track to the last lap on the track we were pretty much junk. Everybody is trying hard, but we just missed it.”
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