Photo – Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images
Matt Kenseth’s No. 20 Toyota was fast enough to lead 31 laps in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400 at Pocono Raceway.
The problem was that Kenseth couldn’t keep the lead when the race restarted. Given that the race featured ten cautions for 40 laps, restarts became a major issue for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
“We had a great race car,” said Kenseth, whose seventh-place finish was the best among the Toyotas. “Just had really, really poor restarts, and if I did have a good restart, then there was somebody getting checked up in front of me and I’d lose more spots.
“I just gave them all up on restarts. Honestly, I think we had a car that could challenge for the win. I just couldn’t figure out how to get to turn one… Once I got to turn one and got rolling, I thought we were really competitive, but disappointing finish for how fast our car was, for sure.”