Kenseth Looking To Get Out Front Early in Sprint Unlimited Shootout

Matt Kenseth is the 8-to-1 co-favorite to win Saturday night (Getty)

Matt Kenseth / No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Preview

Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway

No. 20 Dollar General Toyota News and Notes:

RESTRICTOR PLATE ACE?: During the 2012 Sprint Cup Series season, Kenseth became synonymous with superspeedway track success at both Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway as he claimed a win as well as a top-three finish at both tracks that year.

BETTER LUCK THIS YEAR: Last year’s Budweiser Shootout found Kenseth starting from 23rd after the random draw and then was relegated to finish 21stafter his car was damaged twice in multi-car wrecks. Kenseth’s best finish in the event is third, which he earned in 2003.

THIS WEEK ON THE NO. 20 DOLLAR GENERAL TOYOTA: Dollar General vendor partners Hefty, Clorox, Betty Crocker, Downy and Angel Soft will be featured on Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota Camry this weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

RACE INFO: The Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway (2.5-mile) begins at 8:10 p.m. ET on Saturday, February 16. The race will be broadcast live on SPEED, Sirius XM Channel 90 and MRN Radio.

From the Cockpit:
Matt Kenseth: “I’m just going to let Jason (Ratcliff) worry about all the details regarding the race since the fans get to vote on a lot of those details, but I’m just going to go out and race our Dollar General Toyota to the front Saturday night. You want to get up to the front and hopefully stay in the front as long as you can in order to have the best position of course. I think we’re all just really anxious to get to the race track and get into action this week so I’m looking forward to kicking off the season.”

From the Pit Box:
Jason Ratcliff: “As we start off the season, it’s really about getting our arms around this new 2013 Camry, but all teams are in the same boat with learning about how these new cars react and how changes will affect the handling. We’ve been able to test with Matt (Kenseth) a few times in the off-season, and I felt our car was pretty fast at Daytona back in January, so we’ll make sure that we’re as prepared as we can be heading into the Sprint Unlimited with these new cars.”