Kenseth should fare well at Kentucky Saturday night

Matt Kenseth has done well on 1.5-mile tracks this season

Matt Kenseth

No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Preview
Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway

No. 20 Dollar General Toyota News and Notes:

KENSETH BY THE NUMBERS: Kenseth has made only two Sprint Cup Series career starts at Kentucky Speedway and has completed all 534 laps he’s raced. Kenseth has an average starting position of 16.5 and an average finish of 6.5 at the 1.5-mile track in Sparta, Kentucky.

JOE GIBBS RACING AT SONOMA: Joe Gibbs Racing has six Sprint Cup Series starts at Kentucky Speedway and has earned one win, two top-five, and three top-ten finishes. The organization has led for a total of 306 laps, has an average start of 10.8, an average finish of 10.2, and completed 1,601 of 1,602 (99.9 percent) laps.

THIS WEEK ON THE NO. 20 DOLLAR GENERAL TOYOTA: Dollar General vendor partners STP, Slim Jim, Lysol, Maxwell House, Gildan, Ragu, Colgate, Glad, Sundown Naturals and Cottonelle will be featured on Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota Camry this weekend at Kentucky Speedway.

RACE INFO: Coverage of the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway (1.5-mile) begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, June 23rd. The race will be broadcast live on TNT, Sirius XM Channel 90 and PRN Radio.

From the Cockpit:

Matt Kenseth: “I probably have the least amount of experience at Kentucky almost as anybody. We didn’t test a lot there before it became a Cup track and I never ran any of the Truck or Nationwide races there. It’s a different track; it’s kind of tricky and really different, but I’ve enjoyed it the few races I’ve run there so far. I think anytime you go to a track that’s either a home track or near your sponsor’s headquarters where the sponsors bring a lot of people out with the employees, I think it’s always more exciting if you win because you get to hang out with so many people. There are maybe more people there at those tracks pulling for you. They’re all big races, but certainly if you can win close to where some of your sponsors are, like we are this weekend with the Toyota facility here in Kentucky, then it’s always a little more special.”

From the Pit Box:

Jason Ratcliff: “Kentucky is one of my favorite tracks from being on the Nationwide Series side. I just always liked going there because I always felt like we were fast and competitive there so it is one of those tracks that I really enjoy going to. I also lived not too far from that area for several years when I was first starting out in this sport so I’m also just very familiar with the track and the area. Kentucky is similar to Las Vegas in the sense that the track just gets rougher and rougher every year. That change in the track surface though gives it a lot of character and makes it a lot different even though it’s the same shape as several other tracks that we visit. Kentucky always seems to put on a pretty good race so I’m looking forward to this weekend.”

- Joe Gibbs Racing