from The Crossville Chronicle, Crossville, TN April 16, 2007
By Joe Dunn / joe@onpitroad.com
Matt Kenseth pulled out a Texas sized horse shoe to win Saturday’s O’Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Early in the race Kyle Bush looked to be heading to another easy win, leading 113 laps. But a caution shortly after a green flag pit stop sent him back of the pack. He fought to regain positions and move to the front, but he was never a serious factor in the race finishing seventh.
Point leader Carl Edwards ran in the top 15 for all but 2 laps, the best of the day, and on restarts he was constantly the fastest car in the early runs. Leading only 2 laps, he was never a threat to win this week, but his third place finish enabled him to extend his points lead over Dave Blaney to 403.
Kenseth spun the #17 out on lap 54, and managed to avoid hitting anything, but the car looked really bad and appeared to have some serious damage. He was able to get the car to pit road, where the crew changed the tires and sent him back out one lap down. When the fourth caution of the day flew on lap 125, Matt got that lap back thanks to the ‘Lucky Dog’ free pass.
On lap 192 Kenseth got passed Denny Hamlin to take the lead where he held on for the checkers. This was no easy win for Matt and with Hamlin digging in, the margin of victory was only .128 seconds, a track record at TMS for the Busch series.
Juan Pablo Montoya’s # 42 Dodge made the highlights again as he tangled this time with Marcos Ambrose ending the day for both drivers.
David Reutimann was again the highest finishing Toyota as he brought the #99 Aarons ‘Dream Machine’ home in 6th place.
