200 Lap Feature
1. (8) Matt Kenseth, Cambridge
2. (9) Kyle Busch, Las Vegas
3. (1) Ross Kenseth, Spring Lake, Ill.
4. (6) Michael Bilderback, South Beloit, Ill.
5. (18) Dennis Prunty, Knowles
6. (7) Rich Bickle, Edgerton
7. (13) Rich Loch, Muskego
8. (15) Josh Wallace, Genoa City
9. (11) Al Schill, Franklin
10. (17) Rob Braun, Wales
11. (14) Ryan Destefano, Hartland
12. (19) Jeff Holtz, Franklin
13. (23) Tommy Hromodka, Brookfield
14. (12) Rebecca Kasten, Mequon
15. (10) Brad Mueller, Random Lake
16. (5) Lowell Bennett, Neenah
17. (24) Jeremy Lepak, Wausau
18. (16) Steve Dorer, Coldwater, Mich.
19. (20) Mike Egan, Slinger
20. (2) James Swan, Genoa City
21. (4) Eric Fransen, West Bend
22. (22) Matt Kocurek, Franklin
23. (21) Dale Prunty, Allenton
24. (3) Steve Apel, West Bend
By Dave Kallmann Journal Sentinel Online
Slinger
- Yeah, it's still fun.
Matt Kenseth has won a NASCAR championship. He's won two Daytona 500s.
And now he's won a record six titles in the 33-year history of the Miller Lite Slinger Nationals. While that's not quite the same, it's not a bad accomplishment, either, for the old-school short-track racer from Cambridge.
"It's always fun to win, that's for sure," Kenseth said Sunday in Slinger Speedway's victory lane.
"The first one was pretty darn cool. It was at Madison (in 1994), and (Rich) Bickle and I were duking it out. . . . That one was pretty unforgettable, but yeah, this is pretty cool.
"It's always fun when you can beat Kyle. It's hard to beat him."
That's Kyle Busch, always a threat in NASCAR and the 2011 Nationals champ.
Kenseth beat him on a restart with 24 laps to go - after a caution flag he didn't want - and pulled away by nearly a second at the checkered flag.
"We were really good on a long run this last half," Kenseth said, referring to the break after 101 of 200 laps.
"I could see Kyle took off really fast on that longer run, and we were running him down."
Busch didn't look happy when he climbed from his car and did not talk to reporters.
Ross Kenseth, Matt's son and the pole-sitter, rallied and benefited from attrition to finish third, another second behind.
Michael Bilderback and Bickle filled out the top five.
An uprising in the stands was averted three-quarters of the way through the race when a ruling that would have sent Kenseth to the rear of the field was overturned
Kenseth spun Jeff Holtz's lapped car off the fourth turn. As word of the penalty came down, Kenseth threatened to park his car and his fans let their displeasure be known.
"I guess we would have gone to the back and obeyed them," Kenseth said. "But here's the thing. We caught a pack of lapped cars, they were shaking the blue flag. Lapped cars know they're supposed to get to the bottom, and this lapped car kept passing the other ones.
"Finally I had a big run and drove under into his left rear. He turned across to finally get out of the way. When we hooked, the best was to get him out of my way, so I had to just keep going."
After a discussion, the change came down: Because Holtz had been warned to stay out of the leaders' way, Kenseth wouldn't be penalized.
Busch chose the outside line for the restarts, as is the leader's prerogative, and it worked every time but the last.
"That's smart as long as you get to Turn 1 and have leverage to be a little ahead and hold the guy down there," Kenseth said. "On restarts I would be real tight, and he could see that weakness, and that was smart of him to run up there to keep me slow in the center
"But we got a good restart. I got through 1 and 2 fast enough to be even going into 3 and our strong suit was getting off 4."
Bickle beat Busch on a restart to lead Lap 105, but when Busch got around him he took off and quickly built a 2-second lead before catching lapped cars. Shortly thereafter, Bickle, a three-time Nationals winner, dropped back.
Becca Kasten dropped out while running third; she lost power with 24 laps to go.
The slow-going first half of the race included 11 cautions for a variety of spins, tangles and mechanical failures.
Big movers included Bickle and Kasten, who were sent to the back for contact early but raced their way back into the top six, and Dennis Prunty, who made the feature through a qualifying race and was into the top 10 within 50 laps.
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