DeWalt #17

Las Vegas, a city known for the best and worst of luck, dealt Kenseth a bad hand on Sunday.  The DeWalt/USG Ford Fusion experienced major engine trouble and was relegated to a 43rd place finish.  Right off the start, Kenseth experienced a rumble underneath the hood and the crew went to work right away.  Using quality DeWalt Tools, they went to work under the hood and found nothing wrong.  However, less than 3 laps later, the call came over the radio to pack it up and the motor let loose in a billowing cloud of smoke, oil and random parts.

Kenseth, driving for Roush/Fenway, became the first person since Jeff Gordon in 1997 to sweep both opening races of the season.  Kenseth drove the DeWalt car to a rain-shortened victory in the Daytona 500 and took the Carhartt car to a dominating win at California speedway.  However, the team struggled from when they unloaded the car and knew they had a monumental task in front of them if they were going to make NASCAR history.  After finishing 45th out of 51 cars in practice and qualifying 40th for the race, Kenseth was optimistic but the car would not cooperate.