2009 Sponsor Schedule, DeWalt is the sponsor unless noted:

2009 Races [3] that USG Sheetrock is scheduled to be the primary sponsor:
Las Vegas - Mar 1
Chicago - July 11
Phoenix - Nov 15

2009 Races [4] that Carhartt is scheduled to be the primary sponsor:
California - Feb 22
Michigan - June 14
New Hampshire - Sept 20
Charlotte - Oct 17

2009 Races [4] that R+L Carriers is scheduled to be the primary sponsor:
Charlotte - May 24
Daytona - July 4
Atlanta - Sept 6
California - Oct 11

Contract Status: Sponsor: 2009 and will not return; Driver: at least thru 2011; Manufacturer: 2013

Final race for DeWalt on the #17: This weekend will mark the end of an era for Matt Kenseth and Roush Fenway Racing. After more than a decade serving as the primary sponsor for Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 team, DEWALT will run its last race aboard the No. 17 Ford Fusion this weekend at Homestead. One of the most successful partnerships in NASCAR history, the duo of Kenseth and DEWALT teamed for the 2000 Rookie of the Year Award, the 2003 Championship and the 2009 Daytona 500 win during their 10-plus year tenure together.(RFR)(11-18-2009)

Roush's Smith not retiring: Roush Fenway Racing president Geoff Smith has decided to delay his retirement. Smith said because of tough economic times and the merger between partner Yates Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports that he will stay on at least through the 2010 season. Smith is handling a lot of the paperwork in the merger that he said is agreed to on all major issues and should be announced soon. He also plays a major role in bringing sponsors to the cars for the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series. Smith has yet to wrap up a full season of sponsorship for the #17 of Matt Kenseth.(see more at ESPN Insiders)(11-17-2009)

USG returns to sponsor #17 at Phoenix: The #17 Ford of Matt Kenseth will carry the blue and red colors of USG Sheetrock for the third and final time this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway. This week’s car will be The #17 USG SHEETROCK Ford promoting the DUROCK cement board Next Gen logo (RFR). See images of the regular USG scheme on my #17 Team Schemes page.(11-12-2009)

150 Talladega starts for Roush: Roush Fenway will make its 150th Sprint Cup start at Talladega this weekend. Talladega is the eighth track in 2009 that the team has accomplished this feat. The first seven were Bristol, Charlotte, Daytona, Dover, Martinsville, Michigan, Pocono and Richmond.(Roush Fenway PR)(11-1-2009)

Roush to visit RPM: Jack Roush is scheduled to take a tour of the Richard Petty Motorsports facility on Wednesday. Other managers from Roush Fenway Racing will join Rosuh on the tour of the Statesville, N.C., shop. There have been ongoing talks since before September of a merger between Yates Racing, a sister organization of Roush Fenway, and RPM. Regardless of whether RPM merges with Yates, majority team owner George Gillett has said his team will be running Fords in 2010. Given that Roush is the principal supplier of Ford engines, RPM will be working directly with RFR in one form or another.(FoxSports), see an image of a real #9 Budweiser Ford for 2010 on my #9 Team Schemes page.(10-14-2009)

New Ford engine at Talladega: Ford will delay the debut of its new Sprint Cup engine, Doug Hervey, who oversees Ford’s North American racing operations, said Saturday. The engine was scheduled to have debuted next week at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Instead, Ford will debut the restrictor-plate version of the engine at Talladega in three weeks. As for the non-restrictor-plate engine, it likely will debut at Texas or Homestead.(Virginian Pilot)
AND: Matt Kenseth's crew chief Drew Blickensderfer is expecting to have the new Ford FR9 engine in the #17 Fusion in two weeks at Talladega.
AND: On a related note: Blickensderfer expects to return as crew chief next season even though Kenseth failed to make the Chase for the first time since the format was introduced six years ago.(FoxSports)(10-11-2009)

Kenseth going for first sweep; R+L on the #17: Leaving Fontana, California this season back in the spring most people had named #17-Matt Kenseth and Drew Blickensderfer as the hottest driver/crew chief duo in the garage after having started the season off 2-0. But the dream of being on top was short lived, especially when the team failed to make the Chase at Richmond International Raceway. But all is not lost, Kenseth and Blickensderfer have a chance to sweep Auto Club Speedway's two races this season. Kenseth tied Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson for a series high most wins at Auto Club Speedway with three after his win there earlier this season. If Kenseth is able to win this weekend it will be his first sweep at a track in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition.(NASCAR PR)
AND:The #17 Ford will carry the green and gold colors of R+L carriers this weekend at California. It will be the final of four races this season with R+L Carriers as the primary on the #17 Ford.(Roush Fenway PR), see an image of the scheme on my #17 Team Schemes page.(10-8-2009)

Roush keeping an eye on the Henrick cars in question: Car owner Jack Roush [#'s 6,16,17,26,99 Ford's] says he understands that the two cars in question [Hendrick Motorsports #5 and #48 Chevy's] were in fact slightly "out of tolerance," in being off-set a bit to the right (which would help in aerodynamics in corner handling), although Roush said the specific 'miss' was probably too slight to be of any significant advantage. "I've been fined a lot of times for a lot of different things…and if the cars were out of tolerance by a quarter of an inch, which is what I've heard…well, the rest of the garage is held to a much tighter tolerance than that," Roush said. "So we'll see what NASCAR ultimately does about it."(mikemulhern.net)(10-5-2009)

Kenseth talks to fans in Fontana: #17-Matt Kenseth, the winner of last February's Sprint Cup race at the Auto Club Speedway, returned to the Inland Empire on Sept. 23. But he wasn't behind the wheel of a race car. After holding a press conference at the speedway, Kenseth had a question-and-answer session with nearly 200 fans in attendance before heading over to the Paul A. Biane Library in Rancho Cucamonga. There, he dropped off a load of books for the library and read to students from Grapeland Elementary School in the library courtyard.(Fontana Herald News)(10-3-2009)

Crew chief changes at Roush? UPDATE: There is supposedly a meeting planned at Roush Fenway Racing featuring General Manager Robbie Reiser and representatives from Ford. Could crew chief changes be in RFR's future? One rumor circulating NHMS Sunday morning had veteran crew chief Jimmy Fennig connecting with former Roush racer Jeff Burton at RCR. Not so, Fennig said. "After 13 years with Jack, my goal is to retire from Roush Racing," Fennig said. "But I'm getting too old to be on the road." Another scenario places Fennig in a research and development role. Fennig says testing suits him just fine.(FoxSports)(9-21-2009)
UPDATE: Car owner Jack Roush says that any personnel moves among his non-Chase teams will be made after the season since he's focused on the championship with Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle. "I will re-evaluate every person and every position on every team this winter as I do every year,'' Roush said. He said he would make a change on a Chase team immediately if it could help that team contend for the championship.(Roanoke Times)(9-27-2009)

Kenseth carrying R&L colors at Atlanta: The #17 Ford of Matt Kenseth will carry the green and gold colors of R+L carriers this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Pep Boys Auto 500. It will be the third of four races this season with R+L Carriers as the primary on the #17 Ford also running at Charlotte in May and Daytona in July and is scheduled to run at Auto Club Speedway in Oct. Kenseth has carried the R+L Carriers paint scheme 12 times since 2006. In his 12 previous starts in the #17 R+L Carriers Ford, Kenseth has achieved 12 top-12, 10 top-10, and four top-five finishes.(Roush Fenway Racing), see images of the scheme on my #17 Team Schemes page.(9-5-2009)

Kenseth vs. Kenseth this weekend at Madison International Speedway: UPDATE: While the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit and #17-Matt Kenseth take a week off from the pressures of an intense points race to make the Chase for the Cup, the Roush Fenway driver will take on a different kind of pressure this weekend at Madison International Speedway; the race for family bragging rights. For the first time ever, Kenseth will go head-to-head on the track against his 16 year-old son, Ross, this Saturday night at Madison International Speedway in Oregon, Wis. The Madison International Speedway weekly Rockweiler Insulation Late Models will compete in a twin 50-lap feature event that will include father vs. son, as the 2009 Daytona 500 winner competes against Ross Kenseth and the other weekly MIS competitors. The Twin 50's will be a points event for the MIS weekly Rockweiler Insulation Late Models. Matt Kenseth, the 2003 Sprint Cup Champion, will compete in a Pathfinder Chassis-prepared Late Model. (Roush Fenway PR), for more information see my Driver appearances page.(8-28-2009)
UPDATE: The competitor in Matt Kenseth felt the joy of victory from winning both 50-lap feature races at Madison International Speedway Sunday. The father in him, felt disappointment for his 16-year-old son, Ross, who finished second and sixth to earn second place overall in the rain-delayed Kenseth vs. Kenseth competition. “I want my son to be happy more than I care about my own happiness,” Matt Kenseth said. “I wish he was a little happier after the race, but he still finished second and sixth, he did really well. I know he’s a little disappointed because he always wants to win as well, but he did a really good job and it was a pretty fun event.”.(Wisconsin State Journal)(8-31-2009)

#17 team has some help at Pocono: #17-Matt Kenseth's Crew chief Drew Blickensderfer has a little extra help this week at Pocono Raceway: two high school students from Minnesota, who are helping to prep the DeWalt Tools Ford. Matthew Ludwig, 17, and Justin Dwyer, 18, were national winners in the Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills competition, emerging from a field of more than 9,700 entries of high school juniors and seniors from all 50 states. Part of their reward is the chance to spend much of a week with Kenseth's team.
They attended a test session at Rockingham, N.C. with Kenseth, toured the Roush Fenway shop in Concord, N.C. with Blickensderfer and will get a taste of all activities at Pocono Raceway, from preparing the car on Friday to being with the team behind pit road on Sunday. "It's my first (NASCAR) race, so to be in the pits at Pocono will be really cool," said Dwyer, who helped replace a front coil spring and adjust the exhaust system on Friday. Ludwig, who worked on body aerodynamics Friday, expressed surprise at the level of hands-on experience being offered. "Actually being able to sit down and talk to the (crew) guys has been great," he said. "They're really down-to-earth. They've been teaching us about what's going on — why they're making certain adjustments." Blickensderfer tried to give the students as much hands-on experience as he could.
"There aren't too many 17-18-year-old kids who can say they got to hang out with Matt Kenseth and his crew," Blickensderfer. "We'll at least let them see everything we're doing and, if we can give them an opportunity to work on the car, it will be a memory that should last a while for them."
Ludwig and Dwyer attend Fairbault High School, a public high school about 40 miles south of Minneapolis. Under tutelage of instructor Mark Lessman, Fairbault has emerged a perennial skills competition contender, winning. two national titles (2003, 2009) and 13 of the last 16 state championships.
"It gets in your blood," says Lessman, who has taught auto mechanics at Fairbault for 25 years. "The one thing I really like is giving the kids scholarship money for school. This is a good avenue for them to help pay for their education."
To win the title, Ludwig and Dwyer needed to correctly diagnose and repair a car with numerous malfunctions, including the starter, flow sensor, air conditioning system, power windows and lights. The winners got all the bugs out in 42 minutes, 51 seconds and were one of four state champions to complete the test without demerits.
All entrants completed an on-line exam with the highest scorers advancing to their state's hands-on competition. That state's champion competed in the national finals in Dearborn, Mich., with results of a 100-question written exam and the hands-on competition combined to determine the national champion.
All told, $10.7 million in scholarships were offered through the program. The top-10 national finalists received full and partial scholarships from some of the leading automotive technology institutions in the country. In addition, the high schools of the top 15 teams earned a Ford Edge, Taurus or Fusion for training purposes in their automotive technology departments.
The top-15 teams in the 2009 Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills National Finals:
1. Minnesota (Justin Dwyer, Matthew Ludwig) Faribault High School, Faribault, Minn., instructed by Mark Lessman;
2. Colorado (Charles Duran, Dylan Keyes) Doherty High School, Colorado Springs, instructed by Brad Wheaton;
3. Alabama (Zach Evans, Jared Hudson) Albert P Brewer High School, Somerville, Ala., instructed by Robert Bryson;
4. Texas (Juan Correa, Andrew McConnell) Birdville Career Center, Halton City, Texas, instructed by Olin R. Harrington;
5. California (Eric Reed, Doug Rinnell) San Luis Obispo High School, San Luis Obispo, Calif., instructed by Jeff Lehmkuhl;
6. New York (Mike Palladino, Andrew Matthys) Wayne Tech & Career Center, Williamson, N.Y., instructed by Chet Kuhn;
7. Kansas (Joseph Vanderputten, Dillon Percival) Kaw Area Tech School, Topeka, Kansas, instructed by Robert Oswald;
8. Indiana (Jarrett Coberly, Nicholas Vogler) Pike Central High School, Petersburg, Ind., instructed by Buddy Lee;
9. Arkansas (Brandon & Nolan Hildalgo – twin brothers) Jacksonville High School, Jacksonville, Ark., instructed by Shawn Poindexte;
10. Iowa (Cody Gudenkauf, Michael Hermsen) West Delaware High School Manchester, Iowa, instructed by Jason Guyer;
11. Kentucky (Jesse Bardis, Austin White) Shelby Co Area Tech Center, Shelbyville, Ky., instructed by Bruce Edwards;
12. Wisconsin (Kieron Kohlmann, Jonathan Ramczyk) Washington Park High School, Racine, Wis., instructed by David Dixon;
13. Oklahoma (Jeffrey Dill, Jack Gibson) Eastern Oklahoma Co Tech Center, Choctaw, Okla., instructed by Jim LaFevers;
14. Hawaii (Chester Lee Coloma, Edler Espiritu) Maui High School, Kahului, Hawaii. instructed by Shannon Rowe;
15. Wyoming (Alfred Hefenieder, Jesse Hernandez) Worland High School, Worland, Wy., instructed by Mike Sapp.
(USA Today)(8-2-2009)

DeWalt will not return to the #17 team in 2010 UPDATE new sponsor?: Roush Fenway Racing was informed today that DeWalt Power Tools will not renew its sponsorship of Matt Kenseth and the #17 team for the 2010 NASCAR season. “We would like to thank DeWalt for serving as a great partner for the past 10 years,” said Roush Fenway President Geoff Smith. “During that time we have seen great success for both their company and marketing program, as well as with Matt on the race track. They will always be remembered and honored as the sponsor of Jack Roush’s first Sprint Cup Championship team. Despite this success – in the face of the significant world-wide economic decline in the construction industry – DeWalt’s decision to not return is not a great surprise to us. Fortunately, we have several great companies interested in taking over and we expect to begin finalizing those sponsorship arrangements in the very near future. All of us at Roush Fenway Racing remain committed to keeping the #17 DeWalt car running up front, winning races and to put them in a position to contend for a second championship this season.”(Roush Fenway Racing)(7-23-2009)
UPDATE: hearing that Roush Fenway Racing will announce sometime this week that Crown Royal will sponsor the #17 Ford of Matt Kenseth for approximately 18 races in 2010, replacing DeWalt. The other 18 races will probably be 2-3 other sponsors.(7-27-2009)

Roush's Smith talks about 2010 plans: Sunday on "The SIRIUS NASCAR Radio Pre-Race Show", SIRIUS XM's Claire B. Lang spoke with Roush Fenway Racing president Geoff Smith about the possible changes to the team's roster of drivers before next season.
Geoff Smith: "If you're asking about our team plans for 2010, we're settled that Carl Edwards and Aflac, Greg Biffle with 3M, and David Ragan with UPS will be staying put and that sponsorship is going to kind of determine whether or not the #17 or the #26 are going to have to be the teams we shut down and move, if we can."
Smith: "There are difficulties. You just can't assume that a team can transfer intact just because you want it to. There are sponsors that get to vote as to what organization they're going to sponsor. So we have to work through that, which is what I've been saying. I expect, now that the DeWalt cloud has been removed, we're going to move very quickly to lock in the sponsorship and then that sponsorship will determine [whether] the #17 stays or goes."
Host, Claire B. Lang: "Meaning that we could see a past champion, Matt Kenseth, moving?"
Smith: "It all depends on the sponsorships. Our objective is to keep both of those teams (the #17 and the #26) in the Ford Motor Company community. We're hoping that we don't have to keep one and then lose one out of the Ford community entirely. So if we can keep them both in the [Ford] community by shuffling the #17 we would do that. Pretty unlikely that Matt Kenseth or the #17 will move at this point."
(SIRIUS NASCAR Radio)(7-27-2009)

Kenseth wins at Slinger: Matt Kenseth held off a hard charging Eric Fransen to capture the win in the 200-lap 30th Annual Miller Lite Nationals presented by SuperSeal Wednesday night at the Slinger Super Speedway, his record-setting fifth overall victory in the prestigious super late model event. Not to be outdone, son Ross Kenseth followed up his father’s performance by scoring his first Slinger Speedway win in the 35-lap late model main event.(7-23-2009)