Matt Kenseth and Robbie Reiser brought a new meaning to the word dominance this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. Kenseth not only sat on the pole for the Sharpie 500, but led 415 of 500 laps before the #17 DeWalt Ford took the checkered flag. For sweeping the weekend, Reiser was voted the WYPALL Wipers Crew Chief of the Race. Kenseth’s victory snapped a 57 week winless streak and put the 2003 champ back in the thick of the Chase for the Nextel Cup. He currently sits 11th the championship standings, only eleven points out of 10th. “This team hasn’t run that well this year, but the last couple of weeks it’s really been coming around,” said Reiser. “These guys have stuck to it and I don’t have one guy that has spent the season complaining. They’ve pretty much just gone to work. The last two months have been real strong for this team and these guys are behind it 100 percent. I think when everybody had written us out of the chase that was more than a challenge than anything else and they wanted to step up to the challenge and turn the thing around. There are a lot of guys on the 17 (team) that have been there a long time and those guys have a lot of pride and they aren’t going to go down without a fight.”
The panel of voters; including Mike Mulhern of the Winston-Salem Journal, a WYPALL Wipers representative and Tony Eury Sr.; all cast their vote for Robbie Reiser as the WYPALL Wipers Crew Chief of the Race. Doug Richert leads the WYPALL Wipers Crew Chief of the Year standings with five wins. Alan Gustafson, Bob Osborne, Greg Zipadelli and Robbie Loomis are tied for second place with two wins. Tommy Baldwin, Scott Miller, Fatback McSwain, Steve Hmiel, Jimmy Fennig, Greg Erwin, Slugger Labbe, Robbie Reiser and Pete Rondeau are in a tie for third place, each with one win. At the end of the season, the crew chief with the most weekly wins will receive $20,000. Fans can also vote for their choice at wypall.com.(SMC 500)(8-29-2005)
