Matt Kenseth dominates early on at Bristol but comes up short in Nationwide race - MotorSportsTalk

Racing a NASCAR Nationwide Series car at Bristol Motor Speedway is like riding a bicycle for Matt Kenseth: he never forgets how to get around the .533-mile bullring.

The last time Kenseth competed in an NNS race at Bristol was August 21, 2009.

He finished fifth.

Fast forward to March 15, 2014 and Kenseth essentially picked up where he left off from his last time in an NNS event at Bristol, once again finishing fifth in Saturday’s Drive to Stop Diabetes 300.

Kenseth dominated the first two-thirds of the race, leading 179 of the event’s 300 laps.

But once Kyle Busch got past Kenseth late in the race, and aided by Busch getting a great jump on the final restart nine laps from the checkered flag, Kenseth would ultimately finish four spots back.

“We didn’t lead the last one,” Kenseth quipped when asked what was the difference in the race. “Our car was pretty fast today. It was actually real fast.

“I just got passed in lapped traffic (by Busch). There was just so much lapped traffic. I thought I was being too aggressive the way it was but Kyle got me there, picked me and then got by me.”

Restarts were Kenseth’s Achilles heel in Saturday’s race.

Otherwise, it might have been him standing in victory lane and not Busch, who earned his seventh career NNS triumph at Bristol (also his third in a row and sixth in the last eight Nationwide starts there) and his 15th win overall across all three NASCAR national series.

“After (he was passed by Busch for the final time), every restart I was on the bottom,” Kenseth said. “It was just such a deficit on the bottom.

“I’d spin the tires down there a little bit and by the time you’d get through (turns) one and two, a couple rows would pass you on every restart. I could never draw the top.”

Even so, Kenseth shouldn’t feel all that bad. His overall NNS record at Bristol is still stellar: 18 starts, three wins, 11 top-5 and the same number of top-10 finishes.

What’s more, even with the nearly five-year layoff, it kept a streak going of eight top-fives in his last nine NNS starts overall at BMS.

“I thought we had a great car,” Kenseth said, still feeling dejected at the outcome. “These guys deserved to have a shot to win there and I just didn’t get it done for them.”

What he missed Saturday, he may get in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Food City 500. Kenseth starts third and will be going for his fourth career Cup win there (he also has 11 top-5 and 18 top-10 finishes).

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Vicki Golden has earned a career worthy of a thousand stories and 805 Beer tells at least one of them, as “Inverted Perspective” premiered March 30 on the company’s website and YouTube channel.

Golden did more to break the glass ceiling in SuperMotocross than she ever thought possible. She knows this because riders have never felt the need to explain any of her accomplishments with the disclaimer, “for a girl”.

At this point in Golden’s career, she’s been the first woman to finish top 10 in AMA Arenacross Lites, the first woman to qualify in the Fast 40 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the first woman to compete in freestyle Moto X competition, earning a bronze medal by doing so.

Her love for moto came from childhood while she watched her dad and brother ride. By seven she was on her bike and making waves throughout Southern California.

Golden, 30, is still madly in love with the sport and has no plans on moving away but her career is already one to talk about. 805 Beer’s film series wanted to do exactly that.

“I’m taken aback by it all,” Golden told NBC Sports about the documentary. “It’s just crazy to see your story, it’s one thing to live your life and battle everything that comes about but it’s another to just sit there and talk about it.”

805 approached Golden about the feature by asking, “Do you even realize that what you do, and your story is special?”

Golden took the question as a blank canvas to map out the highs and lows of her career and life.

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The title “Inverted Perspective” came from a brainstorming session with Dominick Russo and it highlights Golden’s outlook on the sport of SuperMotocross and her life in general.

“My whole life, my whole career was thinking differently and looking at things that shouldn’t be done and aren’t there, while being able to make a place for myself, where no one thought there should be a place,” Golden said. “It’s inspiring someone to think in different ways. It sums up my life.”

*Vicki Golden is not “fast for a girl”; she’s just fast. – 805 Beer*

While Golden is no stranger to the spotlight, this was the first time she’s been fully involved with the storytelling and creation of a feature about herself.

“It’s not like a full new experience,” Golden said. “Obviously, you get your standard questions about your upbringing and accomplishments, but I’ve never really put into perspective things that happened in my past with my dad and putting that to light. Also, certain other things that maybe got overlooked in previous interviews or films. I wanted to touch on these and Dom wanted to create a story. It’s just cool to see it come to light, it’s a nearly impossible thing to tell somebody’s life story in 40 minutes.”

Golden’s father was left paralyzed after an ATV accident, robbing him the opportunity to ride again. This happened a few months before the father-daughter duo was set to compete in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals when Vicki was 12. While she might have been unable to grasp the severity at the time, it’s something she carries with her. Golden continues to ride in his honor.

Years later, an accident in 2018 nearly sidelined the then 25-year-old Vicki when a freestyle accident almost resulted in the amputation of her lower leg.

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Golden 805 Beer — *Vicki Golden has ridden a variety of disciplines in SuperMotocross, which gives her a unique perspective. – 805 Beer*

“Inverted Perspective” highlights her father’s diligence in helping Vicki continue with her career and the kindness and strength he carried while fighting his own battle.

“My dad was the entire reason that I started riding in the first place,” Golden said. “So, to honor his memory and to honor what we went through and how hard he pushed to keep our dream alive and keep everything going – in that sense then, it was really special to be able to honor him and talk about him.”

The 40-minute feature was filmed entirely in black and white, a stark contrast from the oversaturated world of motocross where the brighter the suit the easier it is for fans to find their rider and follow him in the race. By filming in monochrome Russo and Golden had the chance to focus on the race and track from a different perspective.

“It was cool to be able to film it differently,” Golden said. “It created a challenge in the sense of what was going to be more visually impactful for the film.

“I couldn’t be here without the companies that back me but at the same time, it’s not like the logos or colors disappeared, it’s just different lights shed on different spots. It’s just a cool way to do it and to take color away and still be impactful. When you think of black and white, you think of old school, the OG way of doing things.”

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