Matt Kenseth and his Roush Fenway Racing team posted one of their best performances of 2009 Saturday night at the Lowe's Motor Speedway, finishing second in the NASCSAR Banking 500 after leading the event four times for a total of 45 laps.

"That was the fastest car we’ve had in a long time,” Kenseth said in the post-race press conference. “Our car was really good and our Carhartt guys did a great job on pit road.  We qualified exceptionally well for us (fourth) and were able to keep our track position all night. We were just able to make real little adjustments."

Kenseth lined up fourth on the final restart that came on lap 317 of the 334 lap race and passed Kasey Kahne for second with four laps remaining to record his best finish of the year since winning at California's Auto Club Speedway in February. It was Kenseth's second top-five in the last four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.

“I was really happy with my car all night,” added Kenseth.  “I wasn’t fast enough to beat the No. 48 and Kasey in a long run was a good bit better than us at times, but we had a really good car and got the best we could out of it. It feels good for us to run up front. It’s a confidence booster for me and the team.”

Kenseth feels his #17 team is making improvements and is now going in the right direction.

“We’ve been gaining on it,” said Kenseth. “As a team, we seemed to hit it pretty good tonight.  We qualified good; which makes a huge difference.  We had track position all night and never got behind and that makes a big difference in these races.  I think you have to have more races to average in before we feel too good about it, but it certainly feels like we’re going in the right direction the last three or four weeks.”

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