"Kenseth 2006"

[achebeautiful]

Matt Kenseth lost another race in the final laps today at Bristol Motor Speedway, but finished a very strong third. He gained enough points on the day to take over first place in the standings!

2006 Unofficial Driver Standings
After: Food City 500
Bristol Motor Speedway
Race 5 of 36


1 +2 Matt Kenseth 782 Leader 5 0 1 3 3
2 -- Kasey Kahne 774 -8 5 1 1 3 4
3 -2 Jimmie Johnson 763 -19 5 0 2 3 4
4 -- Mark Martin 750 -32 5 0 0 1 4
5 +3 Kyle Busch 677 -105 5 0 0 1 3
6 +1 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 664 -118 5 0 0 1 2
7 -1 Jeff Gordon 644 -138 5 0 0 2 2
8 -3 Casey Mears 642 -140 5 0 0 1 3
9 +3 Tony Stewart 601 -181 5 0 0 2 2
10 -1 Dale Jarrett 593 -189 5 0 0 0 2
11 +2 Elliott Sadler 585 -197 5 0 0 1 1
12 +5 Ryan Newman 559 -223 5 0 0 1 2
13 +10 Kevin Harvick 553 -229 5 0 0 1 1
14 -4 Clint Bowyer* 547 -235 5 0 0 0 1
15 +6 Greg Biffle 545 -237 5 1 0 0 2
16 +11 Kurt Busch 531 -251 5 1 1 1 1
17 +3 Denny Hamlin* 530 -252 5 0 0 0 1
18 -7 Jeff Burton 527 -255 5 1 0 1 2
19 -5 Brian Vickers 508 -274 5 0 0 0 1
20 -1 Robby Gordon 500 -282 5 0 0 0 0
21 -6 Martin Truex Jr.* 491 -291 5 0 0 0 0
22 +8 Carl Edwards 487 -295 5 0 0 2 2
23 -5 J.J. Yeley* 481 -301 5 0 0 0 1
24 -8 Jamie McMurray 480 -302 5 0 0 0 1
25 -1 Kyle Petty 466 -316 5 0 0 0 1
26 -4 Joe Nemechek 461 -321 5 0 0 0 0
27 -2 Reed Sorenson* 450 -332 5 0 0 0 1
28 +3 Jeff Green 440 -342 5 0 0 0 0
29 -3 Ken Schrader 439 -343 5 0 0 0 1
30 -2 Terry Labonte 428 -354 5 0 0 0 0
31 +2 Dave Blaney 401 -381 5 0 0 0 0
32 +6 Bobby Labonte 400 -382 5 0 0 1 1
33 -4 Michael Waltrip 397 -385 5 0 0 0 0
34 -- Jeremy Mayfield 395 -387 5 0 0 0 0

35 +4 Sterling Marlin 356 -426 5 0 0 0 0
36 -4 Scott Riggs 355 -427 4 0 0 0 0
37 -- Kevin Lepage 341 -441 5 0 0 0 0
38 -3 David Stremme* 326 -456 5 0 0 0 0
39 -3 Brent Sherman* 305 -477 5 0 0 0 0
40 -- Scott Wimmer 292 -490 4 0 0 0 0
41 +1 Travis Kvapil 176 -606 3 0 0 0 0
42 -1 Paul Menard 146 -636 1 0 0 0 1
43 +3 Hermie Sadler 114 -668 3 0 0 0 0
44 -1 Bill Elliott 111 -671 1 0 0 0 0
45 -1 Kirk Shelmerdine 103 -679 1 0 0 0 0
46 -1 Mike Wallace 91 -691 1 0 0 0 0
47 +1 Stanton Barrett 89 -693 2 0 0 0 0
48 -1 Mike Garvey 49 -733 1 0 0 0 0
49 -- Kenny Wallace 40 -742 2 0 0 0 0
50 -- Chad Chaffin 37 -745 1 0 0 0 0
51 -- Bill Lester 0 -782 1 0 0 0 0


* Denotes Rookie

I should also mention that in the final laps Matt Kenseth wrecked Jeff Gordon in a battle for position. Jeff Gordon was fuming after the race! Matt Kenseth immediatedly came over to Jeff Gordon to apologize to him. When he did, Jeff Gordon, with helmut still on walked right up to Matt Kenseth and pushed him. It could have been a fight, or much worse than it was, but Kenseth came over to apologize and so backed off. In his interview, Kenseth admitted that it was his fault to have wrecked him, but that it was unintentional. He also said that he should have waited until later to approach Gordon, with tempers still hot so immediately after the race. Kenseth said that he understood Gordon's frustration.

[achebeautiful]

I found this article on Matt Kenseth's website:

Is Matt Kenseth too nice to thrive in NASCAR?
Monday, March 27, 2006

By JOHN MOOREHOUSE
Times-News



BRISTOL, Tenn. - Apparently nice guys don't just finish last.

Jeff Gordon fans might howl in disagreement, but Matt Kenseth's lack of aggression cost him a victory in Sunday's Food City 500.

Kenseth was leading in the final stretch, but after choosing not to knock Dale Jarrett out of the way, he got bumped by former teammate Kurt Busch, who scooted to the front and held on for the win.

"One of my problems is I probably care too much about what other people think," said Kenseth, who finished third. "I always have. I always like to race people the way I like to be raced and I don't always do a good job of that."

The previous allegiance between Kenseth and Busch complicated the finish of Sunday's race. They were teammates at Roush Racing until this year.

"As much as we've always respected each other on the track - teammates or not teammates - I couldn't have done that to him," Kenseth said. "I don't think I could have done that to him and brought my trophy home and felt good tonight and been smiling and sleeping. But that's just me. Everybody is different."

Busch may be as popular as, say, sudden snow squalls among the denizens of the grandstands, but is his way right? Is that what it takes to win at Bristol? He'd know; he has five Cup wins here. But, on a larger scale, is that what it takes to win any race on NASCAR's premier series when it's crunch time?

More importantly, does Kenseth lack that killer instinct? Keep in mind Kenseth's "do no harm" tactics against Jarrett. Earlier in the race, when reigning Cup champ Tony Stewart led, he had no such qualms about booting Brent Sherman out of the way like a bumper car. When Kenseth decided not to physically move Jarrett, his Ford started to feel the effects.

"All day we had anywhere from a third- or fourth-place car to a seventh-place car," Kenseth said. "We just had really good track position all day."

Kenseth lost that position in an instant once Busch made contact.

"I worked hard for that spot all day and I didn't think I should've got a cheap shot taken at me at the end of the race like that," Kenseth said. "Maybe I should. Maybe I should do that to people and maybe I'd have more success, I don't know."

Gordon would argue Kenseth did just that. As Busch and Kevin Harvick battled for the lead, Kenseth and Gordon made contact in turn two of the last lap. Gordon, who was fourth at the time, careened into the interior wall and finished in 21st place.

After getting out of his car Fox cameras caught Gordon shoving Kenseth, who said it wasn't intentional.

"I would've been ticked off, too," Kenseth said. "And I probably should've known better than to go over there, but I just think that if you do something wrong, you should try to be a man about it and apologize even though I knew that wasn't gonna do anything. It wasn't gonna bring his finish back."

When citing his "do unto others" philosophy, Kenseth said he'd made plenty of mistakes and cited the Gordon incident as an example. He also said he tries to follow the model put down by his veteran teammate.

"I always try to think, ‘Would Mark Martin have done that?' " Kenseth said. "If Mark Martin would have done that, then that was probably a fair move. If Mark Martin wouldn't have done that then it probably wasn't a fair move. That's kind of the way I look at it."

"You see guys racing each other for 490 laps one way here at Bristol. At the end you've got to race hard and go back to your roots," Busch said when Kenseth's comments were recounted. "I've been bumped before and had a win taken away. I don't sit there and cry about it."

Then again, Martin has failed to win a points title throughout his storied career. Given the outcome Sunday, maybe Kenseth - who already has one Cup championship to his credit - needs a change in philosophy.

Does he need a little less Mark Martin and a little more Kurt Busch?

In a sport where teams win at all costs, living by the Golden Rule might be noble. But it also might be foolish.

[achebeautiful]

I disagree with the end comments in this article. The race is never over after the race. There's always next week. If you win in this sport by "doing to others what you wouldn't want done to you," it is very likely to catch up with you at a later date.

Matt Kenseth is a good race car driver, even one of the best right now. As far as the character he shows on and off the racetrack, he may just be the VERY best!

I think if he keeps true to himself, and continues to be the person he is, he'll contend yet again for the Championship. In the meantime, fans like myself will already consider him a champion!

[achebeautiful]

"More Credit Is Due Matt Kenseth":
Former Cup champion isn't a media darling and doesn't want to be one



Matt Kenseth doesn't generate the amount of publicity as do the superstars of Nextel Cup racing, but he's got the driving talent to match any of the sport's glamour performers, writes Benny Parsons of NBCSports.com.

I agree with those Matt Kenseth fans who say that even when the 2003 Cup champion wins races, he doesn't get the credit he deserves.

These fans maintain that when Kenseth succeeds he doesn't get anywhere near the glowing praise that for instance Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt Jr. receive for their success.

And they contend that when Kenseth tops the field, the media focuses more on what the other drivers might have encountered -- like engine failures and wrecks -- that crushed their chances at a win, than on how the efforts of Kenseth and his crew led the No. 17 of Roush Racing to Victory Lane.

But some of the fault in Kenseth not getting his just due has to be put on the driver himself. Kenseth's personality is not one like that of Junior's, who has done things like host Saturday Night Live. I don't see Kenseth doing those types of things. I don't think he'd want to do such things or be comfortable doing them.

Junior, Stewart, Gordon and some others are media darlings off the track. Kenseth is not, and doesn't appear to have much interest in concerning himself with how much publicity he receives, or how much others receive. I think he is fine with the way things are with the media.

I believe Kenseth just wants to run races, and win races. On the track, Kenseth is as good a driver as any of Cup racing's biggest stars. Personality-wise he may not have the flash and glitter the media seeks, but he gives nothing away talent-wise with his driving. His Cup championship drove home that point to all who follow stock-car racing's top series.

[achebeautiful]

Crap! Matt Kenseth ran in the top ten all afternoon only to wreck with eight laps to go and finished 23rd. He also fell from first to third in the standings. Tough luck for the #17 today! Still, he's in very good position at this point in the season for the Championship! Hopes are still high!

[achebeautiful]

5th, in IROC, 5th in Busch
2nd in Texas for Matt

After qualifying sixth at Texas, Matt Kenseth suffered a blown motor in the #17 Carhartt Ford in final practice, putting him at the rear of the field for the start of the race. No matter — Kenseth methodically took the Carhartt car to the front of the pack, leading 14 laps and finishing 2nd. He moves up one spot in the points to 2nd, just 15 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

[achebeautiful]

Yahoo!! Matt Kenseth finishes third tonight and takes over first place again in the points standings!

[ocelot]

That's great! Even though I don't pay much attention to Nascar I hope Matt Kenseth does well.

[achebeautiful]

Well, I appreciate that Leona! Actually, I grew up a big time baseball fan (and still am), but NASCAR is something I turned to after a decade of dismal seasons from my favorite Pittsburgh Pirates.

I could never figure out how someone could watch and enjoy a race when all they are doing is driving around a track all day. I mean, how do you even keep up with what is going on? Then someone on a radio station was saying the same thing and a person replied that you have to pick a driver to root for and then it all begins to make sense. I figured I'd give it a try.

After a couple of races I really took a liking to Matt Kenseth. First of all, at the time he was one of the hot young stars and only a year away from being a rookie. After race interviews tell you a lot about the drivers, and I thought Matt seemed like the type of person I could support as a fan. But mostly the thing that drew me to Matt was the color scheme of his car! Hey, I'm already a Pittsburgh Steeler fan in football, a Pittsburgh Pirate fan in baseball, and a Pittsburgh Penguin fan in hockey, so why not keep it Black & Gold? He has a really cool looking car in my opinion.

Turns out I made a pretty good choice. Since following Matt Kenseth, he has won a Championship (the very next year that I decided on him) and also has made it to the Chase For The Championship in both of the years since its establishment. He's on his way to making it three in a row!

But I think he's someone worth rooting for. He has always carried himeslf like a pro, and he's a great race car driver.

[achebeautiful]

Another strong performance last night with a third place finish from Matt Kenseth, putting him currently in second place in the Chase For The Championship!

[ocelot]

That's great for Kenseth! Hope he gets back to first place.

[achebeautiful]

Kenseth passes late for Dover NASCAR win

BY DAVID POOLE

DOVER, Del. - Matt Kenseth ran down Roush Racing teammate Jamie McMurray to win a stirring late-race battle among four cars at the end of the Neighborhood 400 at Dover International Speedway.

Kenseth took the lead with a crossover move off Turn 4 as the leaders completed Lap 397. Kenseth had slightly newer tires than McMurray and came from fifth on the final restart with 51 laps to go to win for the second time this year and the 16th time in his career.

Kenseth made his first career Nextel Cup start at this track in 1998, subbing for the injured Bill Elliott. He finished sixth that day, but had never won at this one-mile track until Sunday.

Kenseth passed Jeff Burton on Lap 374 to get to third. He battled Kevin Harvick for several laps, finally clearing Harvick's Chevrolet for second on Lap 394. He caught up to McMurray as the leader got held up slightly in lapped traffic, and then made the winning move with less than three laps to go.

"That was fun," Kenseth said in victory lane. "Nobody wanted to give an inch. Kevin, Jamie and Jeff were fun to race with. It was an exciting win."

The day's other big stories involved Nextel Cup points leader Jimmie Johnson and defending champion Tony Stewart.

Johnson started 42nd and spent much of the race a lap down. But when a rash of caution flags in the second half of the race gave him both the chance to get the free pass and an opportunity for his team to work on the car, Johnson rallied and wound up finishing sixth.

Stewart ran 39 laps with his broken right shoulder blade before giving way to relief driver Ricky Rudd. Rudd finished the day two laps down in 25th position.

Stewart moved to the rear of the field to start the race, and despite his injury within the first 10 laps he'd passed 11 cars.

Up front, Ryan Newman broke from the pole and led the first 12 laps before Jeremy Mayfield, who started second, moved the front. Then it took another 14 laps for Mark Martin to catch and pass Mayfield.

While Stewart kept picking up ground - at Lap 36 he was all the way up to 25th - Johnson was not gaining. He'd started 42nd after spinning on his qualifying lap on Friday and before the first caution he'd already fallen a lap down.

That first caution came when Tony Raines spun on Lap 36. That allowed Stewart to come to pit road, after waiting an extra lap to let pit road clear of traffic, to get out of the car and let Rudd get in. The team pulled off the switch flawlessly, then Rudd came back in the next time by to get two tires and fuel and stay on the lead lap in 37th place.

"I feel like I got beat up," Stewart said. "We did what we had to do.

"It took longer than we hoped for. . . .It's hard to explain to people how hard it is to get out of your own car. But I hope can stay up here on the pit box and do something to help Ricky get back to the top 10."

Gordon got off pit road first and had the lead on the restart, with Newman and Martin right on his rear bumper. Gordon held the lead until a yellow for debris on Lap 115 gave the teams their next chance to get fuel and tires and make adjustments.

Gordon won the race off pit road, just ahead of Kenseth and Burton, who won Saturday's Busch race here. The big loser there was Scott Wimmer, who was sharing a pit stall with Johnson and whose team had reached a deal with the No. 48 team to have its crew pit Wimmer's No. 4 as well.

The plan was to have one car come in one lap and the second come in the next time. But after Johnson pitted first on that yellow, Wimmer ran out of fuel before he could get back to pit road.

Kenseth got a good jump on the restart on Lap 121 and took the lead from Gordon coming off Turn 4. Burton took second, and on Lap 135 Newman passed Gordon for third. As another long green-flag run continued, Burton got past Kenseth on Lap 161 and became the seventh different driver to lead the race.

Kenseth came back on Lap 175 to reclaim the lead as the front two tried to work through cars trying to keep from going a lap down. Burton came back on Lap 190 and reclaimed the lead, but four laps later Kenseth passed Burton again. Then, on Lap 200, Burton once again took over the lead.

On Lap 202, Burton passed Rudd to put the No. 20 a lap down. Rudd was running 20th, but the fact that there'd been only two yellows in the first half of the race kept Stewart's team from doing much to help get the car adjusted to Rudd's liking.

That came just before the leaders began making a round of green-flag pit stops. Rudd got flagged for speeding off pit road on his stop, further setting back the team's efforts. He was 33rd, two laps down, when the cycle of pit stops completed.

Burton, Martin and Kenseth were still the front three after everyone got back to speed. Martin took the lead from Burton on Lap 238 and was in front until a yellow for debris on Lap 264 slowed the field.

Kenseth won the race off pit road with Burton second, but Martin had to make a second trip to his crew because of missed lug nut on his left-front tire.

Johnson's tough day continued on Lap 274. Already down two laps, Johnson spun in Turn 4 after contact with David Stremme's Dodge.

On Lap 280, one lap after the restart, Kyle Busch powered around Kenseth on the outside to take the lead. Just four laps later, rookie J.J. Yeley hit the Turn 1 wall to bring out another yellow, and moments after the next restart there was another caution.

And then another, on Lap 300, for an incident in Turn 3 involving Elliott Sadler and Kevin Lepage. This time, the leaders who'd stayed out on the previous rash of cautions did come to pit road.

But McMurray, who'd stopped on one of the earlier yellows, did not and he had the lead on the restart on Lap 313. Kevin Harvick, who got tires earlier and took fuel only on that caution, was second with Martin, Busch, Newman and Burton behind them. Lepage had lost an engine and dropped fluid around track, so the lengthy clean-up left some of the lead-lap cars plotting to try to go the rest of the way without another stop.

Lepage got back on the track shortly after the race resumed, but on Lap 319 he went sliding sideways with flames coming from under his car and the yellow was out again. The significant effect there was that Johnson was ahead of the leader at that point, so the caution put him back on the lead lap.

McMurray led the field to the green again on Lap 327. He was nearly a second ahead on Lap 345 when Robby Gordon's spin in Turn 4 brought out the yellow.

McMurray, Harvick, Busch, Burton and Kenseth were among those who stayed out, with Johnson also staying out and moving all the way up to eighth place for the restart on Lap 350.

As Harvick and Busch battled for second after the restart, McMurray pulled away. But he couldn't hold on to end his 124-race streak without a victory, having to settle for second behind his teammate Kenseth.

[achebeautiful]

Kenseth Not Secure With 2nd-Place
~ JENNA FRYER, AP Auto Racing Writer


INDIANAPOLIS - Matt Kenseth has been entrenched in NASCAR's top 10 all season, holding strong in second place the last nine weeks. Despite the solid footing, Kenseth in no way considers himself a lock to make the Chase for the championship. With only six races left to ensure a spot in the playoff field, Kenseth can either play it safe and ease his way in or run hard and risk blowing it all.

For Kenseth, the strategy is a no-brainer.

"Everybody races every week to win — that's what it's all about," he said Friday. "Every time I look at it, you get the most points for leading the most laps and winning. So that's what you try to do each week."

He'll stick to that plan in Sunday's race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a track that has been fairly good to Kenseth over the years. Although he's never won here, Kenseth has three top-five finishes and was second in 2003 — the same year he won his only NASCAR championship.

If this is the year Kenseth finally gets to kiss the bricks, he and his Roush Racing team will have to turn it up a notch.

Although he's been decent most of the year — with two victories and 11 top-10 finishes — Kenseth has been in a mini-slump of late with just one top-10 in the past six races.

"I'm happy when we're consistently in the top five. I'm not happy when we're consistently 14th like we were the last couple of weeks," he said. "We have had a few weeks where we've been off and made some mistakes, and got taken out of a race, and just didn't really run that good at Pocono."

Despite the rash of mediocrity, Kenseth hasn't lost much ground in the standings and trails leader Jimmie Johnson by 97 points.

But he knows that could change with a slip of the steering wheel or a broken car part, and points to Dale Earnhardt's recent free-fall as evidence that no one is safe. Earnhardt plummeted from third to 11th in the standings with consecutive last-place finishes.

"I don't think we're really locked into the Chase," he said. "You've seen what happened to Junior a couple of weeks ago and how fast things can change, so I need to make sure we keep doing our job and try to operate at a championship level and hopefully gain some points on (Johnson)."

Still, Kenseth is in a completely different position than last year when he needed a strong summer surge to sneak his way into the Chase. It came at a time when all five Roush Racing cars were dominating and the entire fleet made the Chase.

But only Kenseth has been consistently strong this season.

Greg Biffle, last year's runner-up to champion Tony Stewart, is currently 12th trying to race his way into the Chase, and third-place finisher Carl Edwards needs a miracle to make it in. Jamie McMurray, in his first season with the team, is having a horrendous year.

That's left Kenseth and Mark Martin as the only legitimate contenders as the team tries to figure out the falloff.

"Our stuff was superior last year and our stuff is real good this year, but it's not superior as it was last year," said Martin, who is sixth in the standings. "If we want to have a great showing, we have to be a little bit more on target than we did last year."

The drop-off in equipment and Kenseth's back-to-back 14th-place finishes have him now questioning what the rest of the season will hold for him. Although many consider him the top contender to chase down Johnson, Kenseth knows its going to take a super effort from the No. 17 team.

"I felt really good about the whole season, but the last few weeks we've lost a little momentum, which I think is very important to get back before the Chase," he said. "But up to that point, we've been leading laps, we've been up front, and we've had a lot of top fives.

"I think we need to step it back up a notch before the Chase starts. It's a long season. There's a lot of racing through the end of the year, so we've got to figure out how to keep this thing rolling."

[ocelot]

Congrats to Kenseth on his second place finish in Indy today. I don't know what this means for the points race, but he had a good race.

[achebeautiful]

Thanks for the acknowledgement Leona!

He had a very good race, but the person he is chasing for the lead in the points standings is Jimmie Johnson who happened to win today! So he really didn't gain on him any with the second place finish. Good news, however, is that he didn't lose any ground on him either.

I think Kenseth is putting himself in very good position for the upcoming "Chase For The Championship" playoff system that starts in about five more races.

Go Kenseth!