Racebeat (11/11/03)
by Rich Romer

NASCAR Winston Cup: Matt Kenseth has been the target since March. Several took their best shots, but no one was able to gun him down. At North Carolina Speedway, Kenseth grabbed the biggest target of them all -- the NASCAR Winston Cup championship. Kenseth clinched his first Winston Cup title -- and the first for Roush Racing -- with a fourth-place finish in the Pop Secret 400. His race was typical Kenseth: start near the back, hang around all day, stay out of trouble and move up at the end.

Kenseth is the 26th driver to win the Winston Cup championship and is the final driver to hold that title. Next season, Nextel takes over as sponsor of NASCAR's top series. Kenseth did it the hard way this season, becoming the first champion since Benny Parsons in 1973 to win only one race. But that didn't diminish his accomplishment, four-time champion Jeff Gordon The consistency was apparent early in the year. After a mediocre 20th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, Kenseth was third at Rockingham, and then picked up his lone victory, winning the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The following week, he was fourth at Atlanta and took over the points lead. From there, no one could topple Kenseth and his Robbie Reiser-led crew. From Daytona to the season's 28th race, Kenseth finished outside the top 14 only twice. The top-fives and top-10s continued to mount, as did his points lead. At the halfway point of the season, after the Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, Kenseth led Gordon by 165 points.

That would be as close as anyone would get. Kenseth's crew became adept at making the best of bad situations. At Darlington in March, Kenseth sustained damage in a lap 7 crash but rallied to finish eighth. At Infineon in June, Kenseth had a flat tire and fell way back but passed 10 cars in the final 20 laps to finish 14th. At Richmond in September, Kenseth spun with a loose race car and fell back to 39th. Reiser kept him on the track under a later caution, putting Kenseth in sixth. He ended up seventh. At Atlanta two races ago, he sustained some damage in an early accident, and then a header on the engine broke that robbed the car of horsepower. Still, Kenseth persevered and finished 11th. Kenseth's margin ballooned to 436 over Harvick after the 28th race, at Dover in September, and it appeared he could simply coast to the title. But then trouble struck. First, he blew an engine while battling for the lead at Talladega, his only DNF of the season. Then, he wrecked his primary car before qualifying at Kansas City. The backup was ill-prepared, and Kenseth spun in the race, forcing him behind the wall to repair the damage. He ended up 36th, and the points lead shrunk to 259. Some calming advice from defending champion Tony Stewart has helped steady Matt Kenseth as he neared his first Winston Cup championship. So is his crew. Kenseth's lead held steady as the season wound down, but Kenseth started to feel the pressure. At Charlotte, Kenseth decided to skip the postponed Busch Series race, which was run hours before the Saturday night Winston Cup race. So Stewart told him to have fun, two times over.
Last year, Stewart said he spent the last four weeks of the season crunching numbers from the points standings, going over scenarios. Kenseth listened. And now, he can truly enjoy being the champion.