Racebeat
by Rich Romer

NASCAR Winston Cup: Matt Kenseth gave Jack Roush a win, but it's clear the team owner isn't completely happy. Roush, who fields four cars in the Winston Cup series, is still steaming over a 25-point penalty NASCAR levied last week against Roush Racing driver and title contender Mark Martin. A fourth-place finish by Martin in the Checker Auto Parts 500, combined with an eighth-place finish by series leader Tony Stewart, chopped Stewart's lead from 112 to 89 points going into the season finale next Sunday in Homestead, Fla. No matter what Martin does in that race, Stewart -- a two-time winner at the Homestead-Miami Speedway -- will capture the title if he doesn't lead a lap and finishes 22nd or better; leads one lap and finishes 24th or better; or leads the most laps and finishes 25th or better. Roush noted the 25 points wouldn't reverse the standings at this point.

It would just make it a closer race. Roush said the decision on a possible appeal of Martin's penalty, which would have to be filed by Thursday, is in the hands of team president Geoff Smith. Still, he was able to take some solace in his team's nine wins this season -- a series-leading five by Kenseth, three by Kurt Busch and one by Martin. Jeff Burton, last among the Roush drivers at 12th in the points, has not won in 2002. Kenseth turned a two-tire stop into victory at Phoenix International Raceway, getting out of the pits first on lap 261 of the 312-lap race. He stayed out front the rest of the way. Stewart and Martin ran in the top 10 for most of the 500-kilometer event, but Stewart never led and Martin picked up the five-point bonus for leading at least one lap during a mid-race pit stop sequence.

Kenseth, who had been running fifth early in the race, fell to 11th after running out of gas and having to coast to the pits for his first stop on lap 122. He kept his No. 17 Ford near the front, though, and was third when the fourth and final caution flag of the race came out on lap 258 after Jason Leffler hit Christian Fittipaldi, a CART star making his first Winston Cup start, and sent him into the wall. The leaders pitted on lap 250 with Busch and Jeff Gordon ahead of Kenseth. While Kenseth and Rusty Wallace each put on only two fresh tires, the rest of the challengers changed four and Kenseth and Wallace hit the track 1-2. That's the way it stayed to the end, with Kenseth beating Wallace's Ford to the finish line by 1.344-seconds -- about half a straightaway on the one-mile oval.