Three wins, fourth-place points finish prove Matt Kenseth still a threat

[DeeDee]

[ARTICLE=Top 30: Three wins, fourth-place points finish prove Matt Kenseth still a threat] By Kenny Bruce Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Editor’s note: SceneDaily.com is taking a look back at the performances of the top 30 drivers in the final Sprint Cup standings.

Matt Kenseth nearly had a career year in 2011. His three victories were the most he’d won in a single season since 2006. His top-10 total (20) was third, trailing only teammate Carl Edwards and five-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. He nearly doubled his career pole total, starting in the No. 1 spot three times.

But Kenseth, a former Cup champion himself, finished fourth in the final standings, and much of the blame, he says, can be placed on the Roush Fenway Racing driver.

“I really feel like I let my team down a lot this year,” Kenseth said prior to the season-ending race at Homestead. “These guys gave me cars that are capable of being up there ... and contending for the championship. I took them out of that with some dumb mistakes I have made.

“I feel bad about that, but you can’t do anything about yesterday, so you move on.”

Season Highlight

Kenseth was dominant on a handful of occasions in 2011, but never more so than at Texas in the spring where he led 169 of the race’s 334 laps and won by a commanding 8.315 seconds.

It was his first of three wins on the year and shot him up six positions, to third, in the standings.

It also snapped a 76-race winless streak.

“It has been a long time and we have had a lot of second-place finishes and gotten beat at the end here a lot,” Kenseth said. “It is great to finish second if you can’t win but it is also like getting kicked in the gut. ... That is always really disappointing. It is nice to have this night and get this win.”

Low Point

Already having brake issues on his No. 17 Ford, Kenseth was punted by Brian Vickers in the fall race at Phoenix, a move that appeared to be retaliation for earlier incidents between the two at Martinsville two weeks earlier. As a result, Kenseth, the pole winner, finished 34th and fell from fourth in points, 38 behind the leader, to sixth, 70 points out.

“You have someone that has been telling everybody ... that as soon as he got a chance at a fast race track he was going to make it hurt and wipe us out and they do nothing about it,” Kenseth said afterward. “It was so premeditated it just surprises me that they didn’t do anything. I am disappointed but I expected it.

“We aren’t racing street stocks at a quarter-mile track so they need to figure out how to get the drivers to settle their difference in a different way and talk about it or figure it out or do something instead of using your car as a battering ram somewhere this fast.”

Defining Moment

Although he returned to the race following his crash at Phoenix, Kenseth chose not to attempt to retaliate against Vickers when the two cars were together on the track.

His day already ruined, Kenseth said the there was no temptation to exact revenge for the incident.

“No, not at all,” he said. “I don’t stoop to that level. When we had our problem at Martinsville it was heat of the moment ... . [In] hindsight I should have let him go and left him alone because you realize who he is and what he is and all that. You probably should leave him alone and go on. I would never sit down there and wait for somebody and take a cheap shot like that. You can hurt someone like that and that isn’t sportsmanlike and that isn’t something I would do.”

Key Stat

21st. Kenseth’s finishing position in the opening Chase race at Chicago. Although he crossed the finish line eighth, he did so with assistance from JJ Yeley after he ran out of fuel coming to the line.

NASCAR penalized Kenseth for receiving assistance on the final lap, placing him as the first car one lap down. The end result was a loss of 13 points, which dropped him to 10th in the standings.

Outlook

Kenseth might be his own worst critic, but even he has to be pleased with his team’s efforts, and the results, from 2011. He was 10th or higher in points for the final 32 weeks of the season and a threat to win nearly every week, especially on the 1.5-mile tracks.

With veteran crew chief Jimmy Fennig returning atop the pit box and few if any changes to his crew, expect Kenseth to be in the thick of things once again in 2012.


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[yatesracing]

With veteran crew chief Jimmy Fennig returning atop the pit box and few if any changes to his crew, expect Kenseth to be in the thick of things once again in 2012.>>>>>>>>>>>>> and maybe the Cup Championship

To bad sponsors are so difficult to secure at this time. Stenhouse would be in the #6 car and might just have given our top ROUSH drivers a run for the cup.