Kenseth closing season with a flourish
Matt Kenseth has been likened to a robot for his consistency. He even mocks himself in a commercial.
In fact, Matt Kenseth's maddening steadiness - some say blandness - is often credited for the creation of the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup in 2004 after he won the 2003 championship with one victory - which came in the third race of the season.
So what's the deal with NASCAR's pre-eminent robot?
One of two drivers to qualify for all four Chases - Jimmie Johnson is the other - Matt Kenseth began the 2007 Chase with four poor finishes in the first five races to fall to 12th and out of contention. Yet since a 34th-place finish last month at Charlotte, he has collected four consecutive top fives.
"We would like to have won more races, but here lately we've been running really well," Matt Kenseth said. "I believe the more times you can put yourself in position to win then eventually some things will start falling your way and you'll win one. We've done that the past three weeks."
Johnson has been the only driver hotter than Matt Kenseth over the past four races. He has won them all. Matt Kenseth's finishes are fifth, fourth, second and third. If any driver appears able to end Johnson's streak in the final race of the season Sunday at Homestead, it's Matt Kenseth.
Matt Kenseth has had some of the strongest cars on the track throughout the Chase. But engine failure at Dover and crashes at Kansas, Talladega and Charlotte knocked him from the championship hunt.
"Our performance has been the best it's been all year during the Chase, we were just unfortunate to have some things go bad for us early on in the Chase, or else we'd be pretty close to contending for the championship," said Matt Kenseth's crew chief, Robby Reiser. "We've been close the past three weeks to getting a win. It seems like something happens at the end of each race to where we can't quite get over the hump."
From a historical standpoint, the Chase format does not play to Matt Kenseth's strengths: His wins generally come in the first two-thirds of the season. Seven of his 15 career Nextel Cup wins have come before the 10th race of the season - only two have come in the final third of the season.
Longtime NASCAR broadcaster Eli Gold believes the lack of wins isn't because of lack of effort but rather circumstance.
"It's not that Matt and Robby come to the track with a different frame of mind in March and April," Gold said. "Their results the past four weeks bear that out. It's just a matter of circumstances not going their way. They've had some bumps and bangs in the Chase that took them out of contention, but they come to the track every week with one goal and that is to win."
When winning is out of reach, Gold says that's when one of Matt Kenseth's strongest qualities comes to the forefront.
"He doesn't say at the beginning of the year he wants to go and run 10th every week, but that is a byproduct of how he races," Gold said. "And in a sport that rewards consistency, he's proven to be one of the very best.
"The good thing about Matt Kenseth is that if he has a third-place car he brings you home a third-place finish. He doesn't take an eighth-place car and throw it away trying to finish fifth and end up 40th."
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