Matt Kenseth: Worthy of Your Cheers
By Doug Cook - Staff Writer
06/02/2003

He may be the quietest, hardest driving, and calmest driver you have ever seen. 9 times out of ten he is the one calming the crew down. He doesn't punch photographers after a bad day, for all you anti-Stewart fans. He's not the over-hyped son of a legend, for all of you anti-Junior fans. He's Matt Kenseth, and you should know his face by now, especially in victory lane, because nobody was there more than Kenseth last year. He is always in the shadow of teammates Kurt Busch and Mark Martin, and likes it that was. And yet none of you seem willing to cheer him.

Every race, Kenseth starts in the back, and slowly but surely, makes his way to the front, and before you know it, Kenseth won the race, and you didn't see the pass. He's the point leader, and I bet you don't even know where he came from. In 12 races, he has finished in the top ten in 10 of them-more than any other driver. Wins fill the stands-consistency wins championships. People have said that they can't picture that team putting that all together-but could you picture Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte, and Dale Earnhardt putting it all together for their first championships?

In fact, Kenseth and Labonte are a lot alike. They are calm, cool under pressure, don't make waves, and they can win. Labonte came into NASCAR in 1993 with Bill Davis Racing-a seat left empty by Jeff Gordon. He didn't do well in his first couple of years, but once he jumped into the Joe Gibbs car, his career took off. Kenseth didn't do well in his first couple of years-only one win and a few top fives-Kenseth rebounded to win 5 races last year and ran second in the standings for much of the first half of the year.

If it wasn't for his peers who give him so much credit, Kenseth might as well quit NASCAR, because nobody would notice anyway. He and Ryan Newman are similar as well-outdone by an over-hyped rookie rival even though they whooped him at every corner. Kenseth faced off with Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2000 for top rookie honors. The result-Kenseth has ten top tens and one win, while Jr. has 5 top tens and 2 wins. Even though he had one less win, Kenseth did beat Jr. to a figurative bloody pulp. Newman, if you remember, beat Jimmie Johnson last year for rookie honors. Even though Johnson had two more wins then him, Newman had 14 top fives to Johnson's 6. But, according to 4-time champion and Johnson car owner Jeff Gordon, "In my mind, Jimmie was the man all year long." With the exception of those 14 top fives and 6 bud poles of Newman's.

Everybody expected Dale Jr. to take the point lead from Kenseth last Sunday. The result of that race? Kenseth second, and led the most laps. Dale forty-first, no laps led. What about third in points Kurt Busch's finish? He finished 16th, led some laps, but had a problem with his car. Jeff Gordon finished 8th, and was the last car on the lead lap. Bobby Labonte was 3rd, and at least led some laps, and at one point looked to be a contender for the win. The only person in the top ten in points to beat Kenseth was 6th place man Johnson, who won. But since Kenseth led the most laps, nobody gained any points on him. But of course Kenseth isn't any good.

I hope Kenseth wins the championship this year, just to prove his worth to each and every fan in NASCAR. He can be aggressive, he can be patient, but most importantly, he can be consistent. Surprised that Kenseth's leading? Don't be. I saw it coming.

You can reach Doug Cook at: dcook@catchfence.com