Kenseth carries momentum into Speedweeks
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Matt Kenseth (left) beat Dale Earnhardt Jr. (right) for the rookie title in 2000
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By Tim Packman, Turner Sports Interactive
January 16, 2002
3:44 PM EST (2044 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Matt Kenseth is hoping to get back to his winning ways this year.
Kenseth, entering his third full Winston Cup season, broke into the Winston Cup ranks in 2000 and left with one victory and Rookie of the Year honors.
In 2001, he never visited Victory Lane but finished 13th in points, one spot ahead of his rookie year.
His best finish of the sophomore campaign was fourth, which he did four times. He finished fourth three times in the final six races.
Kenseth is hoping that momentum is a catalyst of motivation for the team this year.
"It felt like the last seven or eight races we ran really well," Kenseth said. "We didn't get all of the best finishes we wanted, but I felt like we ran competitively every race. We still qualified poorly, but we ran better and had some better finishes and were more consistent.
"If we can carry that into this year, I think we'll be in a lot better shape than last time."
His best qualifying effort was a pair of 13th place starts -- Dover and Kansas - and he led a total of 100 laps in 14 different races. The quiet, laid-back native of Cambridge, Wis. expressed his feelings regarding some dark stretches of last year.
"It was really frustrating, especially if we hadn't run better at the end of the year," Kenseth said. "We ran so poorly in the beginning and middle of the year that it was pretty frustrating because it seemed like we couldn't do anything right."
Like many teams, Kenseth and his Roush Racing group used the offseason to see where they could improve.
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Kenseth's lone career Winston Cup win came in the 2000 Coca-Cola 600.
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"I think our attitude is good," Kenseth said. "I think the only thing we've changed has been our cars a little bit. We had two or three cars that ran pretty well for us with different kinds of bodies on them from what we've run in the past.
"So, we've hopefully learned some things to where we know how to build our cars. At the end of 2000, we didn't run really run very well and weren't sure what to build for cars and what to make the cars look like for good downforce.
"This year, I think we have a little bit better idea. We kind of had a direction going into the winter of how we wanted to build our cars and what we want them to look like."
The first chance to show improvement will be the season-opening Daytona 500. There's so much attention focused on Speedweeks that a good race can be the start to a successful season.
Kenseth has one victory at Daytona - he won the Busch Series opener here in 2000. He was asked if he would now sleep differently before a restrictor-plate race with the new rules package.
"Maybe somewhat, but I always sleep good," Kenseth said. "It depends. If you have a fast car, you'll probably be thinking more like a normal race.
"With the other package, I didn't worry that much about having a fast car because what we had was what we had. If we got the right breaks, you knew you had a chance at winning. Even if you had a decent car and made the wrong move or got a bad break at the end, you could end up 25th.
"That's not necessarily the case now. If you've got a good car, you can probably stay with that lead group and have a chance at the end."
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