PERSONAL PROFILE
	Hometown: Cambridge, WI Birthdate: March 10, 1972

Matt Kenseth burst from the long shadow cast by his buddy Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2000. The Madison, Wis., native, who had come out the loser in Busch Series point battles in 1998 and 1999, finally got the better of young Earnhardt in 2000.

Although Earnhardt Jr. was favored by most insiders to grab the Winston Cup Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award in 2000, Kenseth came out of the gate with a 10th place finish in the Daytona 500, beating Earnhardt by three spots. He never looked back on his way to a 42-point triumph in the rookie race.

Kenseth also guided his No. 17 DeWalt Ford team to a 14th place finish in the championship, again beating Earnhardt Jr., by two spots. Through it all, the pair maintained their fast friendship. Even though "Little E" won before Kenseth and, in fact, won three races including two point events to Kenseth's one, the Roush Racing driver's consistency won out in the end.

Earnhardt actually won at Texas and Richmond and then captured The Winston all-star race at Lowe's Motor Speedway before Kenseth captured the Coca-Cola 600 one weekend later. However, one week after Charlotte for all intents and purposes Earnhardt had fired his last bullet of the year, while Kenseth just kept on chugging.

Displaying the methodical perseverance he had learned in the Midwest from his father, Kenseth ended up garnering his victory, four top-5s and 11 top-10s. He scored five of them in the first half of the season and despite struggling through a late-season skein of four out of six races in which he finished worst than 32nd, he still prevailed in a tough rookie race.

Kenseth's only Achilles heel might be his qualifying. He managed only two top-10 starting positions, a fourth at Atlanta and a sixth at Rockingham early in the season, and struggled in qualifying for much of the year.

Kenseth also competed for former team owner Robbie Reiser in the Busch Series where he won four times and scored 17 top-10s in 20 starts. He finished 17th in the standings despite missing 15 races. He has also demonstrated frightening consistency in the Busch Series, totaling 11 wins in the last three seasons.

Kenseth began racing at the age of 16 and by the age of 19, he had already moved up to the ultra-competitive Wisconsin Late Model ranks, taking on the likes of Dick Trickle, Ted Musgrave and Rich Bickle. Kenseth became the youngest winner ever in ARTGO Challenge Series history when he captured an event in LaCrosse, Wis. The old record was held by Mark Martin, Kenseth's mentor and car owner, and many were quick to make comparisons between the two drivers.

Kenseth won a track championship at the Madison (Wis.) International Speedway in 1994 and won track championships at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna in 1994-1995, when he won four consecutive features.

Kenseth was driving in the American Speed Association's ACDelco Challenge Series, where he was second in points, when he got a call from Reiser to drive his Busch Series car. Kenseth accepted and the rest, as they say, is history. Kenseth finished third at Dover and California and finished second in rookie of the year race despite starting just 21 events.

While in the middle of breakout first full season in the Busch Series in 1998, in which he finished second in points, Kenseth was called on by Mike Beam to drive Bill Elliott's Ford at Dover when Elliott had to attend his father's funeral. Kenseth finished sixth in his debut and finished fourth there one year later when he ran a five-race program for Roush Racing preparing for his rookie campaign.

Kenseth won his first Busch race that year in a fender-banging duel with Tony Stewart at Rockingham.