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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Another Good Day For Kenseth
Matt Kenseth has scored three straight top-10 finishes...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted February 28, 2010   Las Vegas, NV

Even with an interim crew chief Matt Kenseth has found success, most recently with a fifth place finish in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Shelby American at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

When team co-owner Jack Roush appointed Todd Parrott to be Matt Kenseth's crew chief following the Daytona 500, he emphasized that it was an interim move.

Results: Shelby American

That Roush would do that is understandable, as Kenseth and Parrott couldn't be more different personalities. By his own admission, Kenseth is not a leader, a somewhat dour and quiet Midwesterner, to Parrott's style, which is to rally the troops around him. Loudly. And with a strong Southern accent.

So far, different though the two may be, the shotgun marriage seems to be working, as witnessed by Kenseth's fifth-place run in the Shelby American at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. There, the 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion overcame an off-sequence pit stop to score his third consecutive top-10 finish of the season and move into fourth in points.

“It was pretty good,” Kenseth said of the afternoon run in the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion. “The Crown Royal Ford handled pretty well all day. They made some really good adjustments all day, but we had that one run where we got off (pit) sequence.”

That was caused by a strong vibration midway through the race, forcing Kenseth to pit about 20 laps early than his scheduled stopping point.

“I thought we had a loose wheel or something and it turned out they couldn’t find anything, but I got really loose and had a real bad vibration so for safety sake, we went ahead and pitted,” said Kenseth. “I was worried that if we didn’t get a caution it was gonna cost us, but at the end of the day it worked out.”

And Kenseth duly noted that his car, and those of teammates Greg Biffle (10th) and Carl Edwards (12th) seemed to be greatly improved, even if the team did not find victory lane. For the second race in a row, Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson won the race, followed by Kevin Harvick. Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin were third and fourth, respectively, in their Hendrick Chevys.

Still Kenseth was pleased to finish fifth, holding off Joey Logano at the line in a spirited battle.

“That felt good,” said Kenseth. “In the beginning we ran up there. Carl and Greg and myself were all up there and it felt like a few years ago, so it seemed like all the cars had a lot more speed this weekend. It feels like we’re on the right track. … We probably didn’t adjust on it quite the way we needed to and didn’t have it exactly the way I wanted at the end, but overall it was a great day for us.”

Results: Shelby American

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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