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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Kenseth Claims Second
Matt Kenseth finished second at Atlanta and is second in Sprint Cup points...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted March 07, 2010   Hampton, GA
Matt Kenseth, driver of the #17 Valvoline Ford, pits during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

You remember Matt Kenseth. Quiet Midwestern type, won the 2003 Sprint Cup title? Last year, after winning the first two races of the season, he sort of fell off the face of the earth.

RESULTS: KOBALT TOOLS 500

Guess what? He's back.

Kenseth had the kind of drive Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway that's been a hallmark of his very successful Sprint Cup career: He hung around the top five and top 10 in the Kobalt Tools 500 all afternoon. And when the checkered flag fell after the second green-white-checkers finish, somehow, Kenseth was second behind race-winner Kurt Busch. He also moved up to second in the points standings behind Kevin Harvick.

“We got really good pit stops, good adjustments,” said Kenseth, after his best finish of the still-young 2010 Sprint Cup season. “Got lucky. Got a couple good restarts at the end, and slid into second. Overall I thought we had a good car, top-five car. The guys had a lot of fun. We were real competitive, so it was a good time.”

Not only was the race good for Kenseth, but it made the decision to replace crew chief Drew Blickensderfer with veteran Todd Parrott after the Daytona 500 look positively inspired. Kenseth finished eighth at Daytona, then with Parrott aboard improved to seventh at Auto Club Speedway, fifth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and now second at Atlanta.

“Honestly, the season couldn't have started any better for us,” said Kenseth. “I said that last week, too. It sounds silly since we won the first couple races last year. It's been really good. The last three weeks have been a lot of fun. We've been learning a lot. Our cars have been faster. We've been able to make some adjustments. The pit crew has been on the money.”

Kenseth still hasn't won a Sprint Cup race at Atlanta, but his runner-up finish is his best result in 20 starts at the 1.54-mile AMS oval. “This is as competitive as we've been at Atlanta in quite a while, probably since they went to this car at Atlanta,” said Kenseth. “We haven't ran particularly well with it. So this is by as far the best we ran.”

So even though he's still not blowing his own horn too loudly, Kenseth feels delighted to be running well again after a year of struggles in 2009, the only year in which he's failed to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

“We got out there and finished second, but we had a good top-five car all day,” Kenseth said of his march through 'Hot 'Lanta. “Feels good to go to four different racetracks and be pretty competitive at all of them.”

RESULTS: KOBALT TOOLS 500

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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