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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Kenseth Has Strong History At ACS
Matt Kenseth is used to starting off the NASCAR season in winning fashion...
Mike Hembree  |  Posted February 18, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Matt Kenseth won the first two races of 2009 including the Daytona 500 and the second race of the season at Auto Club Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Matt Kenseth did something last season that hadn’t been accomplished in more than a decade. He won the Sprint Cup schedule’s first two races.

Kenseth won the Daytona 500 to open the 2009 season then backed up that win with a victory at Auto Club Speedway the following week. Not since Jeff Gordon won the first two races of the 1997 season (Daytona and Rockingham) had a driver scored the opening double.

The downside of Kenseth’s accomplishment is that it was so brief. He hasn’t won a race since those two back-to-back victories, and that’s a large reason Todd Parrott comes on board as the No. 17 team’s new crew chief this week, replacing Drew Blickensderfer.

It remains to be seen how quickly the veteran Parrott and Kenseth can respond as a team, but, if history is a good indicator, Kenseth will roll into the spring months with a more-than-acceptable record.

In six of the past eight seasons, Kenseth has won at least one race of the schedule’s first three.

He scored at Rockingham in 2002, Las Vegas in ’03, Rockingham and Las Vegas in ’04, California in ’06 and ’07 before the opening double sweep last year.

Despite the crew chief change, the fact that Kenseth has won three of the past four February races at Auto Club Speedway will put him among the favorites Sunday. Additionally, Roush Fenway Racing has won the past five ACS February events.

“Fontana is typically a very good track for me and the No. 17 team, so it’s nice going out there early on in the season,” said Kenseth, who is scheduled to be inducted into the track’s Wall of Fame Saturday. “We had really good success at the spring race last year with our win, so hopefully we’ll be able to capitalize on that similar success this weekend and get as many points as possible to start the year with.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.


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