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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Magic Week For Kenseth
The best part of the week for Kenseth might be where it’s ending — at the Auto Club 500, a race that Roush Fenway Racing has won four years in a row, including victories by Kenseth...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted February 20, 2009   Fontana, CA
With victories in the Daytona 500 and Auto Club 500 Matt Kenseth has won twice for Roush Fenway so far this season. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

As weeks go, Matt Kenseth’s has been pretty spectacular.

Kenseth, the 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, won the Daytona 500 on Sunday and followed it with a whirlwind media tour that included stops at the Daytona 500 Experience, the “Late Show With David Letterman” and a visit to San Francisco.

For Kenseth, a fairly quiet Midwesterner, the post-Daytona 500 tour turned out to be a real positive. “The week was really fun, actually,” said Kenseth. “It was probably more fun than I expected it to be. I had a really good time, and it was a long week and kind of a tiring week. It was a lot of fun, got to see a lot of people, lot of places, and I probably enjoyed it more than I expected to and probably saw more people than I expected to in different areas as well.”

One of his personal highlights was appearing on Letterman’s show. “Letterman was probably one of the coolest things,” said Kenseth. “Once we started racing and running better, for some reason, I’ve always been like, ‘If I could go on one show, it would be to go on David Letterman and actually be on the couch and talk to him.’ I’ve been able to do the top 10 list a couple of times, the top 12 last year, and that was fun and everything, but you don’t even really even meet him, really. They kind of lock the doors and lock you in there; when he runs through he doesn’t want to see anybody. So, it’s kind of different than I expected. But, to be on there and actually be a guest on Letterman was probably a highlight for me.”

And while winning the Daytona 500 was a true dream come true, this week will be a shot of reality for Kenseth and the rest of the races. Last week’s race was an anomaly, just as it is every year. The Daytona 500 is one of only four restrictor-plate races the Cup teams run each year, while the Auto Club 500 — along with the next two races at Las Vegas and Atlanta motor speedways — is one of the many intermediate-track races on the Cup schedule and therefore a better barometer of how teams will perform this year.

And that means Kenseth isn’t letting himself dwell too much on his first Daytona 500 victory. Instead, he’s trying to concentrate on the task at hand and score another California victory.

“I did enjoy it all a lot,” Kenseth said Friday. “I do look forward to getting on the track here and concentrating on racing again. Have got to be a little bit careful not to enjoy it too much longer; you have to start thinking about the rest of the season and focus on this week, and the tracks are going to be really important to having a successful season. Just winning that race doesn’t make you have successful season, so we really need to move on from that. It’s a lot different from winning the championship. You had two months to enjoy it and celebrate do all of this crazy stuff, and here you’ve got a week and you better be pretty tuned in to what you’ve got going this week and the next 34 (races) after that.”

That shouldn’t be a problem this weekend at Auto Club Speedway, where Kenseth has two victories, six top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in just 14 starts. “The whole week was fun,” Kenseth said. “I’m glad to be back at the race track.”


Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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