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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Which Way For Kenseth?
Can Matt Kenseth find victory lane again at Texas?
Tom Jensen  |  Posted April 04, 2009   Harrisburg, NC
Matt Kenseth, who is scheduled to appear live on SPEED’s NASCAR RaceDay on Sunday, drives at Texas Motor Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

In racing, the numbers don’t lie. They are right there, in black and white, for the whole world to see. And in the case of 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Matt Kenseth, they tell two very different stories.

For Kenseth, who is scheduled to appear live on SPEED’s NASCAR RaceDay on Sunday, the two numbers that tell the tale of his 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season to date are 1.00 and 27.75. In his first two races of the season, Kenseth’s average finish was 1.00, as he won both the hugely prestigious Daytona 500 and the Auto Club 500 a week later. His average finish in the next four races, though, was 27.75. In the first two races of the season, Kenseth led a total of 91 laps. In the next four, he led none.

So which Kenseth will race in Sunday’s Samsung 500, the good, fast, lap-leading and race-winning Kenseth, or the guy buried in the pack along with the Reed Sorensons and Robby Gordons and David Stremmes? Even Kenseth isn’t certain.

“I guess I won’t know until Monday,” said Kenseth, who qualified third for the Samsung 500, but was only 29th in Saturday’s final Happy Hour practice. “I hope that we can get some momentum back, get some good finishes and get back on the right track.”

Kenseth’s woes began in the third race of the season, with a fluke engine failure in his Roush Fenway Ford Fusion on the very first lap. Ever since then, it’s been a struggle, he said.

“Winning the first two races was pretty unbelievable, and winning the (Daytona) 500,” said Kenseth. “Winning the 500 would be hard to top, but, yet, to back it up at California was huge. But then every week since then has been a punch in the stomach. It’s been disappointing, because we didn’t even make a lap at Vegas. We broke, which is really something that doesn’t happen very often. And then it’s been problem after problem, really. So, definitely, we need to get back on track here pretty quick.”

Kenseth should have cause for optimism, based on history alone at TMS, where is a past race winner. In his last seven Cup races at the 1.5-mile oval, the Wisconsin native has four top-five finishes, including three runner-up performances. His worst finish here during that period was 12th. But even that hasn’t been enough to buoy his spirits much.

Asked if past performance here was reason to be optimistic, he shrugged. “In the past, it has been, but you know, Bristol used to be a good place for us in the past, and it wasn’t, so you just never know,” said Kenseth. “ … When you go to your tracks that you perform better at, you always feel a little bit better, but that doesn’t always mean a lot, you know, for what’s going to happen this weekend. Vegas is probably one of our really good tracks, and we didn’t even make a lap. Certainly I feel more optimistic coming here.”

Matt Kenseth is scheduled to appear live on NASCAR RaceDay, which will be televised on SPEED Sunday at 11:30 a.m. EST.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES QUALIFYING RESULTS SAMSUNG 500

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Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief 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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