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Matt Kenseth

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Matthew Roy Kenseth
Born March 10, 1972
Hometown Cambridge, Wisconsin
Awards 2003 Winston Cup Champion

2000 Rookie of the Year

2004 IROC champion
2005 Sprint Cup position 7th
Best cup position 1st - 2003 (Winston Cup)
Statistics current as of August 26, 2006.


Matthew Roy Kenseth (born March 10, 1972) is a stock car racing driver for the Roush Racing team in NASCAR's Sprint Cup series. Kenseth was born in Cambridge, Wisconsin.

Contents

[edit] Early Career

Matt began stock car racing in 1988 at the age of 16, and won the feature in his third night of racing. Kenseth made a name for himself while driving at several Wisconsin tracks for Mike Butz in the #8 late model, beating nationally known drivers such as Dick Trickle and Robbie Reiser. He won the 1994 and 1995 track championships at Wisconsin International Raceway. He also won track championships at Madison International Speedway and in Oregon, Wisconsin. He decided to go south to the Hooters Pro Cup series in 1996 and nearly won the series championship as a rookie.

[edit] Nationwide Series

Kenseth made his Busch Series debut in 1996. In 1997, snowmobile racer Tim Bender got injured, and Bender's crew chief/owner Robbie Reiser called his former competitor Kenseth to fill in until Bender was healed. The Reiser-Kenseth combination proved successful, culmulating in a second- and third-place finishes in the Busch points. Matt drove the No. 17 car with sponsored by first Kraft, then Lycos and lastly DeWalt.

Matt Kenseth
Matt Kenseth's 2006 Busch Series car

[edit] Winston Cup/Nextel Cup/Sprint cup

Kenseth made his Winston Cup series debut in 1998 at Dover, Del., filling in for Bill Elliott who had to attend his mother's funeral on the day of the race. He finished sixth. The last driver before Matt to debut with a top-10 finish was Rusty Wallace.

In 2000 Kenseth's entire team joined the Roush Racing organization, where they won the Raybestos Rookie of the Year. He won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, and finished 14th in points.

In 2001 Kenseth finished 13th in points.

In 2002 Kenseth won the most races (five) and one pole, but inconsistency caused him to finish eighth in the final points.

In 2003 he dominated in the points standings for almost the entire season and became the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup champion, the last driver to ever hold that title. In so doing, he also became only the second Wisconsinite to win the championship (the late Alan Kulwicki was the first, in 1992).

There was criticism about the conservative style he employed en route to winning that championship - he won just one race - which is widely believed to be the final straw that led the sanctioning body to incorporate the playoff-style Chase for the Championship that debuted in 2004. The championship had been clinched before the final race of the season in five of the previous six years, and television ratings dropped each time as the series battled the National Football League for autumn TV ratings.

In 2004 Kenseth won the Internation Race of Champions (IROC) championship. He qualified for the inaugural Nextel Cup, finished eighth in the final NASCAR point standings.

Kenseth started the 2005 season with relatively poor finishes but had a strong mid-season run. He rose from the lower teens in championship points to eighth in eight races, and he qualified for the Chase for the Cup. He finished seventh in the final points standings. Kenseth made his 200th career start. His totals after his first 200 starts were: 1 championship, 10 wins, 40 Top 5s, 85 Top 10s, 1 pole position, and more than $28.5 million earnings.

Matt had a fast start to the 2006 season. He led early in the Daytona 500, but then spun out after contact with Tony Stewart. He fell down two laps, but rallied back to a 15th place finish. Matt won the following race at California Speedway. He was the points leader after the eighth race at Phoenix. He won the Dover spring race by racing from sixth to the front in the final 60 laps. He made the winning pass over teammate Jamie McMurray with three laps left. Matt also won at Michigan with pit stategy and Bristol. With two races to go in the Race to the Chase, 1st and 2nd in the standings (Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth) are basically locked in the Chase.

Kenseth has driven his whole NASCAR career in the No. 17 Ford car, which has been sponsored by DeWalt Power Tools and owned by Jack Roush of Roush Racing.

[edit] Personal

In 2000, he married Katie Martin. Matt has one child, a son, Ross, from a previous relationship. Matt and Katie have two cats, one named Lars after Lars Ulrich of Metallica (Kenseth's favorite band), and one named Charlotte after the site of Kenseth's first Winston Cup win.

[edit] Criticism

Kenseth has drawn criticism for his relatively quiet personality and his boring conservative style, clean racing and not putting "the pedal to the metal" for the win. Because of this, he is rarely mentioned among the elite core of NASCAR drivers.

Since his 2003 championship season he has been involved in several skirmishes with drivers Jamie McMurray, Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, which have eroded on this image. After a slow start to 2005, he has been a weekly frontrunner since the middle of the 2005 season.

The Chase For The Cup has sometimes been affectionately referred to by the moniker "The Matt Kenseth Rule".

[edit] Special Paint Schemes

Year # Races Sponsor Make/Model Owner
2008 17 Daytona 2 R&L Carriers Ford Fusion Roush Fenway Racing
2008 17 California 1 Carhartt Ford Fusion Roush Fenway Racing
2008 17 Bristol 1 Dish Network Ford Fusion Roush Fenway Racing
2008 17 Las Vegas USG Sheetrock Ford Fusion Roush Fenway Racing
2007 17 Lowe's 2 Carhartt for Women Ford Fusion Roush Fenway Racing
2007 17 Dover 2 Dewalt Nano Ford Fusion Roush Fenway Racing
2007 17 California 2 R&L Carriers Ford Fusion Roush Fenway Racing
2007 17 Bristol 1 Arby's Ford Fusion Roush Fenway Racing
2007 17 California 1 Carhartt Ford Fusion Roush Fenway Racing
2006 17 Bud Shootout Post Ford Fusion Roush Fenway Racing
2006 17 Lowe's 1 R&L Carriers Ford Fusion Roush Fenway Racing
2005 17 Chicagoland USG Sheetrock Ford Taurus Roush Racing
2004 17 Lowe's 1 Smirnoff Ice Ford Taurus Roush Racing
2003 17 Lowe's 2 Carhartt Ford Taurus Roush Racing

[edit] Feud with Tony Stewart

During the 2006 Daytona 500, Tony Stewart cut Kenseth of and ran him into the infield. Stewart was penalized by NASCAR and Kenseth also was penalized for rubbing on Stewart coming off of pit road. The feud later reignited in the Nascar Nextel Cup All-Star Challenge


[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://thirdturn.wikia.com/wiki/Matt_Kenseth"