Driver Stats: Matt Kenseth

I hate it when it rains on my parade. The anticipation, the pageantry--the flyover, the celebrity drama...and oh, there was a race. Dale Jr. screwed up, Kyle drove it like he stole it, Tony came in a respectable 8th. And the winner? Matt Kenseth, driver of the #17 DeWalt Ford. In a shortened race called for rain. Disappointingly anticlimactic. My pick, Jeff Gordon, showed some promise but had tire and/or setup issues and came in 13th. (I did pick Kevin Harvick for a top-10 streak contest, and he came in 2nd, so there's my bright spot.)

Kenseth ran his first Cup race in 1998, but his first full season and first win was in 2000 when he beat out Dale Earnhardt Jr. for Rookie of the Year. He won the championship in 2003, and has had a consistent career, with 17 wins, 6 poles, 89 top 5's and 163 top 10's. Last year was his first time out of the top ten, in 11th place, since he broke in in 2002. He's also won at least one race ever year since then except for last year.

This was owner Jack Roush's first trip to Victory Lane for the Daytona 500. While well-liked in the garage, Matt isn't one of the more outgoing drivers, so his visible display of emotion after winning the race was unusual. Should he have won? No, given how he was performing until being caught up in the wreck Dale Jr. started, Kyle Busch should have won in a fun, close finish. But wrecks at restrictor plate tracks make picking winners of races a crapshoot. And Matt Kenseth hung in there all day driving a backup car, made a pass right before the rains came, and was in the right place at the right time for the win. It counts--it just wasn't the thrill everyone was expecting.