In 1998, Matt Kenseth was runner-up for the Busch Series Championship and he finished 3rd in 1999. The next year in 2000 he moved up to the Cup series. In his rookie year, he won his first ever race in the Coca Cola 600 @ Charlotte Motor Speedway and won rookie of the year. In 2002, he led the series with 5 wins and in 2003, he won only one race but that gave him the big price; the Winston Cup championship. In the first Chase, he finished 8th in points.

In 2005, Matt spent 12 consective weeks in the top 10 with 1 win to get a 6th place pts finish when everyone thought near the end of the season he had no chance at making the chase.

In the 3 restrictor plate races he finished, he got a 3rd, 9th and 11th. Yet in the one that counts for the most marbles, the Daytona 500, he had a engine failure that gave him a 42nd place finish. So if he can avoid the engine failure that promoted him to one bad race at the plates this year, he could have a steller plate year.

All of Matt's short track finishes were top 12s including the one win @ Bristol. So in my perspective, Matt just has to keep up what he has been doing and your short track end is complete.

Both of Matt's road course finishes were in the top 11 so just like the short tracks, he's just got to keep it up.

In races where Matt has had the luck, he has top 10 finishes. So all Matt has to do for flat tracks is get the luck and he'll be complete there to.

Matt's cookie cutter program rocks but like on the flat tracks, he needs to avoid trouble to get all the cookie cutters on a good track.

Overall Matt is one of the easiest to comment on so far. Basically all I suggest is work on getting rid of wrecks and engine problems and he'll be even higher in the pts.

(C)Ashley M, Dec. 14th 2005

(R)The NASCAR Palace, Dec. 14th 2005