Modest Kenseth races with the best
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The ultimate barometer of popularity in the NASCAR world is the amount of sound one generates from the grandstand.
Pre-race driver introductions are a real-time popularity poll, with some drivers drawing endlessly loud cheers and others a soul-shaking ran of boos. No matter where we race from week to week, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the leader in the cheers department, Jeff Gordon gets the jeers.
"It doesn't really matter what kind of noise they make," Dale Earnhardt Sr. liked to say. "As long they are making noise, you're doing something right."
Which brings us to the guys in the middle.
I'm talking about the drivers who receive a different kind of sound from the masses — a polite and respectful round of applause.
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Most weeks, this is the group that Matt Kenseth belongs to. The men who preceded him in the golf-club clap were guys like Harry Gant, Terry Labonte, and Alan Kulwicki — gentlemen who typically kept their cars in one piece, didn't have a whole lot to say, and just took care of business whether anyone noticed or not. In their hometowns and home states they may be just this side of national heroes, but national audiences never seemed to put them on the same level as their higher profile contemporaries.
But here's the thing — like Labonte, Gant, and Kulwicki, Kenseth is slowly building a résumé that is second to none. And yes, that includes the guys who sell more T-shirts and appear in more TV commercials.
After his win at Bristol on Saturday night, Kenseth improved on what were already very impressive numbers. Since 2002, only Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart have managed to compile better stat sheets.
He also ranks third in average finish, second in lead lap finishes, third in top ten percentage, and third in money won.
More important than all of those numbers is this very simple stat — one. That's how many Cup championships that Kenseth has sitting on his mantle. Which is one more than Johnson, Newman, Biffle, Martin, Harvick, Kahne, Edwards, and yes Earnhardt Jr., have won combined.
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Track: All Tracks
Time Frame: Last 5 years |
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Since they moved up to Cup together, Kenseth has routinely outrun his old Busch Series rival, topping Dale Jr. in every major category, dating all the way back to his sneaky steal of the 2000 Rookie of the Year title. Earnhardt's greatest moments have come on the biggest stages — Daytona, Texas, and Talladega — but Kenseth has finished higher in points four out of six years.
Now, Matt has once again quietly putting himself in position to win a title, thanks to two straight victories, a guaranteed postseason slot, and closing to within seven points of the lead with only two races remaining before the Chase beings.
History says that late summer momentum is a very good thing. Early season success has brought Jimmie Johnson bags of cash and truckloads of trophies, but it was an August-September push that propelled both Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart into the Chase and onto the stage at the Waldorf Astoria over the last two seasons.
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Back home in Wisconsin they worship the ground that the Kenseth races on, with thousands of No. 17 DeWalt stickers riding bumpers alongside the Packers emblem.
Here in Charlotte, a lone airport parking attendant and Wisconsin native keeps his toll booth decorated with black and yellow Kenseth gear.
But this weekend in Fontana, Kenseth will once again cross the stage to a polite round of hand claps and shouts while his higher profile rivals are bathed with earth-shaking booms.
No matter.
Cheers, boos, or silence... it all pays the same when your name begins with "champion".
Ryan McGee is the managing editor at NASCAR Images. He can be reached at his e-mail address: rmcgee@foxsports.com.
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