Roush Fenway Racing driver Matt Kenseth returns to the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup for the fourth consecutive season; one of only two drivers to accomplish such a feat (Jimmie Johnson). Kenseth and the No. 17 DEWALT Ford Fusion team enter this season’s Chase in a tie for sixth, just 50 points behind the leader.
“It’s pretty cool to be part of it again, ” said Kenseth, the 2003 Cup Champion. “The goal every year is to try and win the championship, but to do that, you first have to make the Chase. It feels good to get in again. We’ve had a pretty steady year. I wish we could’ve won a few more races, but we’ve had a pretty good year up to this point. I’m happy to be in it, and looking to do something with the opportunity.
“Every year you always have a little different feeling heading into the Chase. Last year, I was very, very confident heading into the Chase and we didn’t run good at all. So, this year, I’m a little less confident than that, but I’m kind of somewhere in the middle of the road. I don’t feel like we’re running as good as the top-four guys. I feel like the rest of the eight, in my opinion, are kind of lumped together and I feel like we can run with most of those guys week in and week out.
“You just never know what’s going to happen. You’ve got to go there and give it your all and hope that we can get our performance up just a little bit and at the same time, not have any problems; just hang in there and see what happens. I think the big thing is you don’t want to get yourself way behind in the first couple weeks. If we can hang in there with those top couple of guys the first few weeks at least, and keep building on our stuff, then hopefully we can have a shot at the end. ”
Kenseth entered the 2006 Chase atop the championship point standings but fell just 56 points shy of his second Cup Championship by finishing second to eventual champion, Johnson. In 2005 Kenseth trailed the “cutoff” position for the Chase by a whopping 320 points with only 14 races remaining before the Chase. He rallied to the ninth spot when the Chase began and was able to finish seventh on the season. In the inaugural season for the Chase, Kenseth entered fifth in the point standings and went on to eighth-place finish.
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