Matt Kenseth posted his first top-10 since New Hampshire last fall. Credit: Autostock

Vegas brings reversal of fortune for Kenseth

LAS VEGAS -- Matt Kenseth experienced a welcome reversal of fortune Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In the first two Nextel Cup Series races of 2005, Kenseth had capable cars and dismal luck. At Daytona he had the best superspeedway car of his career, but finished 42nd after a blown engine ended his day. Then, the following week at California he had a top-10 run foiled by a blown tire.

	Inside the Numbers Matt Kenseth at Las Vegas Year Start Finish 2005 8 8 2004 25 1 2003 17 1 2002 8 14 2001 22 17 2000 21 14 ALSO •   Race Results •   Cup Standings

That brings us to the stark contrast that was the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400.

Kenseth didn't have a great car, but all said and done managed an eighth-place finish -- his first top-10 since the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire last September.

He'll take it.

"We didn't run very good at all [Sunday]," Kenseth said. "We just had the best pit crew on pit road, had a great stops that kept us in contention. I hate talking about streaks, but it's been 10 or so races since we had a top-10.

Kenseth overcame a fuel problem on the DeWalt Ford, as well as damaged sheet metal that resulted from a lap-66 run-in with Elliott Sadler.

"We ran bad, had a fuel problem. I made a dumb mistake and got into Elliott," Kenseth said. "I didn't expect him to swap lanes. He came from the lap-down lane in front of me, and I couldn't get slowed down.

"I spun him out and ended up wrecking our own fender. I messed up his day a little bit. I'm glad it wasn't worse. That was a dumb mistake, just bad judgment. That got us behind, and it was an uphill battle all day."

For his effort, Kenseth improved eight positions in the championship standings.

"We've got to crawl before we can walk," Kenseth said. "At least we finished [Sunday] and got a decent finish for how badly we ran.

"So if we can get our performance back to where it was at California in Atlanta and have decent luck, hopefully we'll have a good finish."