 | | Matt Kenseth says Martinsville is his wild card during the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Credit: Autostock |
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
October 20, 2006
05:54 PM EDT (21:54 GMT)
Despite Matt Kenseth's position in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, only 45 points behind leader Jeff Burton halfway through the 10-race finale, the 2003 champion lacks confidence with three 1.5-mile venues in the last five races. Kenseth's mood wasn't improved after the only practice before qualifying Friday at Martinsville -- when Kenseth's No. 17 Ford was 47th out of 50 cars. He rebounded in qualifying and will start 20th in Sunday's Subway 500. Kenseth's downbeat demeanor first came to light after he finished a scrambling 14th last Saturday night in the Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "We just got lucky," Kenseth said. "A lot of people had trouble, that's the only reason [we finished so well]. We'd be kidding ourselves thinking we can win a championship operating like we did [Saturday night]." His crew chief, Robbie Reiser, agreed with his driver on the need to pick it up. "This is a big weekend for us," Reiser said. "We didn't do too good as a team last Saturday night and this is probably our toughest track coming up at Martinsville. We've got our work cut out for us but the good thing is, after all that happened last weekend, we're only 45 points back." And even though Kenseth's record at Martinsville isn't stellar, he knows it's only one hurdle to get over, and one place to have to hold his breath. "You know they all are -- you don't know what's gonna happen," Kenseth said. "You could go there [to our worst track] and something weird could happen and have a great finish. "You can go to Atlanta, which is one of my favorites, and get a terrible finish. You just don't know what's going to happen. I'm more nervous about our performance at Martinsville than at any other track. As you know, it takes a lot more than performance, you've got to have everything else." Kenseth was the point leader heading into the Chase, five races ago, but what he called pathetic efforts at the Chase's first two 1.5-mile venues -- 23rd at Kansas Speedway and the 14th at Lowe's -- had him shaking his head when he headed to Homestead-Miami Speedway on Monday for a two-day test. "We've got some work to do," Kenseth said. "Hopefully we can get it rolling again. We've just got to go back and work on it." After this weekend's race on the Martinsville Speedway half-mile, Kenseth -- who has half of his 14 career victories on intermediate-size speedways -- admitted he's concerned about following races at Atlanta, Texas and Homestead. "I don't know what's wrong," Kenseth said. "We ran good enough to probably run 10th [Saturday] if we didn't have any problems, but you know it's not good enough to win a championship. "We've got to do a lot better than this -- go back and work hard [testing] this week and figure out what we're missing and try to get better." Martinsville is going to be a challenge, as Kenseth's average finish there is only 17.2. Kenseth's average finish on short tracks this season is 14.8 -- his overall average is 9.9. Even more daunting is if you take out two finishes at Bristol, third and first, Kenseth's average finish on short tracks in 2006 is 23.3. Despite finishing only 12th and 16th in his two previous Chase starts at Martinsville, he has the third-most laps completed of any Cup driver at Martinsville in the last nine Cup races: 4,491 of 4,500. "We've had some brake issues at flat tracks this year," Reiser said. "We wrecked with less than 10 to go in the spring at Martinsville when our brakes went out, but we've done a good amount of brake testing over the past month and we're hoping we've got the issue fixed. "If not, it's going to be another long day where we have to kick and fight our way to a decent finish. We can't have many more of those races. We need to stay up front, do a great job in the pits this week and try to come out of there with a top-10." Kenseth agreed that he and his team need to buckle down and get through the event that he's feared the most before the Chase began. "Martinsville is one of our tougher tracks and it hasn't been too kind to us for sure," Kenseth said. "I'm just not a big fan, mostly because it's so slow and there's no room to pass. Racing at Martinsville is kind of like racing around two cones out in a parking lot somewhere. "That being said, we have to stay focused on the job at hand and that is trying to score a top-10 finish this weekend. This is the race that I knew would be the toughest for us going into the Chase. "Some people point to Talladega, but I've always pointed to Martinsville as the real wild card for us. If we can get a good finish this weekend I think we'll be in good position to make a run at the title, because we've had success at the remaining tracks." Kenseth does have victories at Texas and Phoenix, two of the four venues remaining after Martinsville. All he's concerned about, as he said, is elevating his performance back to his team's previous level. "It depends on what happens to everyone else," Kenseth said. "I mean, we're certainly aiming at that and trying to be realistic and aim for a top-10 this weekend at Martinsville; that's one of my toughest places. If we could do that, I'd be happy with that. "The rest of the races, we just kind of go and try to win and try to lead laps and be in contention to win. I think Jeff [Burton] is strong at all of the tracks coming up, but especially Martinsville and Phoenix. "I think you're going to have to run basically in the top, average a fifth-place-or-better finish for the last five races here to have a shot." | 
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