Kenseth backpedals criticism of changes

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2004 | 9:39 a.m.

NASCAR president Mike Helton insists that altering the way its Nextel Cup Series champion is determined was not a knee-jerk reaction to Matt Kenseth's dominating run to the 2003 title.

Kenseth, on the other had, admitted that his initial reaction to the change ("It's worse than I thought") was of the knee-jerk variety.

Kenseth used a break in testing Tuesday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to soften his opposition to NASCAR's "Chase for the Championship."

"From my initial reaction, I probably overreacted a little bit," Kenseth said. "Whenever you hear something for the first time, you may react a certain way -- and you've got to remember, everybody's going to look at it differently.

"You're always going to look at your most recent either successes or failures. Last year, after 26 races, we had a 400-and-some point lead so my initial reaction was, well, if that happens again, we'll lose 430 points -- and I didn't like that.

"But after I thought about it, that was a year that's few and far between and a really tough year to duplicate. If we're seventh or eighth in points next year (after 26 races), we're going to think it's great that we get evened back up with the leaders."

Helton, who stopped by Las Vegas Motor Speedway Tuesday to observe part of the test, said Kenseth's latest opinion of the revamped points system is in line what what he is hearing from fans.

"I'd say there's much more of an open mind to it," Helton said. "As is typical in the NASCAR world, once you've laid a rule down in print, that's when the competitors say, 'OK, the debate's over with, the opinion time is over with, now here it is; everybody's got the same deal to go by, let's go after it.'

"I think that's where we are with the Chase for the Championship and I think a lot of that carries over to fans as well. Our best hope is that the fans will give it an open mind and be open to give it a chance because we really, sincerely believe t's a good thing or we wouldn't have done it."

Under the new system, the top 10 drivers -- and any others within 400 points of the leader -- after 26 races will be eligible to win the championship in the final 10-race stretch. The first-place driver after 26 races will start the final 10-race segment with 5,050 points, the second-place driver will start with 5,045 points and incremental five-point drops will continue through the list of contending drivers.

In addition, race winners will receive an extra five points this season in all three of NASCAR's national touring series.

Kenseth, who won the 2003 championship despite winning only one race, said the new championship format would not alter the way he will approach the season.

"There's a little bit more reward for winning, but consistency is still going to be the key to be in that top 10 with 10 races to go," he said. "I think you've got to do everything you've always done -- you need to try to win, but you also need not to make mistakes and drop out and to make sure you're in that top 10."

Kenseth was the model of consistency last season, posting 25 top-10 finishes and was running at the end of 34 of the 36 races in the No. 17 Roush Racing Ford.

Under the revised championship format, Kenseth said a driver still might be able to compete for the title despite having a couple of bad finishes.

"I guess the more I think about it, there's some cool stuff about it because you can blow up a couple times or crash a couple times and if you have a great car, you can still be in the top 10 and have a shot at the championship," Kenseth said. "You don't have to have an absolutely perfect 36 races to be able to win it.

"That part of it is kind of cool but I don't think you approach the season any differently. I think you work hard and try to be in that top 10 and if you're in that top 10 at the end of the year, it's almost like a new season; it's almost like you're starting over and you've got to go race 10 times as hard as you can for that championship."

Although Kenseth said he has enjoyed representing NASCAR this winter as its final Winston Cup champion, he said he already is looking forward to the start of the season in two weeks at Daytona International SPeedway.

"It has been kind of weird," Kenseth said of his off-season. "I thought it would have gone by really fast and I would have been like, 'aw, man, we've got to go back to the track.'

"But it's actually been the opposite; I've been ready to go racing for about two or three weeks. I'm kind of itching to get back into competition."