Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005 | 9:34 a.m.
Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.
If he can secure a spot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, Matt Kenseth said he believes he has a legitimate shot to win the NASCAR championship.
Although Kenseth qualified for the inaugural 10-race Chase last season, he said he didn't have the same feeling a year ago.
"If we make the top 10, I want to make the top 10 with a chance at winning a championship," Kenseth said. "Last year we made the top 10 (but) I felt like in my heart that we weren't going to run for a championship anyway.
"I didn't think we were running good enough; I just didn't feel like we had our ducks in a row to do that and we ended up finishing eighth with some mistakes I made and so on."
Kenseth, whose victory Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway was his first Nextel Cup win since the 2004 Las Vegas race, has climbed from 24th in points to 11th in the past 10 races and is only 11 points out of 10th place with two races remaining in the "regular season." Only the top 10 drivers in points will be eligible for the championship Chase.
Kenseth has posted five top-five finishes in his past 10 races, which he said gives him a sense of confidence going into the Chase that he didn't have last season.
"I know in our business that momentum is very important," Kenseth said. "The way we've run the last couple of months ... our performance is so good that I feel like if we could slide our way (into the Chase) right now, we're on a high note and I do think momentum does carry for a while.
"You could see it with Greg (Biffle) at the beginning of the year and, yeah, he's still running really great but in the beginning of the year he couldn't do anything wrong. If we're lucky enough to get in a stretch like that and carry that on for a few races in the Chase, I feel like we're running good enough to be a threat."
WILD WEST: Although Kenseth predicted he would have a good car for Sunday's race at California Speedway, the 2-mile oval in Fontana hasn't been kind to him of late. Kenseth has finished 22nd and 26th in his two most recent Cup races there.
Jeff Gordon, who is 10th in Nextel Cup points, leads all drivers with three Cup victories at California Speedway but he, too, has had a rough go of it lately at the Fontana track. In his past two starts in Fontana, Gordon has posted finishes of 37th and 30th.
TRACY UPDATE: Open-wheel star Paul Tracy's on-again, off-again interest in NASCAR appears to be on again.
Tracy, who maintains a residence in Las Vegas, told the Toronto Sun over the weekend that he is leaning toward moving from the Champ Car World Series to NASCAR and said he would be willing to start in either the Craftsman Truck Series or the Busch Series to gain experience.
"I want to try something new," Tracy told the paper. "It would be very easy for me to drive (Champ Cars) for three or four or five more years and do what I know and not over-extend myself. But I'm the kind of guy who wants to push boundaries and try new things.
"I mean, I could stay here and be the big fish in the small pond or I could go over (to NASCAR), try something new and be a little fish in a big pond. That's what motivates me; I want to prove to myself that I can do other things."
Tracy, who took part in a two-day Nextel Cup test earlier this month at Michigan International Speedway with Richard Childress Racing, said Childress was looking at entering Tracy in a Cup race either at Atlanta Motor Speedway in October or Homestead-Miami Speedway in November.
END QUOTE: Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is 15th in Nextel Cup points and 117 points out of 10th place, on the points chase:
"Not even worried about it. I'm having fun driving these racecars and that's all I think about. We dug ourselves a pretty big hole (in the points), so I'm just going to keep driving and have a hell of a good time doing it."
AT THE BULLRING: Chris Bray won both 30-lap Late Models main events during NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series action Saturday night at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Other main-event winners included Bobby Ruppert (Thunder Roadsters), Johnny Morrissey (Legends Semi-Pro), Alex Haase (Legends Pro/Masters), Michael Morrissey (IMCA Modifieds), Jacob Bishop (Bandoleros) and Gary Wyatt (Bullring Bombers).
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