Friday, March 11, 2005 | 10:07 a.m.
Matt Kenseth has finished 42nd and 26th in the first two races of the season and is 36th in NASCAR Nextel Cup points coming into Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
And Kenseth couldn't be happier.
Although the results are not what he had hoped for, Kenseth said he has been pleased with the performance of his No. 17 DeWalt Power Tools Ford before to having mechanical problems in both races.
"I'm really encouraged about our performance; it's as good or better than what I expected it to be," Kenseth, the two-time defending champion in Las Vegas, said. "Everybody says when they drop out that 'I had a great car,' but it was really the best car I ever had at the Daytona 500 -- by far the best car I ever had -- and I thought we could have had a legitimate shot if not of winning, I thought we had a top three or four car, at least."
But a blown engine 34 laps into the race ended his day at Daytona. The following week, at California Speedway, Kenseth ran in the top 10 for much of the race before suffering a flat tire with 16 laps remaining.
"At California, we led some laps, started off real strong, and had a flat tire and had some problems," he said. "I'm not let down at all by how our cars are running, so that's the good news.
"If you can do that long enough and put yourself in position to win, you'll win races and you'll get back up front and you'll get the finishes. First and foremost, you've got to have cars that are capable of winning."
All four of Kenseth's Roush Racing teammates are among the top five in Nextel Cup points after two races and Greg Biffle is coming off a victory at California Speedway. That, coupled with his recent success here, has Kenseth loaded with optimism going into Sunday's race.
"The start of the year has been bad for us with the trouble we've had but as a group, all five Roush cars have been really strong in both the first two weeks," Kenseth said. "That definitely gives us extra confidence, going into a race knowing that our equipment is running pretty good.
"I really like the racetrack, we've run well here, we're comfortable here and I think we've got a pretty good car for this weekend, too."
Kenseth was quick to point out, however, that winning the past two Cup races at LVMS doesn't guarantee he will run well this weekend.
"The last two years, I thought -- hands down -- we had the fastest car all race, both races," he said. "But you can have the fastest car a lot of times and not win. We had the fastest car and we didn't have anything go wrong.
"This is another year and just because we ran good the last two years doesn't mean we'll run good this year at this track. It's a different set of rules, a different tire, different car ... things change every year. From last year to the year before, we didn't run really even close to the same setup -- everything changes on the car -- so it's a lot different than it used to be."
A Roush Racing driver has won five of the seven Cup races in Las Vegas but Kenseth said he was at a loss to explain why.
"It has been a really good track for Roush -- all his cars have run good out here for some reason," Kenseth said. "What that reason is, I don't know because we don't run the same setup from year to year. Everything changes so it's hard to pinpoint exactly why, but for some reason his cars have always run pretty good out here.
"We've had really good cars the last couple of years and we've also had good fortune. There's a lot of times where you'll think you have the best car early in the race or you'll be running really well and you have something go wrong -- a bad pit stop or a flat tire or a part breaks. We've had good-running cars and we've had good fortune where nothing has taken us out of the race the last couple of years."
Although he has been known to get off to quick starts each of the past three seasons, Kenseth said his sluggish start this year and his 36th position in the points is no cause for panic in the No. 17 camp.
"We're definitely back there in the points but this is only week three so we've got some time in front of us before it's time to push the panic button," Kenseth said. "There are 24 races left, so it's hard to even talk about who's going to make the Chase (for the Nextel Cup Championship) or not.
"We're 36th in points and I have a really hard time believing we're going to be 36th in points with 10 races to go."
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