Matt Kenseth's season was in shambles two months ago, his chances of racing for the Nextel Cup title slim to none.
A frantic late-season surge has changed everything.
Kenseth used his first victory in more than a year to inch closer to the Chase for the championship, winning at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night in dominating fashion.
PHOTO: AFP
Kenseth started from the pole and led a whopping 415 of the 500 laps to win for the first time since March 7, 2004. After struggling for more than a year, Kenseth has turned it on the past two months and vaulted from 20th in the standings to 11th.
"Our performance has been better and you knew we had a fast car when we're on the pole," said Kenseth, who has started on the pole just twice in his career. "This feels great. I haven't been in Victory Lane in a long time."
The top 10 drivers in the standings after the Sept. 10 race in Richmond make the Chase, and Kenseth's victory now has him 11 points out of the final qualifying position.
"I had all but written off our chances to get in three races ago," car owner Jack Roush said. "I was thinking `building to next year' all the way. But they've got it turned around now. It's going to be a horse race."
Kenseth agreed.
"I thought we were out of it," Kenseth said of the Chase. "There's still a couple races to go, but we're a lot closer. We'll just go to California [next week] and give it all that we can. If we can run like [this] the last two races, we'll make it."
Jeff Burton was second and was followed by Greg Biffle and Ricky Rudd.
Rusty Wallace, in his final race at his favorite race track, finished fifth. Wallace is retiring at the end of the season and had hoped to mark his final Bristol race with a win. Instead, he leaves with nine wins, most among NASCAR's active drivers.
"It was a good top five finish, I'm happy with it," Wallace said. "I fought for it and it was a good, strong finish."
Jeff Gordon, who is making a desperate push for the Chase, finished sixth. It pushed him into the top 10 for the first time since June, and if the four-time series champion can stay there for two more races he will be eligible to race for the title.
"I'm real happy with the comeback," Gordon said. "It's a solid day, a solid finish and I think it was a good points day for us."
The only driver to drop out of the top 10 after Bristol was Jamie McMurray, who dropped to 12th.
Meanwhile, the race wreaked havoc on many drivers on the bubble of making NASCAR's Chase -- and some of it was intentional.
Dale Jarrett, who started the race 11th in the points, lost ground midway through the race when contact from Ryan Newman sent him spinning. Apparently seeking payback, Jarrett later made a sharp right turn into Newman to wreck both of their cars.
NASCAR ruled that Jarrett's move was intentional and penalized him two laps. The incident dropped Jarrett to 14th in the standings, and he'll need a furious rally over the final two qualifying events to get into the playoffs.
Newman, who started the night clinging to the eighth spot in the standings, dropped one spot to ninth.
Jarrett left the track without commenting.
The biggest loser was Kevin Harvick, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and couldn't avoid getting caught up in Jarrett's accident. Harvick desperately needed a strong finish to make the Chase, but ended up finishing 37th and will almost certainly miss the cut.
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