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.
The Kansas City Chiefs wrapped up a brief visit to Brazil on Friday with a season-opening loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, but despite the defeat, the team outshone their divisional rivals in the fight for the hearts and minds of Brazilian fans. In Sao Paulo for just the second-ever NFL game in the city, Chiefs players — especially quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce — were treated as major celebrities throughout their stay, turning Corinthians Arena into a scene reminiscent of the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium. Before kickoff, crowds of fans gathered around the Chiefs’ tunnel, eager to catch a
New Zealand stayed firm at their Eden Park fortress to claim an attritional 24-17 win over South Africa in a heavyweight clash between the world’s top two rugby sides yesterday. Under pressure after conceding a first-ever defeat on Argentine soil against the Pumas two weeks ago, the All Blacks responded with a performance of grit and discipline to stretch their unbeaten run at their Auckland stronghold to 51 matches. Two well-taken tries by Emoni Narawa and Will Jordan set up a 14-3 lead at halftime before Quinn Tupaea grabbed a third five-pointer for the hosts 13 minutes from time. Well-held for most of
The Wallabies trusted their instincts to keep pushing for a late try instead of a potential equalizing penalty goal late in their Rugby Championship Test match yesterday against Argentina, with prop Angus Bell scoring the clinching try in the sixth minute of added time to give Australia a comeback 28-24 win. The Wallabies were awarded three kickable penalties after the 80th minute, but kept pushing in search of the match-winning try, which was finally delivered by an unlikely hero in reserve prop Bell. “It’s just relieving,” Bell said. “It’s just awesome we could get the win in the end; not go for
Mikel Merino on Sunday scored a hat-trick as a majestic Spain thumped Turkey 6-0 away in World Cup qualifying, while a brilliant Florian Wirtz free-kick helped Germany beat Northern Ireland 3-1 to get their bid up and running. European champions Spain were in unstoppable form in the central Turkish city of Konya, claiming their second biggest-ever away win in World Cup qualifying as Arsenal midfielder Merino scored his first professional hat-trick. Barcelona playmaker Pedri Gonzalez opened the scoring inside six minutes and later completed the scoring, with Ferran Torres netting the visitors’ other goal. The quality of Merino’s strikes was remarkable, with his
RSS