NASCAR Chase Rundown - 11th Place: Matt Kenseth

2003 NASCAR (Winston) Cup champion Matt Kenseth makes the Chase again, but fails to make any progress toward his second cup. He is one of only 2 drivers to make the playoffs every year since the system was implimented (Jimmie Johnson being the other). Starting the Chase in 12th place and having zero wins on the season provided the #17 car with a difficult challenge; finishing 40th at New Hampshire didn't help matters any.

Kenseth's bright spot in the Chase came in the second race, The Monster Mile of Dover International Speedway. He led a race-high 136 laps and finished second to his teammate Greg Biffle (Biffle's second win in a row). Matt followed up his Dover performance with a solid weekend at Kansas, qualifying 3rd, leading 49 laps and finishing 5th. The only problem was that 4 Chasers finished in front of him and Kenseth failed to make up much ground in the Chase.

Mr. consistent was really anything but in the Chase. The #17 had 5 top 10's and an average finish of 29.4 in the other 5 races. Those stats just won't get it done against the talent pool currently in Cup competition. Kenseth's frustrations were apparent with a deliberate wrecking on A.J. Allmendinger at the checkered flag in Phoenix.

Hope is not lost however. Matt Kenseth has solid support from team owner Jack Roush; having just inked a new contract extension. He is also surrounded by talent that rivals Hendrick Motorsports with Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards also being locked-up long term by Roush Fenway. It should also be mentioned that this was Kenseth's first season with crew chief Chip Bolin. His Championship crew chief, Robbie Riser is now involved with all of the Roush Fenway teams in a front office capacity.

NASCAR Chase Rundown - 12th Place: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

A Big move to Hendrick Motorsports and Junior Nation doesn't even get to see there hero on stage at the awards banquet in NYC. Only 3 top tens and 5 finishes outside the top 20 will not get it done in the chase for NASCAR's Sprint Cup.

Starting 4th in the Chase, things looked good for the #88 to bring home his first big-time championship. A solid top 5 at New Hampshire gave "The Nation" encouragement for the next 9 races, but finishing 3 laps down in 24th at Dover quickly dashed those hopes. Things didn't get much better with a 25.5 average over the next 3 races. At this point the Chase was pretty much over for the Amp Energy/National Guard team as they now sat in 10th place.  Junior earned a well fought 2nd place finish at Martinsville, but still lost points to the Chase leader and the winner of the race, Jimmie Johnson.

A 19.5 average finish over the final 4 races sealed the deal for June-Bug and there would be no joy in Kannapolis this year.

Overall, not a bad year: 1 win, 16 top 10's, but you've got to do much better when you are playing the same game as Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. Next season Mark Martin joins Hendrick Motorsports and Dale Earnhardt Jr. should benefit greatly from the wisdom of a man who has finished in the top 5 of the NASCAR top series Championship standings 12 times.

Silly Season Off-Topic Disclaimer

I'm just putting it out there, that I reserve the right to go off-topic occasionally until speed weeks next february.

NASCAR Trucks better in Low-Def than the Cars in Hi-Def at Ford Championship Weekend

Fantastic pit strategy and iron will put Johnny Benson in position to capture the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship this past Friday. The final race with Craftsman as the series title sponsor was far more exciting and entertaining than either of the 2 "car" races this past weekend.

Maybe it was the nature of the championship beast with Benson grabbing the title by a mere 7 points over the crafty Ron Hornaday. Maybe it was that Hornaday and Kevin Harvick (Hornaday's truck owner) were, as one caller to Sirius' TMD put it, playing "Maverick and Goose". Four wheeled wingmen that weren't going to let anyone get in front of them and yet a no-guts-no-glory call in the pits gets Benson the position over Hornaday for the championship. Maybe it was simply that the Truck Series is better than either the NASCAR Nationwide or Sprint Cup Series'. No, for me it was the race presentation. The simple pleasure of sitting on my couch and watching/listening to people who actually gave a damn about the on-track action made the truck race tops for the weekend.

SpeedTV is not available in HD in my area thanks to the crappy selection and service of Charter Communications, but it didn't matter. So what if the trucks didn't look as awesome as the cars did on ESPN2 or ABC. The enthusiasm and delivery of information from Rick Allen, Phil Parsons, Mikey and Darell Waltrip,  Adam Alaxander and Ray Dunlap totally buried the coverage of the Mickey Mouse networks this weekend.

If you watched the Cup race on ABC this past Sunday, did you know what was happening to your favorite drivers in the last 10 laps with all of the fuel stops going on? Did you even hear about Scott Speed (outside pole sitter and part of the future of NASCAR) after the drop of the green flag? Where did Matt Kenseth finish? How the hell did Kasey Kahne finish 6th? What about Awesome Bill finishing 12 for the Wood Brothers? The lack of plot-lines discussed in a 400 mile race was staggering. We all knew the Jimmie Johnson/Cousin Carl story, but that's really all we heard about . Let me just say that the Championship points "battle" was not as compelling as some exec wanted it to be. WTF ABC!? 

Race fans are passionate and knowledgeable. ABC could at least pretend to be. Maybe you should just stick to America's Funniest Home Videos.