FANTASY NASCAR Racin

an American stock car driver. He is a Daytona 500 champion, having won a rain-shortened race in 2009, the first Daytona 500 win for the Roush Fenway Racing team. Kenseth started racing at the age of 16 at several local tracks in his home state of Wisconsin. The 1994 and 1995 seasons established Kenseth as a short track star. Kenseth made a name for himself while driving at several Wisconsin tracks, beating nationally known drivers such as Dick Trickle and Robbie Reiser. He raced 60 times in three different cars in 1994, winning track championships at both Wisconsin International Raceway on Thursday nights and Madison on Friday nights. In 1997, racer Tim Bender was injured, and Bender's crew chief/car owner Robbie Reiser hired his former competitor and rival Kenseth to race for him

despite having only one Xfinity start. Kenseth qualified third for the new team's first race. He was racing in third place in the final laps when he spun and finished eleventh. The following year he raced full-time all season. He won his first Xfinity Series race at Rockingham on February 22, 1998, when he nudged leader Tony Stewart's car entering the final turn of the final lap. Kenseth made his Cup series debut in 1998 at Dover, Del., filling in for Bill Elliott who had to attend his father's funeral on the day of the race. He finished sixth, the third best debut of any driver. The last driver before Matt to debut with a top-10 finish was Rusty Wallace in 1980 with a second place finish in Atlanta.

In 2000 Kenseth's entire team joined the Roush Racing organization, where they beat out Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to win the Raybestos Rookie of the Year. He won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, and is still the only rookie to win the famed 600 mile event. In 2003 he dominated in the points standings for almost the entire season and became the 2003 NASCAR Cup champion, the last driver to ever hold that title. In so doing, he also became only the second Wisconsinite to win the championship (the late Alan Kulwicki was the first, in 1992). He finished with one win, 11 top fives and a series-high 25 top-10 finishes. After the 2003 season, Kenseth's championship became a source of controversy and criticism. Critics of the Cup Series points system, most notably Roger Penske, pointed out the flaw in having a driver who won only one race out of 36 winning a championship. Additionally, the fact that Kenseth led the points standings for an unprecedented 33 weeks despite only having the one victory, as well as already having

clinched the Sprint Cup title with one week to go in the season (rendering the final race in essence a non-event) led to discussions on how to prevent Kenseth's feat from happening again. As a result, 2004 saw the implementation of a new points and playoffs system titled "The Chase for the Nextel Cup" after Winston was replaced as primary sponsor of NASCAR's top series by NEXTEL. In essence, the system created a 10 race playoff, with only the top-10 drivers in points after the first 26 races competing for the championship. Moreover, the system placed an emphasis, and a points premium, on wins. As a result, the term "The Matt Kenseth Rule" was coined to describe NASCAR's adoption of the current points system. In 2004 Kenseth qualified for the inaugural NASCAR Cup, finished eighth in the final NASCAR point standings as he

finished with two wins, those coming back-to-back early in the year at Rockingham and Las Vegas. In 2005 he qualified for the Chase for the Cup and won one race. He finished seventh in the final points standings. In 2006 Kenseth picked up four wins and once again made the chase. He finished second in the points as he was beat out by Jimmie Johnson during his five year run of winning the CUP championship. 2007 and 2008 also saw Kenseth make the chase, get two wins, and finish 4th and 11th in the points. In 2009 Kenseth missed the chase for the one and only time so far, leaving Jimmie Johnson as the only driver to make the "Chase" every year since it's inception. Kenseth finished 14th in the points while winning twice, including the prestigious Daytona 500. 2010 had turmoil

among the team as Kenseth's crew chief Drew Blickenderfer was replaced by Todd Parrott. Parrott would later be replaced by Jimmy Fennig. 2011 saw Kenseth get off to a strong start winning twice early; posting another win at Charlotte in the Fall and finishing fourth in points. 2012 he also posted three wins; but could only manage seventh in the points. 2013 saw Kenseth leave his long time owner Jack Roush and go to rival Joe Gibbs Racing. Kenseth would post seven wins and just fall short of his third CUP title as he finished second to Jimmie Johnson. 2014 was a lean year as Kenseth was shut out of the win column; but he did post 13 top five finishes. Kenseth has always been know for his laid back attitude and lack or controversy; but the latter end of 2015 found him smack

dab in the middle of it. Kenseth had won five races and qualified for the elimination part of the Chase. However he had crashed out at Charlotte and put himself into a big hole. He was leading at Kansas very late into the race when Joey Logano (who had already won this segment and was sure to advance into the next segment) came up behind Kenseth and spun him out with just a few laps to go; all but assuring Kenseth would not advance and get to race for the title. Kenseth did not advance into the next segment and vowed revenge. Kenseth got damaged mid-race at Martinsville; and was running eight laps down; when leader Logano came up on Kenseth to lap him. True to his word; Kenseth stood on the gas and crashed Logano going into turn one and effectively took Logano out of title contention. NASCAR took a dim view of the retaliation and parked Kenseth for the rest of the race and the next TWO events also. Kenseth ended 2015 in 15th in points and Logano was sixth. The 2016 season wasn't as kind to Kenseth as 2015 had been. He only posted two wins (New Hampshire, Dover) and had eight top 5's. He and

all of his Joe Gibbs team mates qualified for the Chase and all of them made it down to the final eight. Kenseth looked to be a lock to make the final round at Homestead heading into Phoenix. The first two races of round three he had finished fourth and seventh and looked good in the points standing. However, late in the race while leading on a restart he tangled with Alex Bowman and ended up finishing 21st. He just missed advancing to the final race at Homestead and finished sixth in points. For 2017, JGR got a bomb shell announcement. Kenseth team mate decided to quit racing all together and promptly retired. Daniel Suarez was brought up from the Xfinity ranks to assume his ride. Kenseth and the rest of the JGR teams remained in tact. Kenseth ran well; but just past half way of the 2017 season; Joe Gibbs announced that Kenseth

contract would not be renewed and he would have to look for a ride elsewhere. It was assumed that someone with a good resume' like Kenseth would easily be able to find a ride. But as the season wound down he was still on the outside looking in for 2018. At the next to last race of the season; Kenseth ran a great race; paced himself and pulled off what could possibly be his final win. He wheeled his Circle K sponsored Toyota to a narrow win over Chase Elliott. As 2017 closed; Kenseth was still without a ride for

2018; and said he wasn't actively pursuing one. But after Trevor Bayne had continued to struggle while driving for Jack Roush; Kenseth was hired to drive part time. He started his first race in 2018 at Kansas. Kenseth's schedule is to start the next five races; and then various races throughout the rest of the season. It is thought he was brought on to help the team assess any issues with the race car and provide feed back to help the Roush teams improve. Kenseth ran 15 of the season final 24 races and told Roush that the info that Bayne had been giving him was correct and that there wasn't a lot more he could offer. As the season came to a conclusion the race team did show some improvement. Kenseth did finish seventh at Phoenix and followed that with a sixth at the final race of the season at Homestead. This was supposed to be his

final race. However in 2020 Kyle Larson got fired by Chip Ganassi for making a racial slur. Sponsors refused to remain with the Ganassi team as long as Larson was going to be driving; hence Kenseth was a surprise pick to pilot the #42 for the remainder of the season. Kenseth could never seem to find the handle and be competitive when he was brought in to drive the #42. After sitting out all of 2019 Matt was a little rusty. To make matters even worse, due to the coronavirus NASCAR had went to one day shows. Teams would roll in; unload; go threw tech; and race. No practice; no qualifying. So for a guy who needed to knock the rust off; this was a big detriment; and he didn't seem to over come it the whole season. He had a

surprisingly good run at Indianapolis finishing second; the only top five of the season. His only other Top 10 came at Darlington where he finished tenth. Matt announced near the end of the season his days of racing would be over at the end of the season. His career stats stand at 697 career Cup starts with 39 wins and 182 Top 5 finishes. He won the Cup Championship in 2003 and finished second in 2006 and 2013. He won such major races as the Coke 600 (2000); Daytona 500 (2009 & 2012); and the Southern 500 (2013). He ran 288 Xfinity races while willing on 29 occasions with 139 Top 5's. In late 2023 it was announced that Kenseth had joined Legacy Motor Club in an advisory role. Kenseth stated “I would say after a year or two probably of not driving, I’ve kind of wanted to get back in and go do something. I didn’t know what it was going to be or what it was going to look like. It really just came

up and just made a lot of sense. … I had several conversationswith (Jimmie) and a couple with (Cal Wells, who became Legacy Motor Club’s chief executive officer on July 26), and we kind of laid out what it would be to just kind of get started and see where it goes from there. Obviously, I’m not a technical guy, I’m not going to really be helping (with) necessarily the nuts and bolts and making the cars faster. I’m more of an advisory role and kind of see what’s going on and be able to help the drivers … and make the team strong.” Some info from Wikipedia

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

MATTHEW ROY "MATT" KENSETH - 03/10/1972