Matt Kenseth ranks only sixth in the Sprint Cup points standings, but with his circuit-leading five race victories and the momentum from a win last week at Bristol Motor Speedway, he’s one of the key drivers to watch with two races to run before the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, including today’s AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Although his spot in the Chase is secure, Kenseth still is hoping for a strong run at AMS, which over the years hasn’t been one of his better tracks.
In 24 career Cup starts, his best finish is a second-place run in 2010. He has eight top-five finishes, with five of those being fourth-place runs.
“I don’t know that we’ve ever run good enough to win here,” he said. “I remember portions of races where we’ve run OK or better than average, but I’ve never been the guy.”
This year is different. His earlier AMS starts were in Fords owned by Roush Fenway Racing, which has six Atlanta wins over the years. Kenseth now drives a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, which has 10 AMS victories, the most recent last year with Denny Hamlin.
“We didn’t have a great tire test here,” said Kenseth, who will start sixth Sunday afternoon. “But Denny won here last year, and JGR has always been really strong here. It’s one of their best tracks.”
Kenseth said his chances in the Chase could be greatly affected by his performance at AMS on Sunday.
“It is a big race for me,” he said. “This summer we struggled a little. Then Bristol was a big weekend for us. We qualified good again, the best we’d qualified in a couple of months. We led some laps, and winning the race was a bonus. I think we need to go here and have a strong effort and hopefully a great finish. … That would be huge for our team.”
Then there’s the bonus of building momentum — and chassis notes — for the 10-race Chase, which begins Sept. 15 at Chicagoland Speedway.
“I believe in momentum based on performance,” Kenseth said. “I don’t believe in momentum based on finishes, so I think we need to keep that up,” he said. “And this track is very similar to what we’re going to face when we go to Chicago for the first Chase race.
“Running in the top five or so will give us the confidence, give us some notes, some things to look at to get ready for Chicago.”
Several of Kenseth’s potential Chase competitors dominated Cup practice Saturday afternoon at AMS. Carl Edwards set the pace with a best lap of 183.430 mph, and 10 of the fastest 11 drivers were Chase contenders. Juan Pablo Montoya, eighth fastest, was the only driver outside the top 20 in points to crack the top 10 in practice.
Kenseth was fifth-fastest. His former ride, the No. 17 Ford at Roush Fenway Racing, will start from the pole, with rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr. behind the wheel.
Stenhouse, who scored his first career Cup pole Friday, was 17th-fastest in Saturday’s opening practice. The 25-year-old former sprint-car racer from Olive Branch, Miss., has never run a Cup race at AMS, but he did win last year’s Nationwide Series race.
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