By Jerry Jordan. Editor
SPEEDWAY, In. – Since Matt Kenseth climbed back into a NASCAR Cup Series machine, his best finish had been 10th and that was in his very first outing when the series resumed racing at Darlington Raceway following the Coronavirus pandemic. That changed Sunday when he had a legitimate shot to win the 2020 Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400 at The Brickyard and brought the No. 42 Chevrolet across the stripe in second.
Although it looked like it was going to be another Denny Hamlin-Kevin Harvick do-si-do to the finish, a blown tire would ruin Hamlin’s day. And even though Kenseth had been stalking the duo in third hoping they would take each other out, it was an incredible longshot. So, when Hamlin brought out the caution, it set Kenseth up to go mano-y-mano with Harvick and on the ensuing restart, he got out front.
“Kevin had so much speed he pulled up behind me on the backstretch and pretty much pushed me down the whole straightaway,” Kenseth said. “When we got about three‑quarters of the way down, he took a left and passed me. There was just no way for me to defend that one. Those guys were really, really fast.”
Kenseth would end up settling for second but it showed everyone the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 team is coming together. Kenseth took over driving duties following Kyle Larson’s suspension but his finishes hadn’t been stellar. The 2004 NASCAR Cup Series Champion was even making jokes and doubting his performance.
“Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s easy for anybody to get kind of beat up,” Kenseth said, in his usual dry sense of humor bringing laughter to from those on the post-race teleconference. “You try to keep it in perspective. You go try to do better every week, try to do the best job you can do at controlling the things that are in your control, kind of not worry about the rest. Certainly, you have all those weeks where you’re running in the 20s with a team that we know is capable of running like we ran today. That’s kind of tough on your ego, confidence, whatever. Even walking through the shop you think they are whispering, ‘Got the short straw with this replacement driver.’
“Certainly, when you run bad, you never feel good about it. When you run better, certainly builds confidence. Kind of shows us all as a group that we can do it. I certainly wasn’t flawless today. I could have done a little bit better on a couple of those restarts, particularly the last one. But I feel a lot more comfortable than I have been for sure.”
The finish moves Kenseth two spots up to 28th position in the overall Cup Series point standings and with the waiver from NASCAR, if he can pull off a win he’ll be qualified for the playoffs. Without a win, he has to be in the Top 16 to make the playoffs.