USA TODAY International Edition
Kenseth has worst race since August; Harvick wins,
AVONDALE, ARIZ. In one of the closest championship battles in NASCAR history, Matt Kenseth and his No. 20 team blinked first.
Kenseth’s 23rd- place performance Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway — in probably the worst car he has driven this season — left him all but out of the Sprint Cup title race heading into the season finale at Homestead- Miami Speedway.
The team’s poorest result since August couldn’t have come at a worse time, and it was highly unexpected: Kenseth entered Phoenix trailing Jimmie Johnson by seven points and figured to have a shot at winning his second Cup title next week.
Instead, he is behind by 28 and needs Johnson to have a poorer result in the season finale than Kenseth did Sunday.
“We go there ( to Homestead) basically without a shot to win,” Kenseth said. “I’m obviously disappointed. On the other hand, I couldn’t be happier and more proud of my team. Man, this has been the best year of my racing career. It’s been an awesome season. You’re going to have days like this.”
But Kenseth hadn’t had a day like this since joining Joe Gibbs Racing in the offseason. He couldn’t get the car to drive well enough to race and felt as if he was constantly on the verge of wrecking.
Crew chief Jason Ratcliff seemed stumped on how to fix the car ( at one point he told Kenseth he was done trying to adjust the car because he was only making it worse) and sounded resigned to the day’s fate at times. And the normally stellar pit crew even had a blunder- filled stop ( Ratcliff said he made the crew look bad with an indecisive call on tires that led to a lengthy stop).
“It’s like everything we touched went the wrong direction,” Ratcliff said. “Everybody was fighting the same stuff today ( with tires and track conditions), so we should have been able to go out there and do a better job executing.
“We just missed it.”
“We go there ( to Homestead) basically without a shot to win.”
Matt Kenseth, who trails Jimmie Johnson by 28 points, on the Sprint Cup season finale
Kenseth’s teammates also struggled with their setups. “We were all off a little bit this weekend,” Kenseth said.
Kyle Busch was seventh, and Denny Hamlin was 28th.
Chad Knaus, Johnson’s crew chief, said he was surprised to see Kenseth’s team struggle. Last week, after winning at Texas Motor Speedway, Knaus called Kenseth a more formidable opponent than 2012 title foe Brad Keselowski. But where Keselowski pushed the No. 48 team to the limit and won the title, Kenseth and his team faltered.
“I really thought they were going to be a little bit better,” Knaus said. “But, man, it’s tough. Ever since they repaved it ( last year), this place is really, really tough. And you come here with such a big span in between ( races), it’s hard to know exactly what you need to do for adjustments and how to set the car up.”
Kenseth said he knew the car wasn’t all that great in practice but never imagined a day like Sunday partly because Ratcliff and the team had been so successful at making the setup better all season.
Once he lost track position, though, Kenseth was never able to drive back to the front.
Though the disappointment was obvious, Kenseth already was looking at the big picture just moments after climbing from his car.
“That’s honestly the first day we’ve had like that all season long, and, gosh, that just speaks volumes about my team,” he said. “There’s not a car out here I’d rather be driving than this one, so I’m a pretty lucky guy.”
Ratcliff said the season already had been greater than he could imagine and told news reporters anyone in the garage would accept an off day at Phoenix in exchange for a title- contending season with seven victories — a career high for Kenseth.
A comeback seems like a long shot, but Ratcliff wasn’t ready to concede the title.
“The type of race we had today, I don’t wish it on anybody,” he said. “But it could happen to anybody, and it could happen next week. We just have to put our best foot forward and try to go win it.”