Can A New NASCAR Team Be The Equalizer For Drivers?

Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

Matt Kenseth

Matt Kenseth is another example of a driver who was able to find greener grace with another team. Kenseth had great success with Roush Racing early in his career, even capturing his first Sprint Cup title in 2003, despite only having one win that entire season. His championship was rumored to be the reason  for addition of the new Chase format in 2005 as well.

Kenseth won three races in the next two season and finished eight and seventh in points those years as well. Kenseth went to victory lane four times in 2006 and even made a run at the championship that year, before ultimately finishing second in final point standings. This was his best season since his championship run in 2003.

Despite his great run in 2006, Kenseth went winless in 2008 and finished 11th in final standings that year. He also failed to be competitive, only capturing nine Top-fives throughout the entire season. That was followed with another bad season in 2009, where Kenseth finished 14th in final standings, despite claiming two wins and having 29 lead lap finishes, including his first Daytona 500 win.

Kenseth’s up and down career went down again, as the Wisconsin native couldn’t find victory lane in 2010, and only managed six Top-five finishes as well. Despite these stats, Kenseth finished fifth in final standings and lad 32 lead lap finishes. While Kenseth was certainly remaining a consistent threat to the championship, he couldn’t seem to wrap his hands around another one riding for Jack Roush.

This continued to be the case in 2011 and 2012 as Kenseth again found victory lane in The Daytona 500, but couldn’t find a title to go with it.  This and an overall lack of performance consistency at Roush Racing caused The Wisconsin driver to leave Roush Racing after the 2012 season and take over the vacated spot left by Joey Logano at Joe Gibbs Racing.

The difference was immediate, as Kenseth captured seven wins in 2013, the most ever in his Sprint Cup career, and had 20 Top ten’s as well that year. Two of those seven wins were in the first two races of The Chase, which propelled him to first in standings. He then kept that point lead for three weeks, before falling to second after a 20th place finish at Talladega Super Speedway. He then reclaimed it a week later at Martinsville with a 2cd place finish.

Kenseth fell in to a bit of a slump the following season, going winless, and earning two DNF’s as well. Kenseth stayed strong however, and captured 13 Top-tens and 22 Top-tens. His consistency throughout the season was enough to make The Chase that year, where he again led the points for multiple weeks in The Chase, but again was marred by poor finishes at the end of the season. This ultimately landed him a seventh place finish the final points standing and another lost opportunity to capture a championship.

Despite this great string of finishes, Kenseth fell back to second place after a fourth place finish at Texas Motor Speedway. This was followed up with a 23rd place finish at Phoenix, which completely took away his chance at the championship in Homestead. He ultimately finished in second place that year in the standings. His best finish since 2006.

Kenseth then turned his attention to the 2015, where the Wisconsin driver started the year with an abysmal 35th place finish at Daytona. He then followed up that race with one Top-five and one Top-ten before having back to back bad finishes at both Phoenix and Auto Club Speedway.

After Kenseth’s mini slump was behind him, he captured a fifth place finish at Martinsville and won his first race of the season two weeks later at Bristol Motor Speedway. The win also guaranteed him a spot in 2015 Chase, which marks the third time that Kenseth has made The Chase with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Kenseth then continued to have bad luck, suffering four finishes outside the Top- 15 in nine races. He did have Five Top-tens to go along with the bad finishes, but they didn’t stop him from falling from 8th to 11th in the point standings. Despite this bad finishes, Kenseth still sits ninth in the points with a guaranteed spot at making The Chase.