Matt Kenseth: The Wisconsin Short-Track Star Who Won the 2003 Winston Cup Title

Matt Kenseth is a former NASCAR driver from Wisconsin who took the 2003 Winston Cup championship with a single victory and went on to win two Daytona 500s. He finished his Cup career with 39 wins, the last of them at Phoenix in 2017. He is also the record holder for most Slinger Nationals victories, and in October 2023 he joined Legacy Motor Club as its competition advisor.

How did Kenseth start in stock car racing?

Kenseth was born in Cambridge, Wisconsin, on 10 March 1972, and he began stock car racing in 1988 at the age of sixteen at Madison International Speedway. His father Roy agreed to buy a car and race it while Matt worked on it until he reached driving age.

The first car was a 1981 Camaro that had previously been driven to championships by Todd Kropf.

The arrangement paid off quickly. Kenseth won a feature race in only his third outing, holding off two strong local drivers. In 1989 he contested the points title at Wisconsin Dells and finished second with eight feature wins, and in 1990 he bought a late model from Rich Bickle, won the opening race at Slinger Super Speedway and earned Rookie of the Year honours.

He graduated from Cambridge High School and worked at a racecar manufacturer while he continued to race. In 1991 he became ARTGO's youngest winner at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway. His 1993 season at Madison produced eight wins and second place in the points, and in 1994 he won twelve of seventeen features at Madison and the Slinger Nationals title.

A Wisconsin short-track champion who won the Winston Cup with one victory, then went on to win two Daytona 500s.

How did Kenseth reach the Cup Series?

Kenseth reached NASCAR's top tier through a long apprenticeship in the Busch Series and a run with the team of his former Wisconsin rival Robbie Reiser. He made his Busch Series debut at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 1997, starting 30th and finishing 22nd, and he took over a ride with Reiser that same year after a driver was injured.

His first attempt at a Winston Cup race, at Talladega in 1998, ended with a failure to qualify for Roush Racing. He then filled in for Bill Elliott at Dover and finished sixth, the third-best debut by any driver. He also won his first Busch Series race that year, on 22 February 1998.

He won the 2000 Raybestos Rookie of the Year award and became the only rookie to win the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. That season he finished fourteenth in the standings with an average finish of 18.9. In 2002 he led the series with five wins but dropped to eighth in the final standings because of inconsistency.

Why is Kenseth's 2003 championship still debated?

Kenseth won the 2003 Winston Cup championship with just one victory in 36 races, the Las Vegas race, and he led the points standings for 33 consecutive weeks. He clinched the title with a race to spare and finished 90 points clear of runner-up Jimmie Johnson. He recorded 25 top-ten finishes and 11 top-five finishes across the season.

Critics, Roger Penske among them, questioned how a driver could take the championship with so few victories. Starting in 2004 NASCAR introduced a ten-race playoff with more weight given to race wins, and that change became known informally as the Matt Kenseth Rule.

NASCAR denied that Kenseth's title directly caused the new playoff format. Officials did admit that the 2003 result brought attention to the issue, and they had been looking for ways to reward wins since 2000. The timing of the change made the connection hard to avoid.

What were Kenseth's years at Joe Gibbs Racing like?

Kenseth moved to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2013 and drove the No. 20 Toyota. He won seven races that season, more than the car had ever achieved in a single year with its earlier drivers, and he took his first JGR win at Las Vegas. He finished second in the championship, nineteen points behind Jimmie Johnson.

His time at JGR also included controversy. A Kansas victory was revoked after a post-race inspection found an engine connecting rod below the legal weight, and the win was reinstated on appeal. In 2015 a fierce incident at Martinsville led to a two-race suspension, which the appeals process upheld.

The 2016 season brought wins at Dover and New Hampshire, and he finished fifth in the standings. His final season at JGR in 2017 included a win at Phoenix that finally broke a 51-race winless run, his 39th career victory. He finished seventh in the final points standings.

Career summary at a glance

What has Kenseth done since leaving full-time racing?

After 2017 Kenseth raced only part-time. He returned to Roush for seven races in 2018, with a sixth-place finish at Homestead as his best result. In 2019 he came back for a Super Late Model race at the Slinger Nationals and extended his record at that event to eight wins.

He was named as the successor to Kyle Larson at Chip Ganassi Racing in April 2020, and he finished 28th in the overall standings. Later he was named to the NASCAR Hall of Fame's 2023 class.

Which Chase and Cup milestones stand out in his mid-career?

Kenseth won two races in the 2004 season, including the Subway 400 at Rockingham, where he edged Kasey Kahne in a photo finish. He also won the NASCAR All-Star Race that year and finished eighth in the standings after the first Chase.

In 2006 he took the championship lead after race eight at Phoenix and finished second in the drivers' championship to Jimmie Johnson. He passed Jamie McMurray for first place on lap 397 to win the spring race at Dover, then secured his Chase place with a win in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol.

His 2013 Chase opened with wins at Chicagoland and Loudon. The Loudon victory made him only the second driver, after Richard Petty, to win during his five-hundredth start, and it moved him to 22nd on the all-time wins list, past Rex White.

A dramatic 2009 crash and crew chief changes

On 25 April 2009 Kenseth was involved in a dramatic crash during the Aaron's 312 in the Nationwide Series. Around lap 104 the car flipped 3.5 times, then slid on its roof and flipped a fourth time. It burst into flames, but he walked away unharmed.

In 2010 the No. 17 team changed crew chiefs twice. Drew Blickensderfer was released after the Daytona 500, Todd Parrott took over, and Jimmy Fennig replaced Parrott later in the year. Kenseth still made the Chase and finished fifth in the final standings without a win.

His 2007 Michigan wreck and 2018 return

Early in 2007 he had completed every lap of the season, but a wreck at Michigan ended that streak. Ryan Newman was trying to make up one of his three lost laps when the contact came, and the incident also ended a streak of thirteen straight top-15 finishes for Kenseth.

He returned to the Cup Series part-time in 2018 with Roush. He started from the pole at that year's All-Star Race and finished 14th. Late that summer he took the second-stage win at the Brickyard 400 and came home 12th in the race.

Championship pace and the 2005 Chase climb

In 2003 Kenseth held the points lead for 33 consecutive weeks, beating the modern-era record of thirty weeks that Dale Earnhardt had set in his 1980 championship season. He clinched the title at Rockingham in the penultimate race.

The 2005 season started badly. He sat 24th in the standings after fourteen races, then climbed to eighth by race 26 and secured a place in the Chase for the Cup. He finished seventh in the final standings, with a win at Bristol the highlight.

In 2011 he won at Dover, where a late caution prompted a gamble on a two-tire pit stop rather than four, and he won at Charlotte after qualifying for the Chase.

What did the 2002 season look like?

Kenseth led the Winston Cup series in wins in 2002 with five victories at Rockingham, Texas, Michigan, Richmond and Phoenix. He still finished only eighth in the final standings. His pit crew also won its second Pit Crew Challenge title that season.

The 2008 season and the 2012 Bristol incident

Kenseth went winless during the 26-race regular season in 2008 and dropped to 11th in the points. At the Daytona 500 he started near the back and worked his way to the lead, leading two laps before his teammate David Ragan pinched him into the wall. He finished 36th.

In 2012, during the Irwin Tools night event at Bristol, he made contact with Tony Stewart on lap 332 as the pair fought for the lead. Neither gave ground going into the first turn, and Stewart flung his helmet at Kenseth's car as it left pit road.