Kenseth overcomes problems for fifth victory

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Matt Kenseth used a two-tire strategy to score a NASCAR Winston Cup Series-leading fifth victory of the season in the Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Checker Auto Parts 500 Matt Kenseth uses a two-tire stop to win at PIR. Play video Junior rules the early stages until he runs out of gas. Play video Rusty falls one lap short of his first win of the year. Play video  •  Results  •  Standings  •  Wallace second -- again  •  Junior rallies to finish fifth  •  Points race still not over

Kenseth's win, in the No. 17 DeWalt Ford, came despite running out of fuel during one of two long green flag runs and blunted an effort by Rusty Wallace to win a race in a 17th consecutive season.

"That was unbelievable," Kenseth said. "We had a great day. That's the first time Robbie (Reiser, crew chief) ever ran me out of gas (and) I thought we ruined the race but my Ford handled flawlessly all day."

Despite fading in the stretch, Winston Cup point leader Tony Stewart took another giant step toward his first stock car championship when he finished eighth.

Despite not leading a lap, Stewart moved forward from his 16th starting position and doggedly ran in the top 10 most of the day, mirroring the effort of Mark Martin, who cut 23 points from Stewart's 112-point advantage coming into the day.

"We had a great car (and) we did the best we could with what we had," Stewart said. "We didn't have as good a car yesterday as we did today, so I'm really proud of the guys.

"We were just an eighth-place car today. That's all we had. It wasn't because we weren't trying. That was just all the faster we could go."

	Kenseth gave Roush Racing its fourth win at Phoenix -- tops among all Winston Cup teams. Credit: Autostock

Going into next weekend's season finale Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Stewart unofficially leads Martin -- the only other driver with a mathematical chance at the title -- by 89 points. His championship scenario allows him to finish 22nd and not lead a lap to clinch the title.

Kenseth, who won for the sixth time in 111 career starts, took two tires on his final pit stop to grab the lead at lap 261 and after a 48-lap sprint out of the final caution period led the final 52 laps and was 1.344 seconds ahead of Wallace at the finish.

"We actually stumbled onto that sort of by accident," Kenseth said of taking two tires. "At the beginning of the race we got two because we had started in the back because we qualified so badly. We were faster on two than we were on four -- it was just unreal.

"We put on two at the end of the race and we were able to run lap times that were way faster on two than we would have been putting on four. It was the right thing to do at that point in the race."

Martin said that tire strategy might have worked for him as well, but must have been gritting his teeth when he admitted why his team went for four tires.

	Kenseth's crew took on just two tires on their first pit stop of the day to grain track position. Credit: Autostock

"We had a car that could contend, we just didn't get the track position," Martin said. "I did (discuss taking only two tires) (but) we can't afford to do anything stupid either, so four tires was the conservative route.

"Maybe we should have taken two there at the end. I was really thinking about it, but we also didn't want anything to go wrong there. We had a great car, it was a contender, we just weren't in the front when it was over."

Wallace was upbeat, but disappointed at the same time, as he's slipped to having one race in which to maintain a 17-year skein of at least one victory a year.

"Oh man, I want it real bad -- I just didn't get it," Wallace said. "That was a really good run for the car all day long. We've got one race left to go and I hope we can win my first race of the year at Homestead next week -- I really thought we could do it today.

	A capacity crowd was on hand for the 15th running of the Winston Cup event at Phoenix. Credit: Autostock

"We had a strong car and had ourselves in position many times and just wasn't able to do it. I really think if I could have got out of the pits first I could have won. I think if I got out front, I'd have pulled away just like that -- those first two laps are incredible with how much you can jump out and then maintain that."

Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top five.

"It's been an unbelievable year -- a dream season," Kenseth said. "I never thought we'd have the opportunity to get here (Victory Lane) once, never mind five times -- unbelievable."

Kurt Busch, who led the most laps (117) in the race, was sixth. Dave Blaney; Stewart; Dale Jarrett; and Elliott Sadler rounded out the top 10.