Kenseth brings wounded car home eighth

Retains points lead by 57 over Stewart

DARLINGTON, S.C. - Seven laps into Sunday's Carolina Dodge Dealers 400, Matt Kenseth felt the wrath of the Lady in Black c/o Jamie McMurray, and it appeared as if his standing as Winston Cup points leader had fallen by the proverbial wayside.

Carolina Dodge Dealers 400  Results  Standings  Burton loses engine  Early wrecks doom contenders  Video Highlights

But when the smoke cleared 286 laps later, following one of the most dramatic finishes in Winston Cup Series history, he had not only maintained the lead but also extended it.

After battling back from the accident to finish eighth, Kenseth, who entered the event 49 points ahead of Tony Stewart, heads to Bristol Motor Speedway next weekend with a 57-point advantage.

"Eighth was great for us today - even if we weren't as beat up as we are," said Kenseth, winner of the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas two weeks back. "As bad as we ran the last couple times here, finishing eighth is really good.

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"We weren't real competitive (today), but it seemed like (Mark Martin) was the class of the field, so hopefully we can learn some stuff from him. He did some different stuff this weekend, so maybe we'll steal that from him for the fall."

Entering the weekend, Kenseth had finished 33rd or worse in three of his seven career starts at Darlington.

And after the early-race accident -- which occurred after Jerry Nadeau spun out in Turn 3, scattering the field and sending Kenseth down to the apron in front of the speeding McMurray -- it appeared he was in for another long day.

However, after pitting to assess the damage, it was discovered the car was virtually unaffected. It was all cosmetic.

"Could've been way worse, for sure," Kenseth said. "We were lucky it took the door out of it instead of in front of the tire and the fender.

"It didn't mess up our toe-in or anything. It basically didn't hurt the car, it just messed up the aerodynamics a little bit, but it could have been a lot worse."

Certainly so. He is still the points leader, after all.