Notebook: 'Terrible' Kenseth pads points lead

DOVER, Del. -- Matt Kenseth had a bad race but still padded his points lead.

What else is new?

The team's resiliency -- and perhaps its charmed life -- was never more on display than Sunday at Dover International Speedway. Kenseth was admittedly "terrible" during the MBNA America 400, but his Roush Racing team kept him going, and in the end, Kenseth finished with another top 10.

And with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s misfortune, Kenseth added 32 points to his Winston Cup lead. He's now up by 436 over Kevin Harvick, who moved into second place. Junior fell to fourth, a hopeless 490 behind.

	Matt Kenseth

All Kenseth has to do to win the title is finish 11th or better in each of the remaining eight races. In his amazingly consistent season, Kenseth has already done that 22 times in 28 races.

Sunday, though, Kenseth was hardly pleased with the way his car handled.

"We ran terrible. I'm really ashamed of the way we ran," Kenseth said. "We were just way off. We weren't very good the whole time we've been here. We came in to make changes off the first set of tires, and the car was totally different all day."

Kenseth started on the pole because the field was set by the NASCAR rule book, but he didn't even lead the first lap. Fading quickly through the field, Kenseth was 14th by lap 100.

"I mean if I had to pick one track on the circuit to come to this would be it," Kenseth said. "This is my favorite track, but we just haven't run good lately. When we unloaded this car it was really a last-place car, but we worked on it all the time. We got it a little bit better at times, but it was no way ever gonna be a contender. I don't know why we're so far off. It was really a pile all day long, so it was frustrating."

His Robbie Reiser-led crew worked on the car, and Reiser even kept Kenseth out under caution on lap 238 to lead a lap. In the end, Kenseth managed to creep forward inside the top 10.

"Yeah, we finished up OK but it was a terrible run," Kenseth said. "We're really far off, and I'm just lucky I've got such a great team that does a good job on pit road. Everybody at Roush is doing a good job building reliable engines and everything else. We need to make it to the end of these things because we ran pitiful today.

"We got lucky and got cautions so we could work on it a lot. We had a top 10 car at the end when we needed it, but at the beginning of the race we had a last-place car, so it wasn't much fun to drive today."

A happy day for Harvick

One guy who did have fun at Dover was Kevin Harvick. Charging into the lead on the opening lap, Harvick went on to pace the field 133 times, the most of any driver.

	Kevin Harvick

"Dover is one of my worst tracks so it's good to come here and run in the top five all day like we did," Harvick said. "It's a credit to how hard these guys on this team are working. We might have been able to pick up a little more on that last run, but we didn't want to over-adjust. We kept it to simple changes, and it paid off in the end."

Harvick led 133 of the first 166 laps but couldn't get back to the front. Still, his 10th top-five finish of the season moved him to second in the points standings.

"We ran five laps down here in the spring running as hard as we could, and to come back and finish in the top five today is a credit to all these GM Goodwrench guys," Harvick said. "We had a great car in the beginning and just a slight push in the center at the end. But we had great pit stops and moved up to second in the points. If we keep having runs like this the rest of the season, it'll be a great thing for this team."

Gordon rebounds with a fifth-place effort

Jeff Gordon hasn't been Jeff Gordon lately. After Indianapolis, Gordon slumped with five finishes outside the top 15 in six races -- including three outside the top 25 -- to fall from third to sixth in the points standings.

	Jeff Gordon battles Robby Gordon

But he rebounded at Dover, leading 14 laps and finishing fifth.

"This feels good," Gordon said. "I knew if we just kept working at it that we'd have a good strong day. I'm glad it came here in Dupont's backyard down the road in Wilmington. I thought we were going to be better than that. We had a car there a couple of times that was a top-three car, we thought. So to come out here with a top five after the way our last month and a half has been, is good. We'll take it. We're happy with that."

Gordon has been pleased with the team's performance lately, if not the results. At Dover, Gordon was happy with both.

"We've been performing good," Gordon said. "We just haven't been putting it together there at the end. We still missed it just a little bit there at the end to take us out of contention for the win. But we made good adjustments and the car was probably as good as it was all day long there at the end. The way our last month and a half has been, I'll take a top five."

McMurray taking charge of rookie race

Jamie McMurray is starting to pour it on in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year race. He was sixth in the MBNA America 400, one spot better than Greg Biffle. That's the fifth consecutive race McMurray has been the highest finish rookie, and he leads Biffle 257-238 in the rookie race.

	Action on the Monster Mile

"We are a top-10 car every single week," McMurray said. "We beat Biffle again, so that's important when it gets down this close to the end because he had a good run, too."

McMurray had to battle back from a flat tire that moved him to the end of the lead lap just past the halfway point. But the car was handling well enough that McMurray fought his way to the top 10.

"I really think that if we hadn't had the flat left rear tire that we would have had a shot to win the race," McMurray said. "We put ourselves in position. I think we were third or fourth and came out from the pit stop, and the tire was flat. I never even made a lap.

"I had to come back in, and we were like 20th with 180 laps to go. It's so hard to pass here. The way the new rule is with the lapped cars all being on the inside and so many of them it's just tough. Even though the race track is wide, it's still hard to pass. All in all, it was a pretty good day."

McMurray's team has run well the second half of the season. Since finishing third at Indianapolis, McMurray has risen from 25th to 18th in the Winston Cup standings. He's got five top-five and nine top-10 finishes this season.

"Really, since Chicago, we've been a top-10 car every single week," McMurray said. "I don't know about Daytona, but for the most part we've been good every single week. I'm looking forward to the rest of the year and especially starting over next year on the points."

Sadler's strong showing fades away

With 128 laps to go in Sunday's race, Elliott Sadler was sitting in fifth place for a restart.

	Elliott Sadler

He didn't stay there long. Instead, Sadler slipped backwards and ended up 19th.

"For five laps that thing was just crazy loose," Sadler said. "I thought I had a tire going flat, but they said the tire was OK. I don't know. I never had a car really do that before. It's just a shame to have a top five car and come home 19th. That's just Elliott Sadler luck continuing for this race team. Maybe we'll turn it around next week."

Sadler had spent most of the race running in the top 10, but that's only a memory.

"That doesn't really mean anything if you can't bring it home," Sadler said. "I don't know. When you run half the race like that running good and you don't get to finish like that, I don't think you have anything to feel good about."