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But after season-worst finishes in consecutive weeks, it appears as if Kevin Harvick has a legitimate bite.
Sixty-nine laps into the Banquet 400, Michael Waltrip lost control of his Chevrolet and slammed the outside retaining wall. Attempting to elude the accident, Kenseth lost control of his Ford and slid fast into the infield grass.
Unable to steer the machine, he slammed hard into the inside retaining wall, demolishing the front of the Ford.
"I still don't really know what happened," said Kenseth, who, due to the accident, lost 95 points to Harvick on Sunday.
"I saw Michael wrecking and I went a little lower to miss him, and instead of just staying in the gas and going by him I bounced up a little bit more in case he came down the track.
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| Kenseth has held the points lead since Atlanta, four weeks into the season. Credit: Autostock |
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"Next thing I knew, the thing just spun out on me. I wasn't even going fast. I'm kind of puzzled about what happened. It's the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me in a racecar. I wasn't even on the gas.
"I was off the gas for four car lengths. So that was frustrating. I don't even know what happened."
What happened next was truly amazing.
For 40 minutes, 15 Roush Racing crewmen feverishly rebuilt the front end of Kenseth's Ford, opting to replace the damaged nose rather than cut off the entire front end, which teams are often relegated to doing.
"They only give you one shot to get up to speed, and on a big track like this you can't sit out there with no fenders and hood," said crew chief Robbie Reiser. "You've got to put it back together.
"That's why, instantly, we put the aerodynamics back on the car so we could go run the rest of the day. Otherwise, we'd only make one lap, and it wasn't going to pay to do all that work for only one lap."
 | VIDEO CLIPS |  | Newman visits Victory Lane for the eighth time in 2003
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| | |  | Sadler has trouble for the second consecutive week
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|  | Matt Kenseth encounters trouble early in the race
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First, they sawed off the left front quarter panel and grill-area of the machine, then removed the radiator. As the field restarted on lap 76, Kenseth was at the very bottom of the running order.
The team then began pounding the frame rails with a rubber hammer before sawing the entire front end off of the car.
After locating new front fenders, Benjy Grubbs got to work welding them in place, while other crewmen installed pop rivets to secure them.
Once the new nose and radiator were installed, the team attempted to put the hood back down.
But it was so badly beaten they were forced to pound it in place.
For 10 minutes.
Once the hood was down, they taped it closed with several large strips of 200 mph tape, and drilled spare sheet metal into the fenders. All said and done, it took the crew 42 minutes to completely rebuild the front of the car.
"I was real proud of the guys today, for all the work that they did to put the car back up on the racetrack," Reiser said. "It was incredible to watch them go to work on the car with all the damage we had, and put it back on the racetrack in less than 50 laps. That's impressive."
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| Matt Kenseth's crew had to use a backup after a crash in practice on Friday. Credit: Autostock |
Kenseth returned to the race on lap 113, 45 laps down to then-leader Bill Elliott, and eventually finished in 36th position. Hence, sixth-place finisher Kevin Harvick inched closer in the championship chase, gaining 95 points on Kenseth.
"We're digging and (the 17 team) are having trouble," Harvick said. "But if keep knocking off 80 or 100 points at a time, we're going to be good shape in a couple of weeks."
This is the second straight week Kenseth has taken such a hit.
Last week at Talladega, he blew an engine with 30 laps remaining to finish 33rd. He hadn't finished worse that 22nd all year long.
"It's been a tough week, really," Kenseth said. "It all started last week, breaking an engine. Then this week I wrecked the first lap in practice. So ultimately it was 80 or 90 percent my fault the whole weekend.
"We really didn't have our backup car prepared. That's something we need to address.
"We've never been in this position before, to have to use a backup. This car wasn't ready for this track, it was ready for a short track. That took an hour and a half of track time away from us that we really could have used to get this car figured out."
It could have been worse. Had Kenseth not returned to the track, he'd have lost 116 points to Harvick.
"It can always be worse," Kenseth said. "I don't know if you ever think (bad luck) is bound to happen, but I've been saying all along that the thing is not over and you could have bad luck at any time. I realize how fast everything can change on you in this sport."
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