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"I have respect for what I've heard about him, especially running his own team. It's really cool that he's from Wisconsin."
Like Kulwicki, Kenseth cut his teeth on the Wisconsin short-track circuit, winning his first feature in just his third race.
"My dad made me a deal when I was 13," Kenseth said. "He would buy me a race car and drive it if I would work on it and keep it up. Then, when I turned 16, I could drive the car. It was hard work, but it was also a great experience and really prepared me to do more than just steer the car."
 | VIDEO CLIPS |  | 11|09|03 - Kenseth celebrates his first championship
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|  | 10|05|03 - Kenseth has problems at Kansas
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|  | 03|09|03 - Kenseth takes the points lead at Atlanta
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| |  | 12|06|02 - Kenseth makes his first appearance in the top ten.
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Kenseth moved up into late-model stock cars, winning the 1993 Alan Kulwicki Memorial.
A couple of years later, he joined the NASCAR All Pro circuit, running three times in the top three. A year later, he won a race and finished third in the Hooters Pro Series.
Then in 1997, Kenseth once again walked in Kulwicki's footsteps by running the American Speed Association series. He was runner-up for rookie of the year.
With all that experience under his belt, Kenseth moved up to the Busch Series in 1998, finishing second in the championship and earning three victories. He also made his Winston Cup debut at Dover in September, substituting for Bill Elliott and finishing sixth.
With four wins in 1999, Kenseth wound up third in the Busch Series championship and added five Winston Cup starts to his resume with Roush Racing.
Then in 2000, Kenseth broke through with a victory in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, finished 14th in the Winston Cup point standings and was named rookie of the year.
Kenseth was 13th in the standings in 2001 with nine top-10s, but really came into his own in 2002, winning five races and ending up eighth in the final standings.
It was only a prelude to his 2003 championship-winning season. Kenseth won just once -- the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas -- but his incredible consistency allowed him to grab the Winston Cup points lead after the fourth race of the season and never look back.
In a stretch that began with California and ended with a 33rd-place finish when his engine expired in the fall Talladega race, Kenseth went 19 consecutive races without finishing lower than 14th.
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