Matt Kenseth was ninth-fastest in Wednesday's afternoon test session. Credit: Turner Sports Interactive

Kenseth eager to apply hard-learned lessons

Former champion says he'll race this year like it was 2003

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The title reign of Matt Kenseth ended a couple months ago, much to his chagrin.

The 2003 champion made the Chase for the Nextel Cup last year but stumbled in the final 10 races and ended up eighth in the final points standings. He's determined to get back on top in 2005, in part by applying some valuable lessons learned during last season.

	Matt Kenseth Credit: Autostock
	NASCAR ACCELERATION •   Know Your NASCAR •   Get your Daytona tickets •   2004 Daytona 500 highlights •   Get TrackPass for 2005 VIDEO Fast -- and faster Nemechek, Riggs off to quick start in Daytona testing. PHOTO GALLERY Wednesday's test sessions

Sure, Roush Racing teammate and Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch could probably use some advice, but Kenseth won't dole it out -- unless Busch asks.

"I didn't do a very good job defending ours," Kenseth said this week during NASCAR Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona International Speedway.

But Kenseth has learned from his mistakes, if that's what you want to call them. He and the No. 17 team should be better prepared this season, especially when attacking the Chase.

"I did too much stuff last winter, I did too much stuff in the spring, I did too much stuff in the summer," Kenseth said. "I kind of burned myself out. Although I don't feel like it really hurt my performance, but it made my job a lot less fun, and I wasn't as enthusiastic at the end of the year as what I have been any other year.

"My whole team was kind of like that, too, at the end of the year, so I would definitely do things different from that aspect."

So instead of a busy offseason, Kenseth stayed home. Well, sure, there was the holiday trip to Wisconsin, but that's it.

"I'm really enthused for the year," Kenseth said. "It's easy to get caught up in all the outside distractions and maybe lose a little bit of focus with your job."

The focus this week, of course, is getting up to speed at Daytona. While MBV/MB2 teammates Joe Nemechek and Scott Riggs have been fastest during the second week of testing, Kenseth's team has improved its Ford.

Kenseth was ninth-fastest Tuesday morning at 183.411 mph when the teams unloaded, but Kenseth picked up speed Wednesday afternoon to 184.824. Not a big gain, sure, but any gain at Daytona is big.

That speed was ninth-fastest Thursday afternoon, and 17th-fastest overall.

Riggs picked up his pace to 186.097 on Thursday, moving to second-fastest among all the cars that have tested in Daytona. Johnny Sauter was second Thursday at 185.935, with Nemechek third at 185.924, Robby Gordon fourth at 185.300 and Jimmie Johnson fifth at 185.193.

Inside the Numbers Wednesday afternoon speeds No. Driver MPH 1. S. Riggs 186.097 2. J. Sauter 185.935 3. J. Nemechek 185.924 4. R. Gordon 185.300 5. J. Johnson 185.193 6. J. Green 185.060 7. M. Wallace 185.006 8. M. Truex Jr. 184.907 9. M. Kenseth 184.824 10. K. Kahne 184.733 11. E. McClure 184.585 12. B. Labonte 184.528 13. S. Marlin 184.053 14. D. Blaney 183.944 15. R. Wallace 183.895 16. B. Vickers 183.820 17. K. Lepage 183.700 18. J. Andretti 183.621 19. B. Hamilton Jr. 183.539 20. D. Cope 183.486 21. H. Sadler 183.408 22. M. Martin 183.385 23. J. Burton 183.180 24. D. Stremme 182.604 25. S. Wimmer 182.567 26. G. Sacks 181.737 27. K. Earnhardt 181.294 28. K. Shelmerdine 178.781

Every team's focus changed in 2004, as the final 10 races determined the champion. The problem was that the first 26 determined who would make the cut for the final 10, so balance between the two was vital. Put too much emphasis on the Chase, and you might not make the "playoffs." Put too much emphasis on the first 26, and you might get burned out for the Chase.

Or in Kenseth's case, put too much emphasis on the Chase, ignore a bad stretch during the middle of the season and hope for the best ... and then struggle in the Chase.

"I think one thing we did wrong is we saved all of our tests for the end," Kenseth said. "It sounds like a really smart plan, but when you get to running bad it's kind of like [Daytona]. If you unload here and you're a second off, you're not going to fix your car while you're here. It's just not going to happen.

"I think when you let your performance decline in the middle of the year and just think you're going to show up and test at the end of the year and make everything better and go out and run up front and win again and have a shot -- I think that was naïve of us to think that."

Kenseth was in third place in the points after 16 races, but 12 races later was seventh after six finishes of 12th or worse and only one top-five result. Kenseth started the Chase with 22nd- and 28th-place finishes, and not even a second at New Hampshire could right the ship.

Kenseth realizes now the team should have used a test or two in the summer to try to turn things around.

"Momentum is really important," Kenseth said. "Whether it's going into the season, your momentum ending the last year, the momentum going into the Chase ... I think is important from watching the way everything went down last year.

"I think you want to start off the year strong, and I think you want to end the deal before the Chase strong, too. I don't think you want to have weak moments during the year."

In other words, Kenseth wants to race like he did in 2003.

"I think you still want to race like every point matters toward the end of the year," Kenseth said. "I think you want to run the best you can every week and not try stuff and drop out because it's like anything, even if you drop out because you know you're experimenting, you still dropped out and didn't get to finish the race and didn't get to learn things and didn't get a good finish. No matter what, if there are points or no points, whenever you finish bad you feel bad about it."

And once that snowball picks up speed, it's hard to stop.

Kenseth's team moved some personnel around after 2004 in hopes of stopping some of the negative momentum.

"I think every once in a while you have to mix it up and get some new blood in there and change things around and kind of get everybody energized," Kenseth said. "I think anything gets a little bit stale after a while no matter what you're doing, so it seems like everybody is excited, everybody is working good together."

So maybe Kenseth can rebound from 2004 -- not that last year was all bad.

"I mean, we had a great year last year," Kenseth said. "When you win the championship, anything less is definitely a disappointment, but we won a few races, we won the all-star race, won a couple Busch races, the IROC championship and a couple races.

"Do we want to do better? Yeah, you always want to do better. You want to win more races. You want to win a championship. That's the ultimate goal."