Matt Kenseth was seventh at Dover, only his second top-10 of the year. Credit: Autostock

Kenseth disappointed, vows to keep charging

DOVER, Del. -- On the surface, Sunday looked like a strong day for Matt Kenseth.

He finished seventh, his best effort since the last September when he finished second at New Hampshire. It also moved him up a spot in the Nextel Cup Series standings.

But the methodical Kenseth said it's only one step in what's turning out to be a long process.

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"Seventh is alright, but I still think we can do a lot better than that, so I'm still disappointed."

Kenseth was in contention for most of the day. In a fashion that reminded fans of his 2003 championship season, he started deep in field (23rd) and worked his way up into the top five.

Then, as with many other teams Sunday, things began to change.

"We ran close to the top five and then the second-to-last run we just got so loose and lost all of our ground."

Like so many other teams, the No. 17 bunch was trying to find the right solution in the midst of the warmest day of the season. Temperatures were in the high 80s Sunday afternoon under bright sunshine after the early part of the weekend featured temps in the 60s with heavy cloud cover.

"Well, it's the first hot day we've had in a long time and it was definitely real hard inside the car," Kenseth said.

"It's been cool all weekend, you come up here wearing sweatshirts, 60 degrees and you show up and it's 85 all of a sudden on race day, usually everybody's not ready for it."

More than the heat, Kenseth is much more concerned with where he stacks up among his Roush Racing teammates. After Sunday's race, all four of Kenseth's teammates sit in the top 10 in the Nextel Cup standings. Kenseth -- even with his strong finish Sunday -- is 22nd.

"It's OK," Kenseth said of Sunday's finish. "It's better than things have been going, for sure. [But] Greg [Biffle] won the race, Mark [Martin] ran third, we couldn't run with those guys, so we're going to keep working on it."