Matt Kenseth finished in the top 10 in points for the fourth consecutive year. Credit: Autostock

YIR: Matt Kenseth

No. 17 team rebounds from tough start to finish seventh overall

Matt Kenseth was a model of resiliency in 2005, posting the season's most impressive turnaround start-to-finish.

Kenseth's year began miserably, with a blown engine 34 laps into the Daytona 500 while driving what he called the best speedway car of his career.

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The resulting 42nd-place finish marked the first time in 71 races that the No. 17 team failed to rank among the NASCAR Top 10, a streak that began in the fourth race of Kenseth's 2003 championship season and lasted through the end of the '04 campaign.

And his luck only worsened the following weekend at California Speedway.

An established top-10 threat in the Auto Club 500, Kenseth blew a tire with less than 20 laps remaining, dropping him from the lead lap and resulting in a disappointing 26th-place finish.

Two races in, he's 36th in the point standings, leading some (read: Marty Smith) to question his viability as a Chase contender.

Kenseth rebounded well at Las Vegas, starting and finishing eighth to gain eight points positions. The fortuitousness was short-lived, however.

It would be 10 weeks before Kenseth posted another top-10 finish.

Matt Kenseth celebrated his only win in the fall at Bristol. Credit: Autostock

Inside the Numbers Matt Kenseth in 2005 Race Start Finish Daytona 500 14 42 Auto Club 500 6 26 UAW-DaimChrys 400 8 8 Golden Corral 500 23 31 Food City 500 25 16 Advance 500 18 11 Sam./R.Shack 500 39 18 Subway Fresh 500 17 42 Aaron's 499 23 11 Dodge Charger 500 31 26 Chevy 400 26 12 Coca-Cola 600 3 37 RacePoints 400 23 7 Pocono 500 10 32 Batman Begins 400 21 4 Dodge/S. Mart 350 24 11 Pepsi 400 38 9 USG Sheetrock 400 4 2 New England 300 16 10 Pennsylvania 500 30 36 Allstate 400 20 5 Sirius at the Glen 15 18 GFS Marketplace 400 13 3 Sharpie 500 1 1 Sony HD 500 23 7 Chevy 400 13 2 Sylvania 300 4 3 RacePoints 400 11 35 UAW-Ford 500 11 3 Banquet 400 1 5 UAW-GM Quality 500 18 26 Subway 500 25 12 Bass Pro Shops 500 23 5 Dickies 500 3 3 Checker 500 16 32 Ford 400 17 3 Averages 17.0 15.3

By the midseason turn at Daytona, the No. 17 team had just one top-five finish while failing to reach the checkered flag at Phoenix and Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Next up: Chicagoland Speedway. And the first hint of resurgence.

Kenseth had the best car in the USG Sheetrock 400, led a race-high 176 laps. To that point, he'd led just 112 all year. Pit strategy ultimately cost him the victory, as Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took two tires late in the race to gain track position that secured his first and only victory of the season.

"I know finishing second was a good finish for us," Kenseth said after the race, "but I can't help feeling disappointed. We had the car to win this thing today and we came up short. We were fast all weekend, qualified well, and led the most laps here today.

"We're close. We're really close. We finally figured something out that's helped us over the last four or five weeks and our finishes reflect that. I think we can race our way into the Chase, and that is our goal for the next eight races."

No problem.

In the 18 remaining races, Kenseth cruised to 10 top-fives and 12 top-10s, including a dominant victory at Bristol Motor Speedway in which he started from the pole and led 415 of 500 laps. To that point, he'd led just 271 short-track laps in 33 career starts at Bristol, Martinsville and Richmond.

The Bristol victory, his lone win of the year, snapped a 57-race winless streak for the No. 17 team.

"I thought we were out of [the Chase] and we had a great run last week [at Michigan]," said Kenseth, who finished third at MIS. "I felt like performance-wise we won the race last week, we just came up short on fuel.

"That really put us back in it and tonight leading all the laps and winning, of course, I knew that was going to get us closer, but there are still a couple of races to go.

"We'll see what we can do. We're a lot closer. I see some of those guys had trouble and if we can run like we did at Michigan at California next week I think we'll be right there."

Sharp winMatt Kenseth holds on to win the Sharpie 500 Victory LaneKenseth celebrates his win at Bristol Offseason plansMatt Kenseth talks about his holiday plans Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

When the proverbial dust settled at Richmond, Kenseth was solidly in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, not to mention a threat to win virtually every weekend.

He finished second to then-teammate Kurt Busch at RIR, then screamed through the Chase with six top-fives in the final 10 races.

Kenseth's Chase results are a testament to just how difficult this year's playoff run was for everyone. Those six top-five finishes -- four of which were top-threes -- weren't enough to offset three finishes of 26th or worse, including a DNF at Dover.

All said, Kenseth finished 2005 seventh in the championship point standings.

Not bad for a guy many counted out early.

"This was a good way to end the season for us," Kenseth said after closing out the season with a third-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

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"We would certainly have liked to finish higher in the final point standings and to have been able to contend for the championship, but I feel really good right now about our program and this team.

"We had a few things go wrong for us during the Chase, but for the most part we've run really well. I feel like we have a lot to build upon next year."