Matt Kenseth isn't going to let a backup car ruin this season's successful run. Credit: Autostock

Saturday Notebook: Kenseth keeps head up

Engine change doesn't dampen successful run for former champ

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Matt Kenseth, who won the 2002 spring race at Texas Motor Speedway, will have a challenge Sunday when he starts the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 from the rear.

Kenseth's No. 17 Ford suffered an engine failure in Happy Hour practice, in which he ran 37 laps and was 10th quickest.

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His Roush Racing crew, led by crew chief Robbie Reiser, changed it Saturday afternoon while Kenseth finished fifth in the O'Reilly 300 Busch Series race.

Kenseth qualified sixth Friday, his second consecutive top-six effort in 10 Texas attempts and his fourth top-11 start of the season. It will be for naught Sunday.

Before the engine swap, Kenseth had no ill words for his season, which has him third in the standings.

"We've been in contention to win most of the races," Kenseth said. "We've only been able to win one of them, but we've been a contender to win a lot of them -- probably four or five of them at least [and] that's a great feeling.

"Our team is operating at a championship level and they've done everything right this year. I've made some mistakes, and we've had some stuff go bad, but they've done a great job."

Buskirk engineers a move

Kevin Buskirk, formerly head engineer at Robert Yates Racing and Elliott Sadler's interim crew chief at the end of 2005, has gone to work at Richard Childress Racing as the engineer for driver Kevin Harvick's No. 29 Chevrolet.

Mark Martin qualified third for Sunday's race at Texas. Credit: Autostock

Samsung/RadioShack 500 Starting Lineup Pos. Driver Speed 1. K. Kahne 190.315 2. J.J. Yeley 189.374 3. M. Martin 189.029 4. J. Green 189.016 5. G. Biffle 188.976 6. M. Kenseth 188.910 7. Ku. Busch 188.897 8. D. Hamlin 188.772 9. M. Truex Jr. 188.640 10. B. Labonte 188.594 • Complete lineup, click here Pole positionKasey Kahne snags the pole late in qualifying at Texas Wild rideThings get hairy during McMurray's qualifying run at Texas Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

"Kevin joined the organization a couple of weeks ago, and he's a great talent and a great find," Richard Childress said Saturday. "Him and [crew chief] Todd Berrier think and work a lot alike, and I think he'll do a lot of things.

"I'm excited to see how that will work out."

Count Harvick, who finished eighth Saturday in his own Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet as he continues to lead the Busch Series standings, as one of the excited ones at Childress Racing.

"I saw him for the first time this week, and he's just trying to learn everybody's name and where he's at and what he needs to do," Harvick said. "But he'll have an impact, I promise you that."

Truex, DEI crew also step up

Rookie of the year candidate Martin Truex Jr. has lurked around the top 10 in practice all weekend in Texas and will start Sunday's race ninth -- his best starting position of the year.

Despite pancaking the right side of his No. 1 Chevy in the opening laps of practice Friday, Truex has still managed to compete very well at the dauntingly fast Texas oval.

Truex had an eye-opening observation Saturday.

"Everywhere at this track, really, is a critical area," Truex said. "It's so fast you need to be good getting into the corner but you need to be good off to be able to pass cars and be able to hold your position.

"There's really no compromise -- you really need to be good everywhere."

Saturday afternoon, Truex's car was outside its garage and crew chief Kevin "Bono" Manion was leading a detail doing bodywork on the car's right side.

"They did a lot of work," Truex said earlier Saturday. "Most of it was done yesterday. They just tore all the decals off and tried to clean it up a little more so they can get ready to fix it this afternoon for tomorrow.

"They've put in a lot of work this weekend. I'm just real proud of their efforts and what they were able to give me yesterday and today.

"The car has been pretty good. We'll keep digging on it and hopefully we'll have something that we can work with tomorrow."

Roush lauds Martin for Texas success

Roush Racing has won half of the 10 Cup races held at Texas Motor Speedway, and Saturday owner Jack Roush gave his team-leading driver most of the credit.

"More and more I give Mark Martin more credit for what we are and what we can do," Roush said. "He's really good at tracks like this and over time as I've tried to help him win, we've maximized certain things on our cars that help us at the mile-and-a-half racetracks.

"Mark's got his fingerprints over everything we do. The guys like Jamie McMurray, after not qualifying well, the first guy he went to see was Mark and the first guy I went to see was Mark about what he thought was going on.

"So I credit the energy and the enthusiasm Mark has for mile-and-a-half tracks to be the reason why we do well here."

Stewart still climbing

Tony Stewart was the picture of mirthful pensiveness Friday evening at Texas after he won Round 2 of the Crown Royal International Race of Champions.

Tony Stewart led four other Cup regulars to sweep the top five. Credit: CIA Stock Photo

IROC at Texas Unofficial Results Pos. Driver Status 1. T. Stewart Running 2. R. Newman Running 3. M. Truex Jr. Running 4. M. Martin Running 5. M. Kenseth Running 6. M. Angelelli Running 7. S. Sharp Running 8. F. Kimmel Running 9. T. Musgrave Running 10. M. Papis Accident 11. S. Kinser Accident 12. S. Hornish Trans. STEWART WINS IROC Tony Stewart won Friday night's IROC race at Texas, as Cup regulars swept the top five.  •   Complete story, click here

For the past two seasons, Stewart has climbed frontstretch fences after winning Nextel Cup races, but Friday night, after climbing from his IROC car on the frontstretch, he didn't seem inclined to perform the act.

After several minutes of raucous persuasion from the crowd, however, Stewart ran to the base of the fence at the start/finish line and climbed to the top, first waving to the crowd and then grabbing the checkered flag and vigorously waving it.

"How many people were here tonight -- 50 or 60,000?" Stewart said. "They were all chanting for me to climb the fence.

"When 60,000 people are asking you to do something, you really don't have a choice -- you have to give them what they want.

"Like I said last week [after the Martinsville Nextel Cup victory], as long as the fans respond and are enthusiastic about it, we'll keep [climbing]."

Musgrave not slowing down

To many observers, Friday night's IROC event displayed racing that many would crave in Nextel Cup, but don't count defending Craftsman Truck Series champ Ted Musgrave among them.

"It was kind of wild," Musgrave said after finishing ninth, which left him last in the 12-man field's point standings. "The things have no horsepower. You can't pass and you just run into people. You end up wrecking and flipping people over and getting everybody mad.

"It's a shame they don't have it where you have to let off the gas or go to different racetracks. It was fun though."

Although Musgrave's next Truck race is April 29 at Gateway International Raceway, he'll be at Hickory Motor Speedway Saturday night with some other NASCAR personalities for the 150-lap Easter Bunny 150 Pro All Star Series (PASS) Super Late Model race.

Musgrave, who will do an autograph session at the event, will be there with his Late Model racing son, Ted Jr.

Also planning to attend is fellow Truck racer Erik Darnell from Roush Racing, Nextel Cup rookie of the year candidate David Stremme and a couple of NASCAR Touring veterans, Travis Kittleson and Jason Hogan, the 2002 Southeast Series rookie of the year.