Matt Kenseth is now fourth in the Nextel Cup standings. Credit: Autostock

Kenseth's title hopes suffer setback at Kansas

Former Cup champ 23rd in caution-filled Banquet 400

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- If Matt Kenseth's team needs a nickname for the chassis they brought to Kansas, "Undriveable" wouldn't be a bad one to kick around.

Kenseth has been a dominant force on the downforce tracks in 2006, but his Ford simply would not grip any inch of Kansas Speedway's 1.5-mile surface, and it was one of the biggest surprises during a day littered with drama.

Chase for the Nextel Cup After Kansas (3rd of 10 races) Pos. +/- Driver Behind 1. -- Jeff Burton Leader 2. +2 Denny Hamlin -69 3. +3 Mark Martin -70 4. -1 Matt Kenseth -84 5. -- Kevin Harvick -96 6. -4 Jeff Gordon -120 7. -- D. Earnhardt Jr. -123 8. -- Jimmie Johnson -165 9. +1 Kyle Busch -233 10. -1 Kasey Kahne -273 • Unofficial standings, click here Tough dayKenseth spins into grass causing minor damage Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

After spending just 38 laps in the top 10, Kenseth wound up 23rd, his worst finish since May. Only a whopping 11 cautions in the Banquet 400 kept Kenseth from finishing much worse, because the frequent yellows gave his team considerable time to work on the car.

"We got lucky with all the cautions and that made a big difference," said Kenseth. "Without all of the cautions, we wouldn't have had all those chances to work on it, so the cautions really helped.

"We just couldn't fix it. Those guys worked their butts off today and we're actually pretty lucky to finish 23rd. We'll just have to move on and work on it."

Kenseth entered Kansas as a favorite to win after his performance at Chicagoland in July, when he dominated before a tap from Jeff Gordon sent him spinning. He also won at Michigan -- a similarly-banked track -- in August.

Roush Racing brought an Indianapolis-style car to compete on Kansas' moderate banking, and even though the car qualified a solid eighth, it was junk on Sunday.

"I'm just kind of dumbfounded," said Kenseth. "The car was real good in the tunnel and everything -- it was aligned right -- but it was so terribly loose all day. No matter what we changed, it didn't fix it."

The finish didn't do much damage to Kenseth's hopes of a second Nextel Cup title. He ended the day just 84 points behind leader Jeff Burton, and he is only 15 points behind second-place Denny Hamlin.

All three Chase races have been an adventure for Kenseth, who was the points leader when the 26-race regular season ended. Kenseth battled severe brake problems during the Chase opener at Loudon, but he nursed home a 10th place finish.

Last week at Dover, Kenseth dominated all day, but crew chief Robbie Reiser tried to win the race on fuel mileage, but Kenseth ran out of gas with two laps to go. Because there were so few cars on the lead lap, Kenseth finished 10th.

"Really, if you look at it, last week we dominated and got lucky when we ran out of gas and finished 10th," said Kenseth. "That easily could have been a 25th or 30th, and today we ran 35th and finished 23rd.

"That's a really bad finish, but it's not a total disaster either. We'll just go on and try to figure out what went wrong here and get it fixed and go run with them the rest of the year."