Kenseth's strong finish sets stage for promising 2008

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- As the championship celebration raged, with members of Jimmie Johnson's race team slapping high-fives on a massive stage trucked into the frontstretch at Homestead-Miami Speedway, festivities on a smaller scale unfolded over in Victory Lane. But these were equally as significant to those involved, especially a driver and a crew chief who flanked the event's glass trophy, two old friends celebrating together one last time.

Matt Kenseth continued his strong finishing kick to the 2008 season, winning the Nextel Cup finale on the outskirts of Miami to record his fifth consecutive finish of fifth or better. He'll head into the 2008 season with plenty of momentum -- but without his crew chief, Robbie Reiser, who is moving up to become Roush Fenway Racing's general manager. Even so, Kenseth's results over the latter half of the Chase leaves him as a prime contender to unseat Johnson, who clinched his second consecutive series title Sunday night.

Moving on up

For Robbie Reiser, the time was right to move out of the grinding crew chief's role and into a management position at Roush Fenway Racing.

• Complete story, click here
• Chief door opens for Bolin

"I think our performance in the Chase, without our problems, was good enough to win any other Chase besides this one," said Kenseth, who finished fourth in final points, behind Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon and Richard Childress Racing driver Clint Bowyer.

"Obviously, Jimmie and Jeff set an unbelievable standard. It was amazing what the average finish was and what they were able to do. You have to be pretty darn good to beat that. But overall, our performance was great throughout the Chase. We had a period during the year where we were a little off. We started off pretty strong. But the thing I'm most fired up about is, I've seen the direction of the company going the right way. I feel like we're gaining momentum this year."

That's quite a contrast to the way Roush Fenway started the season, well behind Hendrick and Joe Gibbs Racing in terms of a Car of Tomorrow that becomes NASCAR's standard chassis next year. The Roush team stuck to the letter of NASCAR's testing rules, and didn't experiment on non-Nextel Cup tracks as some other organizations did. Team owner Jack Roush, who later changed course and started testing at places like Lakeland, Fla., and Sparta, Ky., takes full blame for that.

"We got blind-sided and didn't do as much testing with the Car of Tomorrow," Roush said. "We had four or five really bad races with that early on, just because we didn't have as much information as some of the other teams did, the Hendrick bunch being at the front of that. Anyway, I misjudged that. That was my fault. We didn't take advantage of the testing policy they indicated they were going to impose on us. So I got behind there."

So Roush started following the path of the teams that had enjoyed COT success, hiring five to seven people to work on the new vehicle, putting together a test team, and getting the cars on the track more often. The effort paid off as the team gradually improved over the course of the season, with every Roush driver save rookie David Ragan recording at least one win. Two, Kenseth and Carl Edwards, qualified for the year-end championship run.

The moves made more than just Roush's COT program better, as evidenced by the overall improvement of Kenseth's No. 17 team. The squad had six finishes of seventh or better in a Chase where it suffered one engine failure and was involved in one accident. That, Roush believes, bodes well for next year.

"We certainly have a lot of momentum going forward. We won't have any anxiety over the fact that we don't know how to make the cars go fast," he said.

"The application of the technical side is the single thing that made the biggest difference in how the 17 was able to progress throughout the year. They were able to eventually get data on the Car of Tomorrow and use it well. Matt even got a pole. He's not been a guy to run up front. He's qualified very well. And that just couldn't happen unless you have really great stuff."

But Hendrick's dominance meant more changes were needed, and after a year of urging Reiser finally agreed to step down from a pit box he's occupied since 1999. Chip Bolin, the team engineer who led Kenseth to a victory at California while Reiser was under suspension, will take over. Reiser will go to work trying to make five teams better rather than just one.

"I get to go back to work [Monday], basically doing the same job, just from the five-team aspect instead of the one," Reiser said. "Chip Bolin is going to take our team and make it a lot better than I have it right now. So I'm looking forward to all that stuff. It was an honor and a privilege to work with Matt. Matt's been great to me, great to my family, just a great friend. To be able to do this at the top level and do it the way he wanted me to do it, and to do it for so many years is a real privilege."