Another quiet step forward for Cup's stealth candidate

JOLIET, Ill. -- The spotlight found all the usual subjects Sunday afternoon at Chicagoland Speedway. Jimmie Johnson thankfully walked away from a strong but smashed-up automobile doomed by a blown tire. Dale Earnhardt Jr. hooted and hollered over team radio as he battled a busted power-steering system. Tony Stewart hauled his always-controversial self up the catchfence after ending a 20-race winless streak.

And Matt Kenseth took off his hard hat, put down his lunch pail, and clocked out after another unspectacular but ultimately successful day at the factory. He led one lap, that only by a fender. His one chance to get clear of Stewart and grab clean air was denied by a crafty block. Yet his runner-up finish translated into his 13th top-10 in 19 starts this season, and another quiet step forward for the stealth candidate for the Nextel Cup title.

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He's been there all year, surrounded by teams and drivers who win more races and attract more attention, virtually ignored despite his lofty standing in the points. He's clean-cut and well-mannered, quiet off the track and courteous on it. Other drivers make the headlines, for reasons good or bad. All Kenseth and his No. 17 team do is come to the racetrack every week and quietly post another solid finish, in a season that's beginning to parallel his championship campaign of 2003.

The flagship driver at Roush Fenway Racing is light on style and heavy on substance, a meat-and-potatoes competitor who's found a way to maintain a relatively low profile even in an image-conscious and exposure-obsessed sport. In everywhere but the standings, where he ranks third in points and has more top-10 finishes than any other driver but championship leader Jeff Gordon, he's NASCAR's invisible man.

"I think that's Matt," crew chief Robbie Reiser said on pit road after the USG Sheetrock 400. "That's our whole race team. We come here to race. We don't come here for the show. We come here to do our jobs and try to win races, and that's probably why you see it that way."

When Kenseth won the series championship four years ago, he won only once, that in the third event of the season at Las Vegas. From that point on he simply overwhelmed his rivals with numbing consistency, posting top-10s in 25 of 36 events and building a points advantage so large he clinched the title in the next-to-last race of the season. It was widely believed to be the impetus for the Chase format, which created a 10-race playoff attempting to inject more drama into the sport.

This year, Gordon looms at the top of the points list. The Chase format will reset the standings in seven event weekends, negating most of whatever advantage the top 12 drivers have built. Kenseth has won only once, this time at California in the second race of the year. But he and his unflappable crew continue to rip off one top-10 after another, following the same, time-tested formula that led them to the top of the sport.

"I do feel like our consistency is pretty good," he said. "I feel like it's always really good. We've had a really good group of guys, Robbie has been with me the whole time, [chief engineer] Chip [Bolen], there are a lot of key guys in our shop that make it happen. To be consistent, your car's got to be running at the end of the day and your setup's got to be right. We've got a lot of great people that put it all together so we don't fall apart. It takes everything, and I've got a really good group to make that happen." (Continued)