Kenseth, Stewart declare their title aspirations over (cont'd)

With Stewart leaving JGR at the end of the season to become co-owner at Stewart-Haas Racing, he can focus solely on the final four races of the season. For Kenseth, these final four races give him an opportunity to get a head start on 2009.

"We're always trying to improve and trying to get our cars better," Kenseth said. "We're always trying stuff, but we're not going to try stuff that's gonna have a chance at dropping us out of races and taking us out of contention to win a race or losing more points.

"We still want to finish as high as we possibly can in the points. We certainly want to get back to Victory Lane real bad, and we're out there just trying to bring our best stuff and do the best we can."

Both Stewart and Kenseth agree, while their title aspirations have evaporated, this season has been a successful one and there is no need to hang their heads.

"If you win the championship every year, it would be great," Stewart said. "But there is only one guy that can do that every year. You just have to go out and do the best you can every week. You just appreciate what you have at the end of the year and go on."

"It's a lot better to be in the Chase than to be out of it," Kenseth added. "There are 30 guys out there we race against every week that didn't get to make it, so I think it's great we made it. I wish things would have gone better up to this point in the Chase to where we were a contender, but overall, it's been a pretty good year."