Matt Kenseth Shows How Much Experience Counts by Beating Out Young Guns at Dover
As the laps wound down at Dover International Speedway, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott shared one sensation. They all felt an urgency to win.
They had little else in common.
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Kenseth is 44 years old. His first top-five finish of the entire season had occurred the week before, but his triumph in the AAA 400 was the 37th of his career.
"It was one of those days where everything lined up for us at the end of the race," Kenseth said. "It all worked out for us, kind of the opposite of what I feel like it's been going the last couple months."
Larson is 23. It was his 87th NASCAR Sprint Cup start. As a rookie in 2014, he had finished in the top five eight times. He's only had four more since.
| Numbers | Matt Kenseth | Kyle Larson | Chase Elliott |
| Current Age | 44 | 23 | 20 |
| Races | 590 | 87 | 17 |
| Wins | 37 | 0 | 0 |
| Top-5 | 165 | 12 | 4 |
| Top-10 | 294 | 30 | 8 |
| Poles | 17 | 1 | 2 |
| Laps Led | 10,780 | 263 | 32 |
| Avg. Start | 17.6 | 15.7 | 15.7 |
| Avg. Finish | 14.2 | 17.9 | 16.8 |
"We were better than Matt there," he said to Fox Sports. "A lot of good cars got wrecked, which was nice, and I knew I was going to be the car to beat."
Elliott is 20 and a rookie. Bill Elliott, his father, is a Hall of Famer. The son won the Xfinity (then Nationwide) Series championship at 18.
"I had a chance and didn't get it done," Elliott said. "That's about as simple as it gets.
"It doesn't really matter what I say. Till you get it done, it really is irrelevant."
No excuses. Like his daddy.
Based on the results of the season's first 11 races, the men who decided the 12th were unfamiliar contenders. Kenseth winning surprised no one. The surprise was that he hadn't won already. Larson, in spite of his tender age, seemed overdue. Elliott left Dover with a new tag. He now bears the expectations that have dogged Larson.
When fans say they don't want to see crashes, just good, hard racing, the one conducted at the high-banked, concrete Monster Mile on Sunday is generally what they mean. In case they also enjoy the occasional melee, the one that happened on the 355th lap was a humdinger.
Apparent transmission failure struck six-time champion and race leader Jimmie Johnson when he attempted to shift from second gear to third. The result was cataclysmic. Eighteen cars bounced off one another and two walls as if engaged in some frenetic game of billiards.
Casualties included four of the season's seven winners—Johnson, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin—plus winners in waiting Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr.
In a media conference two days earlier, Johnson had said, "There is a big penalty for the reward we are chasing here if you get it wrong."
Afterwards, he said to Fox Sports, "Just a freak deal with something with the transmission. I've never had that happen to me in my career."
The incident left Kenseth to hang on desperately for the final 35 laps, using every trick in the book he has assembled over 878 races and 66 victories in the Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series. In part, Kenseth kept Larson and Elliott at bay, and in part, they empowered Kenseth's win by being occupied with beating each other.
"I thought it was one of the greatest races ever because I won," Kenseth said. "If we would have lost, I would have said I thought the race stunk."
The key for Kenseth was keeping his Joe Gibbs-owned Toyota on the outside. Repeatedly, Larson's Chevy pulled alongside in the turns but was unable to carry the momentum of Kenseth's No. 20 down the straights. Elliott joined the fray and took second place for a while from Larson. It all played into Kenseth's hands.
"It progressively kept getting looser," Kenseth said. "He [Larson] was all over me."
Another factor may have been an incident on Lap 360 that brought out the final caution flag. Larson's bump of Kenseth's teammate, Carl Edwards, sent Edwards' car into the wall. Larson took responsibility:
"I'm not sure if Carl got loose, went to block me or if I came up, or what. I got into him, turned him into the inside wall, so I feel bad about that if it was my fault. Even if it wasn't my fault, I feel bad about that.
"
Larson said he didn't want to rough up Kenseth, whom he respects:
"I didn't want to do anything dirty. I respect Matt Kenseth a lot. He's definitely, in my eyes, the cleanest racer out there. He always races me with respect. I try to do the same with him.
I don't know. I'm still early in my career, so I don't want to make anybody mad or make any rivals. You can see, there's some drama in the sport, and it takes drivers years to get over it.
"
Drama. Like, perhaps, the rivalry late last year after Kenseth and Joey Logano tangled twice, the latter costing Logano a chance at the championship and Kenseth a two-race suspension.
Even "the cleanest driver out there" is not immune to payback in the heat of battle.
All flew back to Charlotte with reputations intact. Kenseth won the kind of cool, intelligent race at which he excels. Larson and Elliott succeeded in making high expectations higher.
The fans saw the roughest clean race of the year.
As a result of the rousing spectacle the unlikely trio conducted, expectations will rise for succeeding races.
Kenseth won the race because of his experience. He took the youngsters to school.
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All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer press releases unless otherwise noted.
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