Kenseth Keeps Pushing It

Matt Kenseth needed a Bristol win last year to maintain any chance of making the Chase for the Championship.

His repeat win this year locked him into the playoffs, and possibly made him the driver to beat.

Kenseth continued his momentum-building run toward the Chase on Saturday night by winning the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway -- his third consecutive NASCAR victory.

“If we can go into the Chase like this, we’ll have a shot at the championship,” he said. “The guys are operating at a championship level.”

His fourth win of the season clinched him a spot in NASCAR’s 10-race playoff format, which begins Sept. 17 in New Hampshire.

It also showed he’s peaking at the perfect time. Tony Stewart got hot midway through the summer last year and streaked to his second Nextel Cup title.

Now Kenseth hopes to do the same. He is the first driver since the late Dale Earnhardt in 1987-88 to win the Bristol night race in consecutive seasons.

“I feel like we’re definitely a contender,” Kenseth said. “But in this business, you’ve got to prove your worth each and every week. We have been taking it one week at a time and putting forth 100% effort each and every race.”

Kenseth won last week’s Cup event in Michigan, then Friday night’s Busch Series race at Bristol. He needed a gutsy pass of Kevin Harvick for the Busch win, but this one came much easier.

He passed leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. with about 50 miles to go, running him down and then sliding past when Earnhardt appeared to slow coming out of the fourth turn. There was no looking back from there for Kenseth, the 2003 series champion.

NASCAR changed the title-crowning format after Kenseth’s championship, and he hasn’t contended under the new format. He used a win here last August to highlight a frantic rally to make the Chase but faded when the playoffs began.

Kenseth is second in points, and his consecutive wins have sliced Jimmie Johnson’s lead to seven points.

Kyle Busch was second and was followed by Earnhardt, who had a terrible car when he arrived in Bristol and worked all weekend to salvage his title hopes.

“These boys came to Bristol and they worked really hard and turned [the car] into a pretty decent race car,” he said.

Earnhardt, who started the race 10th in the standings -- on the bubble of making the Chase -- moved up one spot to relieve the playoff pressure.

“I feel a whole lot better now as far as trying to get in,” Earnhardt said.

Scott Riggs scored a season-high, fourth-place finish and was followed by Jeff Gordon.

The two exchanged heated words after the race, apparently disagreeing over the way they raced each other in the closing laps.

Rookie Denny Hamlin was sixth and was followed by Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman and Jeff Burton. Johnson rounded out the top 10 and clinched his spot in the Chase.

“We took care of business,” he said. “It wasn’t anything pretty, and it wasn’t anything really racy. We weren’t up there fighting for the win, but we stayed out of trouble and took care of the race car and did what we needed to do.”