Kenseth Clear Cut Choice for Rookie of the Year

HUNTERSVILLE, NC - Even though Matt Kenseth will tell you that he still needs a lot of improvement to get to the level of performance he expects of himself on the Winston Cup Series, he has had a sensational rookie season establishing himself as the class of the '00 rookie class.

If you look at the Raybestos Rookie of the Year points system as it stands currently, Kenseth leads second-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. 276 to 248. The 28-point difference is the largest of the season and with just three races to go, it is virtually insurmountable.

The points system awards rookies for finishing as the top rookie in each race on a 10-1 points system where the top finishing rookie receives 10 points, the second highest gets nine, and so on. Next, each rookie receives bonus points for finishing in the top 10 with 10 for first, nine for second and down to one point for a 10th place. In addition, the season is divided into three segments and the rookie with the most points accumulated in each segment will receive 10 bonus points, second will receive nine, etc.

In addition to the final three races where points will be awarded and a third segment bonus that will most certainly go to Kenseth, NASCAR has a Winston Cup panel that grades each rookie candidate in three areas including conduct with officials in the garage and pit areas, conduct and awareness on the track, and personal appearance and relationship with the media on a 10-1 points system.

Another telling statistics is the rookie of the race award, which rewards the highest finishing rookie with a cash award for every race. Kenseth has twice as many rookie of the race awards as second place Dale Jr. with 16 compared to eight. Mike Bliss is third with four and Scott Pruett, Dave Blaney and Stacy Compton, each have one apiece.

"We've been focusing on getting better and more consistent as a race team," Kenseth said. "The Rookie of the Year is something that's been on our list of goals since we came together as a team in August of 1999. Another goal was to constantly improve as a team and run better the second time on the tracks that we run twice. We don't gauge the success of our season alone on whether or not we win the rookie title. We sure are happy that things have gone well for us and we've got a comfortable lead. We just have to finish strong and hopefully it will be ours."

Kenseth has surged into the lead with a combination of strong performances and consistency. It is a lead that he has held since following the spring Talladega race in April. He has the highest average finish of any rookie with an 18.9 compared to Dale Jr.'s 20.9, the fewest DNF's with just two and leads in every other rookie category other than number of Bud Pole awards, average starting position and number of wins. Dale Jr. leads in those three categories.

Kenseth leads the rookie class in points where he stands 13th (with 3436) compared to 16th for Dale Jr. (3207). Kenseth has four top five and 10 top-10 finishes compared to three and five for Dale Jr., respectively.

The No. 17 DEWALT team enjoys the final weekend off of the season and returns to action in Phoenix for race number 32 on the 34-race schedule at the Checker Auto Parts/Dura Lube 500.