(born
March 10 1972 ) is a
Stock Car Racing driver for the
Roush Fenway Racing team in
NASCAR 's
Nextel Cup series. Kenseth was raised in
Cambridge, Wisconsin .
Kenseth made an agreement with his father Roy that Roy should buy a car and race, and Matt would work on the car until he was old enough to race.
1 Matt began stock car racing in
1988 at the age of 16, and won the feature in his third night of racing. He started racing at Columbus 151 Speedway and Jefferson Speedway near Cambridge. After graduating from
Cambridge High School , Kenseth worked for four years selling and shipping parts for Lefthander Chassis, a late model racecar chassis manufacturer just south of Wisconsin in Illinois. Kenseth made a name for himself while driving at several Wisconsin tracks for Mike Butz in the #8 late model, beating nationally known drivers such as
Dick Trickle and
Robbie Reiser . He won the 1994
Slinger Nationals at
Slinger Super Speedway . He won the 1994 and 1995 track championships at
Wisconsin International Raceway . He also won track championships at
Madison International Speedway , including the 1994 late model track championship over
Robbie Reiser . Kenseth's last shop in Wisconsin was at Gerry Gunderman's
American Speed Association shop, who was also
Alan Kulwicki 's last shop in Wisconsin before moving to NASCAR. Kenseth decided to go south to the
USAR Hooters Pro Cup series in 1996 and nearly won the series championship as a rookie.
In
1996 , Kenseth made his
Busch Series debut at Lowe's Motor Speedway with car owner Carl Wegner in a part-time ride. In
1997 , racer Tim Bender was injured, and Bender's crew chief/car owner Robbie Reiser called on his former competitor and rival Kenseth to fill in. The Reiser-Kenseth combination proved successful, culmulating in a second- and third-place finishes in the Busch points. Matt drove the No. 17 car sponsored first by
Kraft , then
Lycos , and lastly
DeWalt .
Kenseth won the last two races of the Busch season in 2006 driving the #17 Penzoil Ford Fusion, at Phoenix and Homestead.
In 2007, Kenseth planned to run 23 Busch races to be sponsored by
Arby's restaurants (13 races), Dish Network (five races), iLevel by Weyerhaeuser (four races), and Aflac (one race). Kenseth won the
Stater Bros. 300 at
California Speedway in February and the
O'Reilly 300 at
Texas Motor Speedway in April.
Kenseth made his
Winston Cup Series debut in
1998 at Dover, Del., filling in for
Bill Elliott who had to attend his father's funeral on the day of the race. He finished sixth, the third best debut of any driver. The last driver before Matt to debut with a top-10 finish was
Rusty Wallace in 1980 with a second place finish in Atlanta.
In
2000 Kenseth's entire team joined the
Roush Racing organization, where they beat out
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to win the Raybestos Rookie of the Year. He won the
Coca-Cola 600 at
Charlotte , and is still the only rookie to win the famed 600 mile event. He went on to finish 14th in points with four top 5s and 11 top 10s.
In
2001 Kenseth finished 13th in points with four top 5s and nine top 10 finishes. Robbie Reiser and the DeWalt pit crew won the Unocal 76 World Pit Crew Competition.
In
2002 Kenseth won the most races (five) and one pole, but inconsistency caused him to finish eighth in the final points. The DeWalt team won a second
Unocal 76 World Pit Crew Competition .
In
2003 he dominated in the points standings for almost the entire season and became the 2003 NASCAR
Winston Cup Champion , the last driver to ever hold that title. In so doing, he also became only the second Wisconsinite to win the championship (the late
Alan Kulwicki was the first, in
1992 ). Kenseth also had a series best 25 top 10 finishes.
There was criticism about the conservative style he employed en route to winning that championship - he won just one race - which is widely believed to be the final straw that led the sanctioning body to incorporate the playoff-style Chase for the Championship that debuted in 2004. The championship had been clinched before the final race of the season in five of the previous six years, and television ratings dropped each time as the series battled the
National Football League for autumn TV ratings.
In
2004 Kenseth won the
International Race Of Champions (IROC) championship. He qualified for the inaugural
Nextel Cup , finished eighth in the final NASCAR point standings.
Kenseth started the
2005 season with relatively poor finishes but had a strong mid-season run. He rose from the 24th place in championship points after fourteen races to eighth after twenty six races, and he qualified for the Chase for the Cup. He finished seventh in the final points standings. Kenseth made his 200th career start. His totals after his first 200 starts were: 1 championship, 10 wins, 40 Top 5s, 85 Top 10s, 1 pole position, and more than $28.5 million earnings.
Matt had a fast start to the
2006 season. He led early in the
Daytona 500 , but then spun out after contact with
Tony Stewart . He fell down two laps, but rallied back to a 15th place finish. Matt won the following race at
California Speedway . He was the points leader after the eighth race at
Phoenix . He won the Dover spring race by racing from sixth to the front in the final 60 laps. He made the winning pass over teammate
Jamie McMurray with three laps left. With the season winding down into the last dozen races, Kenseth won the Sharpie 500 at the Bristol Motor Speedway - securing his spot in the chase for the Nextel Cup. He finished the year with winnings of $9,524,966, his take for second place.
In the second race of the
2007 Season Kenseth won the
Auto Club 500 at
California Speedway .
After
Jeff Gordon wrecked out of the Coca-Cola 600, Matt was left as the only driver to complete every lap this season until he was wrecked out of the Citizens Bank 400 at Michigan where
Ryan Newman was trying to get one of his 3 laps back. The wreck also ended Matt's streak of 13 consecutive top-15's this season.
In 2000, Matt married Katie Martin, also from Cambridge, Wis. Matt has one child, a son, Ross, from a previous relationship. Ross races a
Legends Car in Wisconsin, and has started late model racing.Columbus 151 Speedway 2007 Racing Program, August 24, 2007, Retrieved
September 1 2007 Matt and Katie have two cats, one named Lars after
Lars Ulrich of
Metallica (Kenseth's favorite band), and one named Charlotte after the site of Kenseth's first Winston Cup win. The Kenseth cats have been featured in NASCAR pets calendars to raise money and awareness for Humane Societies and animal charities. Matt has also been featured on a READ poster for the American Library Association. The Kenseths currently reside in North Carolina.
Kenseth operates a racing museum in his hometown of Cambridge, Wis., which features cars, trophies, firesuits, helmets, and other memorabilia from his amateur and professional career. His sister, Kelley Maruszewski, manages the museum and its retail store while also running his official Fan Club.
Kenseth has drawn criticism for his relatively quiet personality and his conservative style, clean racing and not putting "the pedal to the metal" for the win.
Since his 2003 championship season he has been involved in several skirmishes with drivers
Jamie McMurray ,
Kevin Harvick ,
Tony Stewart ,
Jeff Gordon , and
Dale Jarrett .
The Chase For The Cup has sometimes been referred to by the moniker "The Matt Kenseth Rule" by detractors.
{Link without Title}
Matt Kenseth's primary sponsor in the Nextel Cup Series is
DeWALT Power tools. He is also sponsored by Carhartt, USG Sheetrock, R&L Carriers, and the
Arby's chain of restaurants. In accordance with this sponsorship, Arby's has promised to give away free medium curly fries on the Monday following any of his race wins (Nextel Cup or Busch series). Customers need only bring in an unofficial copy of the race results from a newspaper or website.
{Link without Title}
Kenseth's primary 2007 Busch Series sponsor is Arby's. He will run five races sponsored by Dish Network, four races with the sponsor iLevel by Weyerhaeuser, and one race sponsored by Aflac.
- In 2003, Kenseth held the championship points lead for a record 33 consecutive weeks.
- Kenseth can be created in NFL Street 2 as a player in his likeness.
- Is a rabid Green Bay Packers fan.
- He is friends with Dale Earnhardt Jr whom he finished behind twice for the Busch Series Championship and beat out for the Rookie of the Year Honors in 2000.
- Is the last driver to win the , before its name-change to the NEXTEL Cup .
- Kenseth's pit crew is one of the fastest in NASCAR, and it has won two consecutive World Pit Crew Challenges. The members of are nicknamed the "Killa Bees" referring to the color of the DeWalt colors.
- At the Centurion Boats at The Glen NASCAR NEXTEL race on August 12, 2007, when all cars were stopped during a red flag, a fan jumped over the fence and walked over to Kenseth's car to ask for an autograph.
