DeWalt, Not By Default

Matt Kenseth began stock car racing in 1988 at the age of 16, and won the feature in his third night of racing. Kenseth made a name for himself while driving at several Wisconsin tracks for Mike Butz in the #8 late model,beating out drivers such as Dick Trickle( who'd name their kid that?) and Robbie Reiser. Winning track championships at Wisconson International Raceway in 1994 and 1995. After going to the Hooters Pro Cup racing in 1996 and damn near won the series championship in his rookie year.Kenseth made his Busch Series debut in 1996. In 1997, in need of a fill in driver, Robbie thought of Matt. The Reiser-Kenseth combination proved successful, culmulating in a second- and third-place finishes in the Busch points. Matt drove the No. 17 car with sponsored from Lycos, Kraft, and DeWalt Tools.

Subbing in for an injured Bill Elliot in 1998 gave Matt his first Winston Cup start. Finishing sixth as a rookie in his first race. Only other driver to do that was our recently retired Rusty Wallace.The ENTIRE BUSCH team moved up to Cup in 2000. In the midst of the new milliinium, Matt won Rookie of the Year beating out Dale Jr. as well as winning the Coca Cola 600, finishing the year out year fourteenth in points. In 2001 Kenseth finished 13th in points,2002 Kenseth won the most races (five) and one pole, but inconsistency caused him to finish eighth in the final points. Then came 2003, he dominated in the points standings for almost the entire season and became the last driver to hold the title of Winston Cup Champion. 2004 Matt nailed down the IROC series Championship as well as eight in the first Chase for the Championship.Kenseth started the his 2005 season with relatively poor finishes but had a strong mid-season run. He rose from the lower teens in championship points to eighth in eight 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. 2006 is a little better start for our DeWalt driver, except for the bullsizzit with Tony at Daytona. Then to win the next week was sweet redemption. Now with 7 races in the history books, 34 year old Matt is just a meeger 15 points behind the Blowes Chevy. Which literally won't mean shit when the chase begins, but I thought you would like to know anyways.