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Matt Kenseth has some unfinished business at the Martinsville Speedway when he arrives at the Virginia track to start the penultimate round of the Chase. That unfinished business is to win a second Sprint Cup championship - his first under the Chase format instead of the old season-long points battle.
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Never short on determination or talent, Kenseth has been trying to get back to champion status since 2003 when he and crew chief Robbie Reiser won the title with a lone victory at the Ford team owned by Jack Roush. It was not necessarily a happy occasion, since Kenseth and his crew chief were roundly criticized for stroking to the title by points racing.
It was, in many respects, the birth of the Chase format, designed to make sure drivers push the accelerator to the max. Kenseth led only 354 laps in 36 races his championship season and this year has already led 717, which is slightly more than his career seasonal average of 693.
Last year, Kenseth had some other unfinished business get in the way of his championship pursuit. The goal was to win the race and, as it turned out, beat front-running Joey Logano, the same driver who had rammed him out of the lead in the late stages two races earlier at the Kansas Speedway.
The plan infamously went awry. Instead of beating Logano to the checkered flag, Kenseth ended up beating him into the Turn 3 wall after the Wisconsin driver tangled with Logano's Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski on a re-start and got fed up with the Ford duo. Kenseth and Keselowski had literally fought at Charlotte several weeks earlier.
Kenseth, who was forced to the sideline by a suspension from NASCAR for his frontier justice, is focused on a victory to advance to the championship finale at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. By most accounts the feud with Team Penske is over - although another skirmish in the tight confines of Martinsville could well rekindle it.
For a driver with as such down-home Wisconsin attitude, Kenseth can't seem to get away from controversy at this time of year. He comes into Martinsville on the heels of another flare-up, somewhat similar to his championship season.
Along with his fellow Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, Kenseth was a strumbo - or an old-school points racer - at last week's race in Talladega, where the trio rode around in the back to avoid stealing points from fellow Chase aspirant Denny Hamlin.
But as the NASCAR world turns, each race weekend brings a new perspective. The Round of 8 that starts at Martinsville sharpens every championship contender's focus on winning. A victory is the surest way to get to the finale in Homestead. Otherwise a driver needs a stellar points record - which can easily go askew in the fender-banging at Martinsville.
Before moving to JGR in 2013 from Roush-Fenway Racing, Kenseth had not fared well at Martinsville, which has not been kind to Fords in recent autumn events. Driving a Toyota and cribbing notes from his teammates, Kenseth has been more consistent at Martinsville under crew chief Jason Ratcliff, finishing sixth or better four times - including his best ever finish of second in 2013.
"It's been a tough place for me for a lot of years, but the last four years since I got with Jason at JGR, we've been pretty competitive there," Kenseth said. "It's certainly one that I've always wanted to go win. We've come up short, we've had problems there - things like that - but typically we run good, so I'm really looking forward to getting to Martinsville and hopefully we can perform well and get a good finish and kick off the next round in a positive way."
One can imagine Kenseth enjoying the prospect of returning to Martinsville with racing on his mind rather than revenge or balloon-footing it like Talladega according to team strategy. There's that unfinished business of finally winning a championship under not only the Chase format, but the elimination structure that was launched in 2014.
Prior to Talladega, Kenseth, who had two victories in the regular season, was averaging a Top 5 finish in the first five Chase races. He knows the hill gets steeper as the field is winnowed down. "Man, good race cars, good race car drivers, good teams," he said.
One of those good cars belongs to Talladega winner Logano, who certainly has his own unfinished business at Martinsville. It remains to be seen if Keselowski, who was eliminated from the Chase last week, will run interference for his teammate on the short track where both Penske cars have run well.
"We got momentum, we have speed," said Logano, who said he learned a lot about his own confidence last year after winning three straight Chase races and then getting dumped by Kenseth.
This year, Logano said he once again had three good cars in the Round of 12 and that's given his team momentum.
"We have a lot of confidence for that reason because we know we can do it," he said. "We know we can go to these next couple races, they're good racetracks for us, all three of them are. We just got to go out there and fight, do what we know how to do ... I think we're better under pressure. That's kind of our motto this year, we can fight under those situations. We know how to do that."
As for JGR, since Hamlin - an excellent short track driver - advanced at Talladega, all four drivers are in the Round of 8 and there's little margin for team orders.
Given that last year's Martinsville winner Jeff Gordon returns as a substitute for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at Hendrick Motorsports, and that teammate Jimmie Johnson is the career leader at the track among active drivers with eight wins, the fight at the front should be furious.
Former Martinsville winners Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch, both Chevy drivers, are also in the Round of 8.
Kenseth is still looking for his first career victory at Martinsville - like Logano - and will have his work cut out for him if he's going to get to that second championship. Say what one will about last week's lack of racing, at least the Chase has one good ol' short track on the schedule. In a setting where saving brakes might be a good idea, holding back on the accelerator or trying to protect one's fenders is a losing proposition.
