James: New Hampshire perfect track for Matt Kenseth to reset his season
Racing as a team sport is predicated on selfishness furthering the overall effort of the organization.
This weekend’s Overton’s 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway was bound to be important to Matt Kenseth, especially since he and his teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing remain winless after having racked up seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victories by this time last season. But as a future former driver of the No. 20 Toyota — with official word this week that he will be replaced next season by 21-year-old rookie Erik Jones — the 45-year-old, 18-season veteran could very much benefit from a reprise of his recent success at the 1-mile oval.
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Kenseth has won two of the last three races at Loudon and finished second in the most recent installment last fall after leading 105 of 300 laps. His victory in the 2015 playoff race put him atop the points standings and advanced him automatically to the second round. His victory there in the summer of 2016 — after taking the lead from teammate Denny Hamlin for the final 31 laps — was his second of the season. His runner-up finish last fall elevated him to fourth in points and he kept his bid for a second championship viable until the penultimate race of the season at Phoenix Raceway.
Kenseth has an average finish of 12th and has completed 99.2 percent of the laps in 34 starts at Loudon.
Kenseth, now 11th in the driver standings, arrives this time in search of much more humble progress — keeping his figurative crampons sunk into the granite escarpment that is currently the final transfer slot on points with eight races left in the regular season. Kenseth’s recent run of results doesn’t portend momentum, but his 20th, 27th and 17th-place finishes came on a road course, a restrictor-plate superspeedway and an intermediate track, respectively, which isn’t applicable to the variable-banked, relatively flat Loudon course.
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Finding a comparison is not possible, Kenseth said.
“It’s really the only flat one-mile track that we go to on the circuit, and I really can’t compare it to anywhere else that we go,” he said in a team release. “The track changes a lot from practice to race time since there are so many different divisions of races going on throughout the weekend.”
Kenseth admitted last week at Kentucky Speedway that he had no job for 2018 and the transition of Toyota prospect Jones from his rookie ride at Furniture Row Racing to JGR was no surprise when it was announced days later. Retiring Dale Earnhardt Jr. expressed confidence that his long-time friend from their formative days together in the Xfinity Series would acquire a quality job, but Kenseth was loathe to discuss the prospect of taking over the No. 88 Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports.
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“I probably already said too much about what I’m not doing next year,” the 2003 Cup Series champion said last week. “So I don’t really have anything to talk about for what I am doing. … I don’t have anything going on for next year and [I’m] pretty focused on trying to get running better this year and winning some races.”
Doing so would help solidify his case as a valuable free agent in a market where at least one and perhaps numerous jobs could become available in the offseason depending on sponsor acquisitions and potential downsizing on some power teams.
Kenseth could be a short-term fix for the No. 88 Chevrolet if owner Rick Hendrick and potential sponsors deem William Byron or Alex Bowman unready or unqualified. Kurt Busch is in a contract year at Stewart-Haas Racing and Danica Patrick’s No. 10 Ford team has struggled with sponsor shortages, although the team has not officially commented on their futures.
There’s never a good time for limbo, but for Kenseth, a recent fitness enthusiast who won seven races in 2013 and five in 2015, there have been others in worse predicaments, especially with New Hampshire up next.
Follow James on Twitter @brantjames
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