Kenseth

Consistency made Matt Kenseth a champion in 2003 -- and the center of a debate.

Winning the NASCAR Winston Cup championship with only one victory put Mr. Consistency squarely in the spotlight of an argument over the effectiveness of the sport's longtime points system.

Kenseth was atop the Cup standings for a record 33 consecutive races and, except for a brief lapse late in the season, appeared to be in total control on the way to his first title.

"We were competitive in every race, even the ones where we had a problem -- an engine failure or a wreck," Kenseth said. "This team hardly missed a beat all year and they deserve to be champions."

Elsewhere in auto racing in 2003, Paul Tracy finally won a CART championship, the Indy Racing League staged a dramatic five-man points race won at the last event by Scott Dixon, and Michael Schumacher took an unprecedented sixth Formula One championship.

Still, the focal point of the season was Kenseth.

He led the Cup standings after 28 races by a whopping 436 points, but then had finishes of 33rd and 36th that cut his margin nearly in half.

Suddenly, Kenseth appeared catchable by his closest pursuers -- Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson.

No way.

Kenseth got back into his groove, finishing no worse than 13th in the next five races and wrapping up the title with a week to go.

Not everybody thought he deserved the title.

After Kenseth became the first driver since Benny Parsons in 1973 to win the championship with only one victory, there was considerable talk about a change in the points system that rewards consistency over winning.

	Newman

The debate was further fueled by Newman, who won 11 poles and eight races -- both series highs -- and wound up sixth in the points, mostly because he failed to finish seven races.

After the season ended, NASCAR officials were considering a radical change to the points system that would lock in the top 10 drivers after the 26th race of the 2004 season. Those drivers would then compete over the final 10 races -- with their standings possibly being reset to zero -- for the championship.

Under such a system this year, runner-up Johnson would have won the title and Kenseth would have finished seventh.

Michael Waltrip won his second Daytona 500 and added a victory in the fall race at Talladega, while his teammate Earnhardt Jr. won the spring event at Alabama, and 20-year-old Brian Vickers became the youngest champion ever in any of NASCAR's top three series when he took the Busch title.

Greg Biffle, who lost the rookie title to Jamie McMurray, broke up Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s restrictor-plate dominance by winning in July at Daytona. It was the only Winston Cup win of 2003 by a first-year driver.

There was also plenty of change in NASCAR. Brian France took over as chairman and CEO, replacing father Bill Jr. Winston announced it was leaving after 33 years as the series sponsor and Nextel signed on to replace the tobacco company. And, a new rule ended the controversial practice of racing back to the yellow flag on a caution.

There were some hard feelings, too, with a simmering feud between Jimmy Spencer and Kurt Busch blowing up in August at Michigan after the two bumped on the track. Spencer punched Busch in the face and was suspended for a race; Busch was fined.

	Renna

The IRL had another season of spectacular close racing. But tragedy touched the IndyCar Series 10 days after its final race when 26-year-old Tony Renna was killed in a crash during a tire test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Two months later, the IRL announced it would eliminate private testing, one of several rule changes aimed at cutting costs next season.

Renna was killed on his first day driving for the elite Chip Ganassi Racing team, which hired the youngster as the 2004 teammate to Dixon.

"So often in this business you see these young people that have all the prerequisites ... but haven't necessarily been given the right tools in their toolbox," Ganassi said when announcing Renna as his new driver. "I think Tony is one of those guys."

The death came on the heels of a terrifying wreck at Texas Motor Speedway, where Kenny Brack crashed into the catch fencing. He came away with multiple injuries and is now undergoing rehabilitation.

The crashes also prompted IRL officials to change the engine rules for 2004 to cut horsepower by about 10 percent and speeds by about 10 mph.

The championship came down to the final race, with Dixon and Helio Castroneves tied for the lead and trailed by Tony Kanaan, two-time defending IRL champion Sam Hornish Jr. and Gil de Ferran. Dixon wound up beating de Ferran by 18 points.

De Ferran decided to retire after winning the Indianapolis 500 in May, giving team owner Roger Penske his 13th Indy win. De Ferran finished his career with a victory at Texas.

Hornish, who will replace de Ferran on the Penske team in 2004, was handicapped by an underpowered Chevrolet engine but hung in the points race until GM came up with a more powerful entry. He then made a run at the title, winning three times in the last seven races. He wound up sixth, just 36 points behind Dixon.

Tracy started the CART season with three straight victories and, despite some midseason struggles, won four more times on the way to his first title in 13 years of trying.

	Tracy

Tracy clinched the championship on Oct. 26 in Australia, taking a 26-point lead on Bruno Junqueira. That turned out to be the last race of the season because wildfires forced the cancellation of the Nov. 2 finale at California Speedway.

CART ended the season with its future in doubt. The open-wheel series filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization as part of a buyout that would allow racing in 2004 but eventually phase out the CART name.

Ferrari got off to a slow start in Formula One, thanks to new rules, including one-car-at-a-time qualifying sessions over two days and other regulations governing fuel, car setup and points distribution based on race finishes.

In the end, Schumacher broke the record of five championships set by Juan Manuel Fangio. Schumacher didn't win until the fourth race of the season but held on to beat rising star Kimi Raikkonen by just two points.

In the other two top NASCAR series, the points battles went down to the final races. Vickers, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, beat David Green by just 14 points to win the championship. The Craftsman Truck series title went to Travis Kvapil, who beat Dennis Setzer by nine points.