In just his third Winston Cup season, Matt Kenseth is the circuit's winningest driver this year. Yet, he can't get a whiff at the championship.

As Tony Stewart protects his 146-point lead over Mark Martin going into Sunday's Pop Secret 400 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, Kenseth is trying to seal a top-10 finish in the standings -- which would give him reason to call this a successful year.

"I was expecting to do a lot better than last year," Kenseth said. "We ended the season last year on a really strong note. We had two or three top-fives toward the end of the year and we ran really well a few times, even though we didn't get the finishes. I was hoping to carry that momentum into this year and, hopefully, be a top-10 team so that was kind of my expectations for the year. I was hoping to be in the top-10 somewhere."

He's in eighth, 361 points behind Stewart. But the Roush Racing driver isn't upset that he's so far out of the championship hunt despite his win total. He may be relatively new to the sport, but he knows the points system is designed to favor consistency. And he also knows he's not the only driver to win the most races and not win the title.

"I think that the way they do the points right now is the right way to do it," Kenseth said. "I don't remember a points race that's more exciting than what they've had this year with so many different leaders. I think it's going to go right down to the wire, so I think the points system is right.

"I don't think you can necessarily reward a guy for winning the most races that isn't consistent. ... It's a season-long deal and it's something we work at for 40 weeks. I think you've got to reward the driver, the team and the owner that builds the most reliable equipment and does the best job and makes the least amount of mistakes on an average through the 36 points races that we run.

"I think that's the guy that needs to be rewarded, not the guy who can win four or five races and make a whole bunch of mistakes and not do a good job in the rest of the races and get good finishes."

As far as consistency goes, Kenseth has got 10 top-fives and 17 top-10s, which is right on par with the points leaders. But when he hasn't had a leader-of-the-pack type of day, he's been way off.

He's got 10 finishes of 30th or worse this year, including two DNFs.

It was that type of year that Kenseth was worried about. After edging out rival Dale Earnhardt Jr. for rookie of the year in 1999, Kenseth finished 13th in the 2000 standings. He failed to qualify high enough for so many races he was forced to take 11 provisionals. His average finish was 19th. After that, Kenseth wanted to make sure he rebounded this season.

So as much as the off days have been off, Kenseth is thankful for the days he's been able to compete with the best. He knows he's got the talent to make it in this sport. And he definitely has the backing -- as evidenced by the resurgence of the entire Roush stable this season.

As for the four wins -- Kenseth won't try to fool you. As nice as they were, they were kind of a shock.

"The four wins surprises me a lot," he said. "Going into this year, I never expected to win four races. I just hoped to be able to win one and have a chance at being in a position to win races, so that's definitely been a huge surprise going into the year, especially with the way we ran last year."

As Kenseth's season took a downturn last year, Earnhardt Jr.'s was on the rise. He finished in the top-10 of the standings with two victories and got to give a speech at the awards banquet in New York.

So much had been made of the rivalry the two shared in the Busch Series, that Kenseth was asked constantly about Junior's success. The quiet kid from Wisconsin took it all in stride. He and Junior are friends, but it ate him up inside that he wasn't doing as well.

It's that natural competitiveness with Junior that leads Kenseth to believe the two might be able to establish a good rivalry. But, seeing as to how everyone seems to be competitive these days, he doesn't know how long it could last.

"I hope someday that we can race each other for a championship," he said. "That would be really awesome and my goal is to someday win a Winston Cup championship. It's a tough thing and it's a long year. There's so much competition and you never know what year you're going to be on and what year you're going to be off. It's hard to stay on top of your game all the time. You can look at the 18 car (of Bobby Labonte) and see that. They won the championship two years ago and this year they've struggled a lot.

"In the Busch Series, we both ran really well for two-and-a-half years, but it's a little tougher to be that consistent over here. I hope it can happen someday. In this day and age, I don't know if we'll have a deal where we're both racing for a championship multiple years, but I hope that we can some day."

Rupen Fofaria is a beat writer for The Raleigh News & Observer.