Kenseth

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Matt Kenseth fought off problems and worries to take the Winston Cup points lead.

Kenseth finished fourth in the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday and moved 49 points ahead of defending champion Tony Stewart.

With three of his Roush Racing teammates already in the garage with engine failures, Kenseth lost the power steering on his Ford before a final restart with 12 laps to go. He never challenged the top three down the stretch, but easily held on for his third top five in four races.

"It wasn't like I didn't have power steering, it was like it was 10 times harder to steer than if it didn't have it, so I just kind of had to hang on the last 10 laps," Kenseth said.

He never had any problems with his engine, but that wasn't the case for teammates Mark Martin, Kurt Busch and Jeff Burton. It's the second straight week Martin has blown an engine.

"I was real concerned about it, but there's nothing you can do except to keep running and hope for the best," Kenseth said.

He's also happy with his points lead, even though he has 32 races left on the schedule.

"I guess it doesn't matter this early in the year, but it's better to be ahead than behind," Kenseth said. "We'll take that and build on what we did."

Top Dodge

	Spencer

Jimmy Spencer, driving one of only three Dodges from a single-car team, came home seventh, his best finish of the season.

"Top Dodge? That feels pretty good," Spencer said.

He started fifth and stayed in the top 10 most of the race, lagging behind only when his crew left a tire loose during a pit stop. But a timely caution let him catch up, and he quickly raced his way back toward the front.

Spencer joined the team late in the offseason.

"We want to take baby steps, since we're basically a new team," crew chief Tommy Baldwin said. "We want to finish in the top 15 consistently, then the top 10. It was just a great effort by Jimmy and the rest of the guys."

Now, the tough part is keeping the momentum going. Next Sunday, the team heads to Darlington, one of the toughest tracks on the circuit.

"This is not a fluke," Spencer said. "I know it's not. Now we'll prove it next week."

Power failures
The 325-lap race proved to be tough on engines, with nine cars parking with failures.

The total included four Dodges, four Fords and a Chevrolet.

Team owner Robert Yates, who didn't have any problems with Ford drivers Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler, said his teams detuned their engines to make sure they'd last. Sadler finished sixth, and Jarrett was 21st.

"This place is the superspeedway of superspeedways," Yates said. "You're going 200 mph down the straightaways, and guys are always wanting more gear to turn more RPMs.

"We knew it'd be tough, so we backed off a little bit. And fortunately, it worked out."

Jimmie Johnson, who was running in the top five, had his engine let go on the backstretch at the same time Burton had the same problem in Turn 3.

Others who failed to finish because of blown engines were Larry Foyt, Bill Elliott, Ken Schrader, Jamie McMurray and Ricky Rudd, besides the three Roush drivers.

Busch was particularly upset.

"We've always had a problem under the hood," he said. "We try and try and try. We gain horsepower, we're just not competing under the hood like the other teams."

Brett's battles

	Bodine

Brett Bodine, who made his first start since failing to qualifying for the season-opening Daytona 500, crashed out on lap 143 and finished 41st.

Running a limited schedule this year, he's also facing problems off the track. Earlier in the week, he got a restraining order against his estranged wife, Diane.

The domestic violence protective order, signed Wednesday by Mecklenburg County District Court Judge Rickye McKoy-Mitchell, requires Diane Bodine to stay away from tracks where her husband is racing.

She filed for divorce nearly two months ago and has sued a Georgia woman, accusing her of seducing her husband of 22 years and ruining their marriage. The woman has denied any involvement with Brett Bodine.

He has declined to comment on his legal issues, and an attorney for his wife disputed the accusations made in the restraining order.

Grieving Childress
The mother of team owner Richard Childress died Saturday night, and Childress traveled back to North Carolina to be with his family.

Virginia Hodge died after a brief illness. She was 79.

Childress owns the cars driven by Kevin Harvick, Robby Gordon and Jeff Green.

Stewart moves up
Stewart finished fifth Sunday, allowing him to leap from fifth to second in the standings after four races.

Stewart is the defending Winston Cup champ. He is just 49 points behind Kenseth.

"We fought a loose car the majority of the day," Stewart said. "We could get it tightened up in certain areas, but we'd get to too tight in others, and then still be loose in some. We just fought the handling all day, but we still had a good day and the guys did a great job.

"In the first half of the race we showed signs of being as good as everybody else, but it seems like if we miss a little bit here it shows up big at the end. The guys that finished ahead of us got their cars right. Still, we had a good car. We kept working on it all day. We just could never get it 100 percent right through the corner."

Closing in on 700
Elliott made his 699th start Sunday and his 53rd career start at Atlanta. He started on the outside of the front row but dropped out after 164 laps because of engine failure.

"It had a real bad vibration in the motor and it just quit," Elliott said. "We started out really loose, and then we kept getting it better and better. We didn't have anything for the 18 and that group. They're just in a class kind of by themselves, and nobody else is running with them. This has just been par for the year for us, but we'll get better."

Lug nuts
Bobby Labonte is the fourth different winner in 2003, joining Kenseth, Michael Waltrip and Jarrett. Labonte's 20th career victory moved him into a tie with Speedy Thompson for 28th on the all-time list. ... This was Joe Gibbs Racing's seventh victory in the last 14 races at Atlanta. ... It was Labonte's sixth victory in 21 races at Atlanta, tying Richard Petty for third at the track. Labonte led 172 of 325 laps, the most of all drivers. It was the first time Labonte had led the most laps since Rockingham in February 2000. ... Chevrolet has won two races in 2003. Ford also has two wins while Dodge and Pontiac still seek their first victory of the season. ... Until finishing second Sunday, Jeff Gordon had failed to score a top-10 in the first three races of the season -- the worst start of his career. Gordon climbed from 20th to eighth in the standings. ... Dale Earnhardt Jr. was third for his second top-10 in 2003. This is his fourth straight top-10 at Atlanta. ... Kenseth was fourth for his third top-five in 2003, tops among all drivers. It was his fourth top-10 in seven races at Atlanta. ... Kyle Petty was just 34th but has been running at the finish in the last 39 races.

ESPN.com news services contributed to this story.