Kenseth

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- His qualifying isn't making it any easier for Matt Kenseth to wrap up his first Winston Cup championship.

Kenseth has built a 258-point lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr. with his consistency in races. But most often he has been forced to come from far back in the field to do it.

The runaway series leader will start Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway from the 37th spot in the 43-car field. It's the 16th time this season he has started outside the top 20 and the 26th time outside the top 10.

Kenseth has become so used to struggling in qualifying, it doesn't seem to bother him.

"I'm doing everything I can and I don't feel that bad," he said. "We just don't go anywhere, so we'll just have to wear them down in the race like we've been doing."

Kenseth, who needs only to finish 21st or better in each of the last three races to clinch the series title, has 23 top-10s in 33 starts in 2003.

Good jobs
All the drivers seemed happy Friday after getting a chance to run on the somewhat different 1-mile Phoenix oval.

Since the race last November, the outside wall in the second turn has been moved out 12 feet in an effort to promote more side-by-side racing and passing.

The track also built a tunnel under the fourth turn, which necessitated about 40 yards of new pavement on the track.

"I really like what they've done to the track," said Rusty Wallace, who qualified fifth Friday. "There's more room out there to run. I think you're going to see more passing off Turn 2.

"In my qualifying lap, I just came through turns three and four and, as I was getting a little loose, I just held on until I hit the new asphalt. Once I hit it, it really stuck."

Jimmie Johnson, third in qualifying, said it's going to be interesting to see how the changes affect the race.

"You now have a lot more room out there, obviously, to make the corner, so it's going to make the setup maybe a little easier to get right because you don't have to turn as sharp and accelerate up off the corner.

"I don't know if that is going to help with passing or hurt passing. I have a feeling that it might make it harder to pass because it's going to be a little bit more forgiving than in the past."

Costly change

	Burton

Crew chief Tony Furr was fined $25,000 and both the Haas CNC Racing team and driver Ward Burton forfeited championship points after NASCAR officials found an unapproved carburetor modification on the No. 0 Pontiac last week at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The violation was discovered during opening-day inspection prior to the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500.

Team owner Gene Haas lost 25 car owner points and Burton, who finished 13th at Atlanta in his first race for the team, also lost 25 points and fell from 20th to 21st in the standings.

King high
Richard Petty is still soaring after a ride Thursday high above Jacksonville, Fla., with the Navy's Blue Angels. NASCAR's career leader with 200 race wins and now a team owner, rode along in one of the precision flying team's two-seat F/A-18-Hornets.

"It was pretty amazing,"' said Petty, who had trade in his trademark feathered cowboy hat for a helmet. "That was a lot faster than I ever went in a stock car, but there wasn't nobody else up there and there ain't no walls."

The ride was arranged as part of a new jet fuel campaign by STP, Petty's longtime sponsor.

Spark plugs
Ward Burton hit the wall on the backstretch of his second qualifying lap Friday but will start 20th on Sunday in his repaired car. ... Ryan Newman's pole-winning speed of 133.675 mph is considerably shy of the track qualifying record of 134.178 set in 2000 by Rusty Wallace. ... Jeff Burton and the late Davey Allison are the only two-time winners in the first 15 Winston Cup races at Phoenix. ... The only drivers to compete in every Phoenix race are Wallace, Bill Elliott, Mark Martin, Dale Jarrett, Ricky Rudd, Terry Labonte and Ken Schrader, with only Labonte finishing each of the 15 events.