Kenseth

Wow! Although I still am amazed that we won five times last year, I can't believe that we have returned to Victory Lane in only our third race this season! Incredible!

As was the case with our victories last season, taking home the 1st place winners belt (trophy given to the Las Vegas winner) was truly a team effort. As I mentioned last week, I am extremely pleased with our team, the car and our early season momentum! I couldn't ask for a better start to the 2003 season!

As everyone knows and as I discussed last week, we had some turnover with our pit crew, which I believe many industry experts felt would reduce the competitiveness of our overall race team. We had to replace three out of seven over-the-wall members. We therefore had to add two new tire changes and a new tire carrier. Listen to this; one of our replacement tire changes had never changed tires before in any division over the wall in his life, let alone the Winston Cup Series. Never! He has carried tires before, but he has never changed tires before!

Perhaps the difference in the race was our over the wall guys getting the No. 17 DeWalt Ford first off of pit road on the last pit stop as our car was untouchable out in front in clean air! This was a huge confidence builder for our entire team and especially the over the wall crew members as I know being back-to-back world pit crew champions certainly had placed our new crew guys under a tremendous amount of pressure to perform! If our guys can continue to perform on this level, all of the ingredients are there for another championship caliber season in 2003!

	Kenseth now leads the points race.

Consistency, consistency, consistency will be the major factor in determining our overall outcome in the championship race! To figure out what I am talking about, on Saturday our Alka Seltzer Busch car had major engine troubles that resulted in a 42nd-place finish. You can't win championships with inconsistent results. It goes without saying that over the course of 36 races, mistakes are going to be made and getting caught up in a wreck is likely, the key however is to limit these situations!

I must say however, that although the championship race awards consistency, there is no better feeling than winning races! Tony Stewart has always said that the championship will take care of itself if you win races and I couldn't agree with him more!

Off the track, we have a busy agenda this week! I was in from Florida at Homestead where Ford did a really neat promotion with several PGA Tour golfers. We got to take a few of the PGA players out for a ride-along at the track! Let me tell you that it is a blast giving ride-alongs for people that have never been in a stock car! Lets just put it this way; it doesn't take much to get them extremely nervous! On Saturday after practice, I flew down to Jacksonville, Fla., for the Jacksonville Auto Show. And, by the way, next Monday, March 10, I turn 31, so I was hoping to have a rewarding birthday at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday! (The No. 17 car finished fourth and Kenseth now tops the points race).

To celebrate our 1st place finish in Vegas, we ran a promotion through Saturday at MattKensethStore.com! Every item in our store was discounted 17% off though March 8. Why not reward all of my fans and our online community after we visited Victory Lane for the first time in 2003?!

Yours truly,
Matt

Matt Kenseth driver diary.
Visit Kenseth's Web site at www.mattkensethstore.com

Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Ford, is providing a diary to ESPN.com throughout the Winston Cup season.