Kenseth

As it has been a few weeks since I have checked in, on behalf of my wife Katie and the rest of our family, I wanted to express our sincere appreciation, support and gratitude to all of our American serviceman and coalition soldiers that are so bravely fighting in Iraqi to liberate and bring true freedom to the Iraqi citizens as well as bring stability and peace to the Middle East region.

I know that many of my most loyal fans and supporters are members of the armed forces making any conflict involving each of you even more personal to me and my family. Our thoughts, support and prayers are with all of you!

Since I started writing these columns for ESPN, I keep talking about the importance of consistency in building upon our success in 2002. So far, after seven races, the No. 17 DeWalt/Smirnoff Ice Ford had notched six top-10 finishes. Not only are we off to a great start with a win at Vegas and four top-five finishes, I will even have to admit that our team has been very consistent! The series points championship rewards consistency and if we can continue to run as we are now, everything is in place for a great season.

Let me say, however, that we still have 29 races to go! I'm not even thinking about the points championship! It is really nothing to get excited about! There is a long way to go and therefore a lot can happen between now and the middle of November, when the season concludes. The one positive development in leading the points for three weeks now, is it instills confidence in our team that we do have the ability to compete for a championship. I'll leave these early season points race questions at that!

What is important now is that we continue to work on being consistent and patient! We need to work on things such as improving our qualifying position, which has not been great, needless to say, over the past few years. If we can qualify better, this should reduce the likelihood of getting caught up in early race wrecks, giving us more of chance of remaining consistent.

I'm actually looking forward to Talladega. Usually our speedway cars have been somewhat off. However, our car at Daytona was very strong, despite the 500 being our only finish this year outside of the top ten! I really felt strongly that if the Daytona 500 was not cut short because of the rain, we had a great chance to compete for the win! Hopefully we will be able to show this at Talladega this weekend!

If you get a chance, Katie and I have stocked up our Internet store with the latest #17 DeWalt racing gear just in time for spring, so check it out!

Sincerely yours,
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.