Advice calms Kenseth in race for title

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- Calming advice from defending champion Tony Stewart has helped steady Matt Kenseth as he nears his first Winston Cup title.

Kenseth, who has led the driver standings since the fourth week of the season, can clinch the championship today at North Carolina Speedway in the Pop Secret 400.

He goes into the 400-mile race with a 228-point lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr., with Jimmie Johnson third, 241 points behind. A seventh-place finish by Kenseth today will wrap up the title, no matter what the top contenders do.

If he doesn't win it today, 30th-place finishes here and in the season-finale Nov. 16 at Homestead will give Kenseth the title.

"It would be hard for him not to win it," Earnhardt said. "It would take some really bad luck."

That season has included only one win but 10 top fives and 24 top 10s in 34 races.

It is the first time Kenseth has had to deal with the pressure of a championship race in NASCAR's top stock car series.

When finishes of 33rd and 36th followed the Dover race, cutting the lead to 259 points, Stewart decided to call Kenseth with a little advice.

Stewart held off Mark Martin in a much closer title battle last year.

"You could see it in Matt's face each week that the stress was getting to him," Stewart said. "You can share your knowledge and experiences with someone, and I just told him to have fun."

"I didn't. I spent every day the last four weeks of the season sitting with a points sheet, running scenarios through my mind. I told him, 'You don't want to do that. This is the moment of your life. Enjoy it.' "

It worked.

"I went back to being exactly like I always have and haven't really let myself get too caught up in the points deal," Kenseth said.

Crew chief Robbie Reiser said he and the rest of Kenseth's No. 17 Ford team also got caught up in the pressure.

"We got that 400-point lead there for a little bit and they didn't want anything to happen," Reiser said. "Then, we broke that motor at Talladega and crashed at Kansas, and everybody panicked and put a lot more margin in everything. It got to the point where all of a sudden we weren't running too well."

The pressure of being on top also influenced Reiser's strategy during races.

"You've got to realize that there are a lot of times during the season that you'll go the extra lap on fuel to lead a lap, or you'll call your strategy a little bit differently because you're trying to be aggressive," Reiser said.

That aggressive strategy changed after Kenseth lost 170 points of his lead at Talladega and Kansas.

"You get conservative with the way you do things," Reiser said, pointing to the Atlanta race last month as an example. "Even though we were running slower and needed tires, I waited until the leaders pitted just to make sure I didn't get caught that lap down. When you do that, that takes some of the edge off of trying to win races."

As Kenseth relaxed, so did the rest of the team.

"Now, if we have an opportunity of winning this race, we'll go after it," Reiser said.