Two slips have field closing in on Kenseth

CONCORD, N.C. -- Matt Kenseth seemed untouchable two weeks ago. It almost certainly would be his name engraved on the Winston Cup championship trophy.

But two disastrous races sliced 177 points off his lead in the standings, and his closest competitors now believe they've got a chance.

The final stretch of six races begins tonight with the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"The blood is dripping," said Kevin Harvick, who is 259 points back in second place. "We're trying to find out where the trail is."

Harvick's hopes are bolstered by history: The late Alan Kulwicki registered the biggest comeback with six races to go in 1991, overcoming a 278-point deficit to Bill Elliott to win the title.

Although Kenseth has scored his lowest finishes of the season the past two weeks -- he was 33rd in Talladega and 36th in Kansas -- some still believe the race is over.

"If he had not lost a couple hundred points the past two weeks, we would be saying 'He's got a 259-point lead with six races left. It's in the bag for him,"' said three-time Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip, now a commentator for Fox. "All he's done the last two weeks was shown he is fallible and we didn't think he was."

Ryan Newman, who has a series-high eight victories and starts from the pole tonight, is fourth, 364 points back.

Jeff Gordon will start on the outside of the front row.

Jimmie Johnson, who won both races here in May and is starting third in his bid to become the first driver to sweep the season at Lowe's, is fifth, 380 points back.

All think they have a chance if they focus solely on their own efforts over the final stretch.

"We just go out and do the best job we can and take the points we can," Newman said. "Effort equals results, car owner Roger Penske has always said that.

"I think I'm putting 100 percent into it every week. It doesn't matter to me what anybody else does."

But as the challengers are swarming around them, Kenseth and his Roush Racing team are not panicking.

"Whatever happens is going to happen," car owner Jack Roush said.

To Kenseth, who struggled in qualifying and starts a disappointing 29th on Saturday night, the rest of the field is just talking and he's tuning it out.

"I don't listen to that stuff," he said. "We're just doing the best we can every week. We're still in good shape. It does no good to worry about what happened last week or the week before."

Lowe's Motor Speedway has typically been a good race track for Kenseth. He scored his first career victory here in 2000 and has placed second in the past three races here. Harvick's best finish in the past three races was 13th.

"Running there with a great-handling car is one of the best feelings in the world," Kenseth said. "We'll see how things shake out Saturday night."