BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Sonoma, Calif. — The old racing axiom It’s better to be lucky than good played into NASCAR Winston Cup point leader Matt Kenseth’s hands today when a tire failure came at just the right moment.

Kenseth, who was running as well as any of the hired road racing guns, in his DeWalt Ford, lost the tread of the left-rear tire on lap 36 of the 110-lap event. Fortunately for Kenseth the tire’s failure occurred at the entrance of pit road, saving the potentially long and arduous 1.99-mile trip if the tire had separated several feet later.

With tire tread rolling along behind, Kenseth made the trip to the attention of his Robbie Reiser-led crew for four fresh tires and fuel. As Kenseth rolled down pit road NASCAR officials threw the caution to allow safety crews to retrieve the runaway tread.

“We were running in the top 10 and thought we could've kinda stayed there all day,” began Kenseth about the tire incident. “I thought I had a flat [on the previous lap], but I wasn't sure. I should've ducked in the pits right away and I waited a lap and you can't wait a lap here. The whole thing came off the wheel. I just lost a bunch of time, so that was my mistake."

“It happened through the esses the lap before,” continued Kenseth explaining when he felt the tire giving up. “I felt it get real loose. I didn't know if it was gravel on the track or if I had a flat. So I got a flat and they said, 'Pit,' and I was just by the edge and I went another lap. That's when it came all the way apart. And that's how I cost myself all those positions."

While Kenseth did lose a slew of positions in the incident, Kenseth’s heads-up driving and Reiser’s work led to a 14th place finish for the Roush Racing-prepared Taurus.

"We weren't ever great,” Kenseth deadpanned. “We were probably always a 10th- or 15th-place car, and just some wrecks and some stuff happened.

“At times we had good track position, but I never thought them guys could make it as far as they made it on fuel or we would've pitted earlier and had a chance to be up there, too. But it didn't work out that way. But yet I'm satisfied with 14th. That's a lot better than we've ever done here before."

The impressive run keeps Kenseth in the front of the points pack, though his lead to second place was reduced by 10 markers. Kenseth is now 174 points ahead of the new second in the standings — Jeff Gordon.

THE ‘OTHER’ GORDON
Race winner, Robby Gordon, was involved in “one of those racing deals” on his way to victory, according to car owner Richard Childress. Gordon got the lead for the final time when he passed teammate Kevin Harvick as the field came back to take a full course caution. Gordon scooted his car under Harvick’s as the field was coming to take the yellow on lap 70 of the event after Christian Fittipaldi made one of his several runs off course.

Gordon and Harvick have some history at Infinion Raceway as the two tangled several years ago when Gordon was working towards his first career WC victory. Harvick, who was a lap down in that scenario, ran his future teammate hard enough to allow Tony Stewart to take the victory in that race.

The two tangled again today when Harvick tried to force a pass for the lead earlier in the event, and opened the door for Ron Fellows to take the spot. Gordon expressed his displeasure with his hands.

Gordon, who was hammering NASCAR during the pre-race drivers meeting about yellow flag procedures for this event, apparently took NASCAR’s description of the gentlemen’s agreement to heart and worked his teammate under caution for the lead and eventual race win.

But none of the action mattered to car owner Childress, who placed the Cingular Chevy into victory lane the weekend immediately following the announcement of wireless competitor Nextel as the series sponsor for 2004.

"I hate it was our team car. Kevin had a great car today and I hate it for Kevin, but I'm happy as can be for Robby,” said Childress, who later added that he’d sit his drivers down for a chat during the upcoming week.