BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Rockingham, N.C. — North Carolina Speedway is a pretty special place for Matt Kenseth. After all it is the venue where he won his first Busch Series event and the location where he clinched the 2003 Winston Cup championship. So it only seems fitting that The Rock is where he'd draw first blood for the Ford effort in 2004.

There's no arguing that Kenseth dodged a few bullets on his way to Sunday’s win, but these are the things that make his first victory of the 2004 season, oh so sweet. And boy it was close, with Kenseth beating Evernham Racing pilot Kasey Kahne by just 0.010 seconds at the stripe.

The bullet that Kenseth dodged was the newest rule regarding the yellow flag, NASCAR’s no racing back to the yellow flag rule, which freezes the field order at the time the caution flag is displayed. On two different occasions, lap 131 and again on lap 350, during the race Kenseth was sitting on pit road when a caution was displayed for on-track problems. Under the old system Kenseth, in all likelihood, would have lost his leader status and much of his prime track position in the process. But that wasn't the case under the frozen field provision, because Kenseth was able to hold on to the top-spot, despite the right side of his car being off the ground for a tire change.

"I was concerned a little bit because I'm a worry-wart and I worry about everything," Kenseth explained of the yellow flags that fell in his favor. "I was maybe 60 percent concerned because of the situation that happened earlier. I was actually farther ahead of the leader this time and the same situation happened earlier in the race, so I felt good about where we were when the caution came out - that we were farther ahead of the leader than we were the first time when we were still on the lead lap. I felt good about all those things."

Pointing out what could have been a futile argument from opposition, Kenseth explained, "I thought it would have been hard to present a case to show me that it was right the first time and wrong the second time. I've got to applaud NASCAR because they took their time and they figured it out. The field freezes now when the yellow comes out, so it's a little bit different than it used to be. We were ahead of the line. We were ahead of the leader. They did it right the first time. They did it right the second time and they took the time to correct the situation with the [No.] 9 [Kasey Kahne] and put him back on the lead lap too."

But it was that 9, along with the No. 42, that allowed Kenseth to claim a hard-earned win. The show came down to a three-car shootout with Kenseth setting the pace. Lap after lap the leading trio of Kenseth, Kahne and McMurray worked the track as they tried to gain position on each other.

The trio became a duo on the last lap. Kenseth threw it all at them when he broke his line and shifted low to cut through Turns 1 and 2. Kenseth kept the edge to Turns 3 and 4, where Kenseth swept his DeWalt Ford into the high lanes of the track. The shifting positions kept Kahne off guard enough to allow Kenseth a hard run out of Turn 4. The former-Ford driver took his best shot, rocketing off Turn 4, but Kenseth was able to maintain his position at the line, with a generous foot separating the two competitors.

Explaining his charge for the line Kenseth said, "Before the middle of the corner you're already wide open anyway. I got a little loose up off of 4. I knew he was a little bit lower, but I didn't really pay that much attention. I figured as long as I can get into 3 in front of him, there's no way he was gonna beat me off 4 down the straightaway. So I was surprised he had that big of a run.

"I was probably halfway from Turn 4 to the finish line before I looked down and saw his nose was up by the door," Kenseth continued. "I was like, 'Man, he's gaining momentum on me.' So I probably did the wrong thing, I turned right. The line is a little bit of an angle, but I actually turned right to get away from his car so he couldn't pull the air off my door and fill my wheel wells there and slow me down, so I tried to get away from him as much as I could and just hold it wide open. I was surprised because I didn't expect that. I expected him to make a last-ditch effort, but I didn't expect it to be there. I didn't expect him to get that good of a run, so it was kind of a surprise and I was glad we made it back there."

Kenseth took home a $222,303 check for his winning effort. More importantly, perhaps, is that with Kenseth's win he moves into second in the championship point chase, just seven points behind current point leader, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

STRANGE TRIP
It doesn't happen often but, following the Subway 400, NASCAR called Mark Martin into their trailer for a review of a late race move concerning his driving tactics.

The issue arose when Martin, a lap down at the time, found himself in front of Jamie McMurray and Kasey Kahne. Martin worked his Viagra Ford to where it was out of the way as much as possible, but NASCAR wondered if Martin could have done more to alleviate the perception of team driving.

"This is rare," Martin said of his appearance in the trailer. "I couldn't believe it when they said [they wanted me at the trailer], but they're taking that real serious. I hate it, but, like I said before, I didn't cause those guys to get side-by-side. Once they got side-by-side I was gonna be in somebody's way, but I never held the outside lane up - ever, ever, ever. I wouldn't do that."

Giving his perspective of the situation Martin said, "When you double-file re-start these things and you put the lap-down cars on the inside for the sake of a show, things like that happen. I was on the lead lap all day and I restarted 15th but 30th on the race track. I wrestled the last-lap cars all day. The [Nos.] 24, the 19 and the 6 were all racing. If the caution would have come out, one of those three would have gotten a lap back and would have been back in the race."

"I'm just disappointed because I think that the people in this sport know that I have a lot of integrity," Martin added. "I watched it on the tape and I didn't see anything. I'm a big fan of these guys. I'm a big fan of Jamie McMurray. I don't care who wins that race. I wanted to win the race. I was racing and I wasn't in anybody's way. I never got in anybody's way."