Dearborn, Mich. — Now, know this (but you already do): Ol’ Sparky is a big, big fan of Matt Kenseth. The ultra unflappable driver of the No. 17 Ford Fusion is, first and foremost, one whale of a race car driver. He also is smarter and funnier than he ever gets credit for.

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	• Send Sparky e-mail • Exclusive TFR blogs NASCAR podcast with Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle. This week you’ll also hear from Brian Wolfe, putting this winning in perspective. Bonus audio from Carl Edwards, Travis Kvapil and David Ragan.

Seriously.

The man can out-deadpan Stephen Wright.

He’s so plaid.

He’s also a better driver than he ever gets credit for.

Seriously.

For someone who’s won a championship and a Daytona 500, that is some serious underestimation.

And some serious under-appreciation.

But, that’s okay with Ol’ Steady Matty, who would rather stay off of everybody’s radar and in the Winner’s Circle.

And, he’s probably the closest thing to David Pearson this side of 1976.

And the other guys in the garage know that.

He went into last weekend’s Shelby 427 in Las Vegas ridin’ a two-race winnin’ streak, the first to open with back-to-back visits to the Winner’s Circle in a dozen years.

But, even the Sparkster was resigned to the fact that Kenseth was not goin’ to run the table in 2009. There was no way, no how, that Ol’ Steady Matty was goin’ to win all 36 points-payin’ races.

It just wasn’t goin’ to happen.

So, that meant he was goin’ to lose at least one.

What better place to lose, then, than Las Vegas? That’s what the Sparkster’s friends do—uh, lose in Las Vegas.

And the way that Ol’ Steady Matty went about it was kinda like getting’ off the plane and droppin’ all of your life savings in the slot machines at the airport.

Nope, it didn’t take long, did it? Not at all.

Actually, it was over before it had a chance to begin.

The Streak.

How about the Wood Really, though, it was two streaks: Matt Kenseth’s and Drew Blickensderfer’s. Kenseth’s was a two-fer, but Blickensderfer’s was a four-fer.

Drew Blickens-FOUR-fer?

In addition to the two wins Blickensederder earned as Kenseth’s new Cup crew chief, he closed ’08 with back-to-back wins as Carl Edwards’ Nationwide crew chief.

So, all that’s left to do now is start another streak. Maybe Ol’ Steady Matty can go 35 for 36 this year, which would be a bit better than the greatest season ever put together: 11 wins in 18 starts by David Pearson in 1973. That was winnin’ at a rate a smidge better than 61 percent of the time.

But, Kenseth and Blickensederfer and the rest of the 17 team will have plenty of competition this weekend for what will be an historic event at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

This Sunday’s race will be the 100th in the Cup Series at the extremely fast mile-and-a-half oval. And throughout the years—the first race there was in 1960—a number of race teams have enjoyed quite a bit of success.

So, who do think has been the most successful there?

Brothers?

The Woods have competed in 94 of the previous 99, winnin’ an even dozen. And, yep, they went two-for-two with Pearson there in ’73.

The Woods’ last win at AMS was in 1993 in a snow-delayed event. With Morgan Shepherd drivin’ and Alan Kulwicki in the Wood Brothers’ pits …

Huh? What? Wait a minute…

Kulwicki? In the pits?

Well, it seems that the 1992 champion wrecked out about a third of the way through the race and was standin’ next to Eddie Wood, tellin’ him to tell Morgan to Save gas! Save gas!

“He just knew,” Eddie told Ol’ Sparky this week. “He was a racer.”

And Morgan Shepherd won.

After a two-race hiatus, the Woods will be back at the track this week. And, of course, Bill Elliott will be behind the wheel. Awesome Bill from Dawsonville—Georgia, that is—has five career wins at Atlanta, so what better weekend that this one for the Woods to get their 97th all-time win?

But there’s another Ford driver in the lineup that has been even more successful at Atlanta: Bobby Labonte.

The 2000 series champion has six wins there, and is comin’ off a rock solid fifth-place finish at Las Vegas.

How quickly has that No. 96 Ford Fusion team gotten it together? And that team is gettin’ better every week.

And, let’s not forget about another Ford driver who grew up in Georgia and is due for a win: David Ragan. It’s just a matter of time. And, for him to win at Atlanta would be like a kid growin’ up in the Bronx and hittin’ his first career home run at Yankee Stadium.

Only Ragan would circle the bases a whole lot faster.

And, let’s not forget about Carl Edwards, who won the 99th race at AMS—uh, in the No. 99—and swept both races there in 2005. Maybe he should change his number to 100 for this weekend.

So, in short, Ford has been very, very fast at Atlanta for a long time. You’ve got to be good, real good, to get any recognition at Atlanta.

And Ford is more than ready.

While waitin’ in line for tickets to the Matt Kenseth show at the local comedy club, the Sparkster went through this week’s mailbag ...

Anyone have any ideas on when & why the drivers are using the Ford logo on the uniforms instead of the Ford Racing logo?

MLSFORD62

Thanks for noticin’, 62. And that’s the reason why. For years, Ford Racing drivers have had the Ford Racing logo stitched on their firesuits, but this year is was decided that, well, it’s pretty obvious that racin’ is goin’ on, so by droppin’ the RACING from the logo, the Ford oval become bigger, and, thus, more noticeable. So, thanks for noticin’.