Kenseth Accepts Challenge Million
Written by John Davison · May 23, 2004
Matt Kenseth eased around his friend and competitor Ryan Newman to win the NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge and a million dollar prize.
Ken Schrader won the fans’ vote to get into the NASCAR NEXTEL Challenge with a total of 32,623 votes to Jamie McMurray’s 32,280. The vote swung in the final 20 minutes of voting, giving Schrader the razor-thin 343-vote margin. As one wit said, “in Florida, we’d have to call for a recount.”
When the Challenge started, pole-sitter Rusty Wallace led the first lap, followed by Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, and Tony Stewart. Ricky Craven’s spin in the second turn brought out the race’s first caution to start the fifth lap as he backed into the outside wall.
The green flag came back out to start the ninth lap with Wallace leadingbut Newman managed a better resrartand grabbed the lead, followed by Rony Stewart but behind them, 11 cars got caught up in a crash caused when Greg Biffle got shoved down the front straight by his fellow Roush Racing driver Kurt Busch. The crash damaged the cars of Joe Nemechek, Jeff Gordon, Ken Schrader, Sterling Marlin, Robby Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne and Michael Waltrip in addition to the other two Roush cars.
“If I was Jack Roush, I don’t know what I’d do,” said a disgusted Greg Biffle. “I got hit from behind on the straightaway and got turned into the fence. I tried to save it, but dang, you’re going so fast right there. I don’t understand what happened. It’s early in the race like that and a teammate wrecks you and just drives under the back of you.”
After changing his clothes, Busch explained that “Yeah, he got a run on the 17 coming out of Four and I just wanted to help him usher down the straightaway but the way our noses are pinned and the tails are up with stiff rear springs, our car lifted his instead of helping to push him.
It’s just an all-star type bump where you just want to try to help him. He’s a teammate of mine and I didn’t mean to wreck him.
“I apologize for all the wrecked race cars out on pit road. I’ve got to get myself in check, I guess. I mean, we’re only 12 laps in and I’ve got a wrecked race car. Last week we had the fastest car out on the track and we had to put it in the trailer after the race without a good finish. We need to finish,” he concluded.
“I saw smoke as we crossed the start-finish line,” described Marlin. “Everybody started checking up, running into each other. I thought we had it cleared and somebody hit me in the left rear and turned me around,” he continued.
“Sometimes you dodge tthem here and sometimes you don’t,” said Sterling Marlin. “That’s the deal with this race. They usually wipe out a bunch of cars. I know I might make somebody made but I’d rather go run a points race where it would mean something,” he added. “It’s like this every year. Everybody tears up their cars and somebody is mad.
“It’s a wonder somebody didn’t get hurt. Somebody must have crammed somebody into the fence, made it three deep or something. It’s hard to run three deep here.
“We almost got through it and somebody ran into the back of us and turned us around. I don’t what all happened then. It was jsut a big wreck with a lot of smoke,” he added. “They were all two or three deep. It’s really hard to race like that for that short of time. Everybody was being idiots. They do it all the time. They’re going to invert the field. It’s the mentality of a 25-lap dirt tracker — just knock them out of the way.”
The green flag flew again to start lap 16 and Tony Stewart took the lead from Newman. Brian Vickers, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson all made their mandatory green-flag pit stops on the first green flag lap, going a lap down until the rest of the field make their required stops for four tires.
Dale Earnhardt Jr drove around Bobby Labonte, followed by his fellow DEI driver Michael Waltrip. Stewart then made his pit stop, taking on four tires, then Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth made their stops together. Rusty Wallace came in alone, complaining of understeer. After all the pit stops finished, Tony Stewart headed Matt Kenseth. Mark Martin was the third with Earnhardt fourth and Wallace fifth.
The remainder of the field running included Newman, Terry Labonte, Waltrip, Jarrett, Sadler, Johnson, Vickers, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Kasey Kahne, Ken Schrader and Geoffrey Bodine.
Leader Ryan Newman did not pit for service during the break, crew chief Matt Borland explaining that they just thought they’d take the gamble and hope things work out for them.
With fifteen drivers on the lead lap as the green flag, Newman moved out to a three length lead as Sadler and Kenseth battled side by side for second. Earnhardt moved around Stewart and into a challange for second while Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne battled for ninth with Mark Martin holding tenth.
Kenseth moved into a challenge on Newman in five laps, but also had to contend with a charge from Earnhardt on the high side. Michael Waltrip moved into fourth, passing Stewart coming into eight laps to run as Kenseth moved low around Newman low in Turn One as Newman held off Kenseth’s attempt and Kenseth dropped back in line.
Waltrip ran high lines, closing on Stewart, in a car the team had tested in a wind tunnel all night Wednesday before bringing it to the track Thursday. With three laps left, Kenseth got close enough to Newman for Newman’s car to slip slightly, allowing Kenseth into the lead and able to pull ahead of Newman at the white flag.
At the checker, Kenseth took home a million dollars, followed by Newman, Stewart, Waltrip, Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Kahne, Sadler, Wallace, Martin, Jarrett, Vickers, Schrader, Terry Labonte, Bobby Labonte and Bodine.
Leader Ryan Newman did not pit for service during the break, crew chief Matt Borland explaining that they just thought they’d take the gamble and hope things work out for them.
With fifteen drivers on the lead lap as the green flag, Newman moved out to a three length lead as Sadler and Kenseth battled side by side for second. Earnhardt moved around Stewart and into a challange for second while Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne battled for ninth with Mark Martin holding tenth.
Kenseth moved into a challenge on Newman in five laps, but also had to contend with a charge from Earnhardt on the high side. Michael Waltrip moved into fourth, passing Stewart coming into eight laps to run as Kenseth moved low around Newman low in Turn One as Newman held off Kenseth’s attempt and Kenseth dropped back in line.
Waltrip ran high lines, closing on Stewart, in a car the team had tested in a wind tunnel all night Wednesday before bringing it to the track Thursday. With three laps left, Kenseth got close enough to Newman for Newman’s car to slip slightly, allowing Kenseth into the lead and able to pull ahead of Newman at the white flag.
At the checker, Kenseth took home a million dollars, followed by 
Newman, Stewart, Waltrip, Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Kahne, Sadler, Wallace, Martin, Jarrett, Vickers, Schrader, Terry Labonte, Bobby Labonte and Bodine.
Newman sprinted across the front straight grass to congratulate his friend Kenseth on the win and then had to run back across to the Media Center for post-race interviews.
Kenseth was asked after the race about a beer can that hit his car: “I didn’t say that in an interview, I probably said it over my team radio but I didn’t say it in an interview. You can’t make everybody [happy] but I had a full beer can hit the car. I don’t like stuff hitting the car but there’s nothing you can do about five or six individuals I guess.”
He described the pass of Newman for the reporters: “It was weird because all night my car was pretty aerodynamically tight. I couldn’t get turned behind people and we didn’t do anything to free the car up and that set of tires was looser or the track got looser than anything we had all night, which was a good thing when you’re behind somebody.
“The same places Ryan would get loose, I would get loose. I just couldn’t get a run on him and when I could get a run on him and get alongside of him, Ryan is very, very smart and knows how to get you in a compromising position where you can’t finish a pass, which is what you should do. he would just get real close to me and get air off of me and I couldn’t finish the pass without sliding into him and I didn’t want to slide into him and slide him up three grooves and do all that. I wanted to pass him clean and thought we had a better car with tires on, so I just kept waiting and waiting and trying to get behind him to make my car tighter to build air pressure in the right front and I got a real good run on him off Four and he was only about halfway to the white line and then he started sliding.
“I had my car in a spot where a lot of times it will pack air in the left-rear wheel well and get him pushing. he started losing the groove and then he turned sideways and I was a couple inches away from him and just stayed right there and he got sideways enough where I knew I was gonna clear him, so I just stayed in the gas and cleared him right there. That’s what I needed to do. I needed to be in front of his car by the time we got to the next corner so he wouldn’t pull my car sideways and I could get away.
“We had much better tires on our car and it just took 15 laps to be able to set him up and get that pass I needed.”
Unofficial Race Results, NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge
Fin, St, Driver, Car, Laps, Status, Purse
1) 3, Matt Kenseth, No. 17 DeWalt Power Tools Ford, 90 laps, Running, $1,044,000
2) 2, Ryan Newman, No. 12 Mobil 1/ALLTEL Dodge, 90 laps, Running, $306,400
3) 5, Tony Stewart, No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet, 90 laps, Running, $216,200
4) 8, Michael Waltrip, No. 15 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, 90 laps, Running, $90,400
5) 15, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet, 90 laps, Running, $86,400
6) 17, Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, 90 laps, Running, $82,400
7) 16, Kasey Kahne *, No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge, 90 laps, Running, $78,400
8) 7, Elliott Sadler, No. 38 Pedigree Ford, 90 laps, Running, $77,400
9) 1, Rusty Wallace, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, 90 laps, Running, $126,400
10) 4, Mark Martin, No. 6 Viagra Ford, 90 laps, Running, $85,400
11) 18, Dale Jarrett, No. 88 UPS Ford, 90 laps, Running, $74,400
12) 12, Brian Vickers *, No. 25 GMAC Financial Services Chevrolet, 90 laps, Running, $73,400
13) 24, Ken Schrader, No. 49 Schwan’s Home Service Dodge, 90 laps, Running, $107,199
14) 13, Terry Labonte, No. 5 Kellogg’s Chevrolet, 90 laps, Running, $71,900
15) 9, Bobby Labonte, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet, 90 laps, Running, $71,400
16) 22, Geoffrey Bodine, No. 98 Lucas Oil/Winston Tires Ford, 89 laps, Running, $71,300
17) 11, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, 54 laps, Out of Race, $71,200
18) 23, Sterling Marlin, No. 40 Coors Light Dodge, 11 laps, Out of Race, $127,099
19) 10, Greg Biffle, No. 16 National Guard Ford, 10 laps, Out of Race, $71,000
20) 14, Kurt Busch, No. 97 IRWIN Industrial Tools/Sharpie Ford, 10 laps, Out of Race, $70,900
21) 21, Robby Gordon, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet, 10 laps, Out of Race, $70,800
22) 6, Kevin Harvick, No. 29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet, 10 laps, Out of Race, $70,700
23) 19, Joe Nemechek, No. 01 U.S. Army Chevrolet, 10 laps, Out of Race, $70,600
24) 20, Ricky Craven, No. 32 Tide Chevrolet, 4 laps, Out of Race, $70,500
*: Rookie
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