LAS VEGAS — After a winless season, former NASCAR champion Matt Kenseth simply wanted to be competitive again.
He got his wish, and then some.
Kenseth has a chance at auto racing history today at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where a victory would make him the first NASCAR driver to win the first three races of the season. He started his streak by capturing the season-opening Daytona 500 to end a 36-race winless streak and followed with last week’s victory at California.
“It took us a whole year to win a race, so everything has got to line up just right,” he said. “But if it happened, that would be pretty wild. That would be pretty crazy, and something I’ve never really thought about.”
Although a poor qualifying effort has him starting 40th, and he’s been fighting the flu all week, his rivals think Kenseth can complete the sweep.
“It could be an incredible feat if they do it. I believe that they can,” Jeff Burton said. “I am not saying that they will, but I believe they certainly can.”
It’s a position Kenseth hardly imagined he’d be in during a stressful two-season span in which he slowly faded as a weekly contender.
He won two races in 2007, one at the start of the year and then the season finale to snap a 34-race winless streak.
Biffle wins Nationwide race, snaps winless streak.
Greg Biffle snapped a 76-race winless streak Saturday by winning the Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Biffle ran out of gas while leading with 54 laps to go, but cycled back into the lead after every other driver who took a turn leading ran into their own problems.
Denny Hamlin’s flat tire sent him hard into the wall three laps from the finish, setting up a long caution period and a two-lap overtime sprint to the finish.
Jason Leffler, who was in second, ran out of gas on the restart and Biffle had to race teammate Carl Edwards for the victory.
Edwards finished second and Brian Vickers was third.
