Wins, not playoff points the focus for Kenseth

Advancing in the NASCAR Playoffs is not the only thing on Matt Kenseth's mind these days.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver enters the elimination race at Kansas Speedway outside of a transfer spot. Kenseth will have to overcome eight points if he's to participate in the Round of 8.

But the 2003 Cup champion has been focused more on his winless drought, a point he repeatedly brought up Friday at Kansas Speedway. Kenseth has not been to victory lane since July 17, 2016, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

"Obviously, winning has been important to us," Kenseth said. "We haven't been able to do that in about a year and a half."

The 48-race stretch has been rough on Kenseth as he's watched two of his teammates find victory lane while various opportunities he's had slipped through his fingers. It's an atypical year in that regard. Kenseth has only led 330 laps, with a large chunk of those coming in the spring Richmond Raceway race (164). Part of the reason Kenseth finds himself in a precarious spot in the playoffs is because of the team's performance.

Whereas intermediate tracks were once his strong suit – six of Kenseth's last 14 wins were on tracks over a mile in length – he has not been as strong this season. He finished 11th at Charlotte two weeks ago (pictured above) and ninth at Chicago, the postseason opener. The DeWalt team also has the second-lowest playoff points of among the drivers still eligible for the championship, five.

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"I feel like I come to the racetrack every week with a chance to win. But with that being said, it's been a year and a half since we won," Kenseth said of his chances at Kansas. "I don't know if it's my longest winless streak or not, but it feels like it is, or close to it. ... It's been a long time. So, when you look at it like that, you're like, 'Show me.'

"I hope to at least get a win before the year's over. We got five chances left, got some great racetracks coming up. We've just got to get our cars running a little bit better. As a group, every single one of us has to execute better, and that starts with me. I know we're more than capable, but we got to do it."

Optimistic about having a good-enough car this weekend, Kenseth put his chances to advance in blunt terms.

"If we don't run good Sunday, then we don't deserve to be in the next round anyway," he said. "[Kansas] is a great racetrack, one I really like. Hopefully, we can hit it right this weekend, and as a group, we can all execute, perform at a high level like we're capable of doing and move on to next week."

Kenseth was eighth fastest in practice at 186.909 mph. The No. 20 ran just seven laps.

And for the record, Kenseth's current winless drought is not his longest. In fact, it slots in behind his previous three winless streaks of 78 races (Feb. 2009-April 2011), 59 races (May 2000-Feb. 2002), and 51 races (Sept. 2013-April 2015).