By Cole Cusumano

There was no shortage of fireworks in Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Fourth of July debut, after it became apparent the The Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400 would go on to be survival of the fittest. Anything that could go wrong did for a plethora of drivers on the Playoff bubble, but one competitor that rose to the occasion in remarkable fashion was Matt Kenseth.

Since making an impressive comeback in NASCAR’s return from COVID-19 and picking up a top-10 at Darlington Raceway, it hasn’t been smooth sailing for the 48-year-old. His best finish in the next seven-race stretch was 15th. This could be chalked up to no practice and simply rust — to his point, Kenseth didn’t even know he’d be competing in 2020 until he got the call from Chip Ganassi to replace Kyle Larson amidst the racial slur incident.

“Whenever you run well, you build more confidence, not just for myself but for the team and everybody involved,” Kenseth told POPULAR SPEED. “Certainly, we had a good day starting off at Darlington. I was super sloppy and rusty, we still finished 10th. Running bad has the opposite effect.”

It wasn’t until last weekend at Pocono Raceway where the 2003 NASCAR Cup Series Champion revealed he was able to find his footing and deliver proper results for the cars his Chip Ganassi Racing team was building. Able to finish 11th on Saturday and close out the doubleheader with 12th-place the following day, Kenseth felt relief.

This translated into further success at the Brickyard, where the Wisconsin-native finished runner-up for the first time in three years.

“We had a couple decent races last weekend with no mistakes, no problems, no issues, got decent finishes,” Kenseth said. “Today we were able to be competitive and run up front.  Chad (Johnston, crew chief) had great calls, really good calls. Gave me everything I needed to win the race. I’m a little disappointed I couldn’t get it done honestly. I had the best tires, he gave me good track position.”

Ultimately, he was unable to prevent Kevin Harvick from locking down his fourth victory of the season — but in classic Kenseth dry humor-fashion — he said as if it finally seemed the No. 42 team didn’t get the short-end of the stick with their replacement driver. Joking aside, the 22-year veteran felt this was a huge stride forward in building chemistry and confidence as they head to tracks where he’s seen success.

Kenseth was able to advance two positions and now sits 28th in the points standings as a result of consistency and capitalizing on others misfortunes. With momentum on his side, the Chip Ganassi driver finds himself in a favorable position, as he has a combined eight victories at the next four upcoming scheduled tracks.