Race Report.(Motorsports)(NASCAR Winston Cup)

While the focus of the NASCAR Winston Cup race at Kansas Speedway was on Ryan Newman's exceptional fuel mileage, the attention is likely to shift to the brewing points battle. That's because Matt Kenseth is trying to give his big lead away.

Kenseth led by 436 points after the Sept. 21 race at Dover. Engine failure at Talladega cost him 82 points to his nearest competitor and an early-race spin into the inside backstretch wall at Kansas tossed away another 95.

With six races left in the season, Kenseth leads second-place Kevin Harvick by 259 points. Harvick only has to gain 43.3 points per race, not much if he keeps scoring top-10 finishes and Kenseth keeps slipping. Harvick has eight top-10s in the past 11 races, including a sixth Sunday.

Kenseth has been atop the rankings since the third race and has been cruising through the summer. Now, the fall chill is on. He crashed in practice here, forcing him to take a provisional and start 37th. He finished 36th after tooling around, 47 laps behind with a damaged front end.

"I've been saying all along that the thing is not over and you could have bad luck at any time,'' Kenseth said. "I realize how fast things can change in this sport.''

Newman advanced to fourth in the standings with his series-leading eighth win of the season, but he is now in full throttle to fend off criticism about the fuel consumption of his Dodge. Clearly, Penske Racing South is making extraordinary horsepower-it has a series-leading seven poles. But Newman has also won a bunch of races by stretching his fuel longer than his rivals expected.

...