Matt Kenseth had to choke back his words when he got to Victory Lane, fumbling with his sunglasses in an attempt to hide his emotions.
His 14-year run at Roush Fenway Racing is in the homestretch and Kenseth is going out with class, dignity - and wins.
He slammed his No. 17 Ford hard into the wall at Kansas Speedway midway through Sunday's race, went to pit road to let crew chief Jimmy Fennig fix the car and then drove it to his second victory in three weeks.
The bond between driver and crew was clear in the post-race celebration, even though Kenseth tried to play it cool.
"It really means a lot; I don't want to get too emotional," he said, talking fast to try to get through it cleanly.
Kenseth is leaving Roush at the end of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing for personal reasons he's only vaguely explained. The decision was made in June, but Kenseth couldn't discuss it publicly until September.
Now that he's in his final month with the team that gave him his break in NASCAR, he's got to be feeling a bit nostalgic.
"I really want to thank Jack Roush, Robbie Reiser and Mark Martin. Without them guys, I never would have been at Roush," Kenseth said in Victory Lane before shifting into the obligatory sponsor rundown.
Kenseth and Reiser have been together their entire NASCAR careers, and before that as short-track racers in Wisconsin.
Any chance at winning a second championship vanished when mechanical problems and mistakes in the first three Chase races dropped Kenseth to last in the standings. So even with his win three weeks ago at Talladega and Sunday's victory at Kansas, Kenseth has only been able to rally to ninth in points.
