Kenseth slips by for Rockingham win.

Kenseth slips by for Rockingham win.

Matt Kenseth had the strongest car for most of Sunday's Subway 400 but he still needed a little luck and a contentious ruling in order to secure his second career NASCAR Winston Cup victory.

An undetected patch of oil in turn four at the 1.017-mile North Carolina Speedway decided the outcome of Sunday's Subway 400 in the favour of Roush Racing's Matt Kenseth who jumped from third to first in less than a lap as leaders Sterling Marlin and Bobby Labonte came a cropper on lap 389 of the 393 lap event.

No sooner had Kenseth taken the lead, NASCAR threw the caution flag but instead of red flagging the race as was done last week at Daytona, race officials felt there were insufficient laps left to stop and re-start the event and so the race ended under caution. Following the jubilant No.17 DeWalt Ford driver home was new Winston Cup leader Marlin with Labonte third, Tony Stewart fourth and pole sitter Ricky Craven sixth.

After starting 25th, Kenseth was strong from the word go on the abrasive Rockingham surface with his Robbie Reiser led pit crew getting many opportunities to display their speed in a race marred by ten caution periods. Excellent pit work saw Kenseth take the lead for the first time on lap 147 as the leaders pitted under caution when Dale Jarrett's engine expired and from that point onwards, the yellow and black machine was the class of the field.

Coming off a strong race performance at Daytona that sadly only translated into a 33rd place finish, Kenseth was able to stretch his lead to nearly five seconds when caution periods allowed. In total the 2000 Raybestos Rookie of the Year led for 152 circuits but a poor re-start 28 laps from home almost cost him dearly.

With pole sitter and early race dominator Ricky Craven gambling to stay out on old tyres following the ninth caution of the day for Mike Skinner's engine failure, the DeWalt team's pit work was undone when Marlin and five-times NCS winner Rusty Wallace barged their way through demoting Kenseth to fourth. However Wallace faded as did Craven's tyres but Kenseth still trailed Marlin and the resurgent Bobby Labonte who had started 14th and rallied back from a lap down. On lap 388 both Ken Schrader and Robby Gordon tagged the wall and with oil from Skinner's car still lurking, the track became even more treacherous. A lap later both Marlin and Labonte discovered this going through the third turn as they encountered a patch of oil but while both were able to control their slides, third placed Kenseth managed to grab the lowest line possible and squeeze underneath both without losing momentum.

With oil and debris littering the track, NASCAR flew the caution flag for a tenth time with five laps remaining but instead of throwing a red, the yellow stayed out thus saving Kenseth from a last lap green flag assault by Marlin and Labonte. After an almost invisible 2001, Kenseth has run strongly in both races so far in 2002 and could end up leading what seems to be a rejuvenated Roush Racing assault this year.

Runner-up Marlin and team boss Chip Ganassi were both displeased with NASCAR's failure to throw the red flag after the Coors Light sponsored Dodge once again proved itself to be a solid contender for the win after leading 24 laps. Last week Marlin lost a probable third Daytona 500 victory when he worked on the front fender of his No.40 Dodge under a late race stoppage.

Third placed Labonte failed to lead a lap but looked especially strong in the closing stages and was busy lining up Marlin for a pass when the oil patch struck. After a dismal 34th place finish at Daytona, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was simply grateful to get his Championship fight underway.

Tony Stewart was another driver to kick-start his title challenge on Sunday with a fourth place effort after starting 19th in the second Gibbs Pontiac although both he and his Home Depot sponsored team were unhappy that they were unable to mount a concerted assault on the leaders during the race.

Craven's decision to gamble on worn rubber resulted in a fifth place finish for the PPI Motorsports driver who the nearly all of the first 100 laps while Jeff Burton quietly marched on to sixth spot. Jeff Gordon finished seventh but had a far from smooth run to the flag as he first had to fight his way up from 33rd on the grid in his No.24 Rick Hendrick owned Chevrolet.

Gordon, who has won four times at the Rockingham circuit, quickly moved up the order before a spin on pit road shortly before the half way mark dropped him out of the top 20. Gordon was also at the centre of the biggest crash of the race when he touched the Ultra Motorsports Dodge of Casey Atwood coming off turn two and triggered a wreck that involved seven cars including Petty Enterprises teammates Buckshot Jones and Kyle Petty and the Ray Evernham owned Intrepid of Jeremy Mayfield. Gordon survived virtually unscathed whereas Jones was eliminated on the spot and both Petty and Atwood suffered lengthy delays.

Rusty Wallace eventually faded to eighth ahead of Bobby Hamilton and Kenny Wallace who finished tenth in the car Steve Park drove to victory this time last year.