WINSTON CUP Harvick has spotlight but Kenseth has lead

Kevin Harvick eyes his third straight win.
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) -- Kevin Harvick is the man in the spotlight heading into today's Tropicana 400, and that's just the way low-key Winston Cup points leader Matt Kenseth likes it.
While Harvick gets headlines as he drives for his third straight win at Chicagoland Speedway, the quiet Kenseth goes into the 18th event of the 36-race season with a 180-point lead over second-place Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Nobody held a bigger edge at this point in the season since Dale Earnhardt Sr. had a 209-point advantage over Dale Jarrett in 1993. Earnhardt went on to beat Rusty Wallace for the Winston Cup championship by 80 points.
None of his competitors is handing Kenseth anything yet, of course, but 18 of the last 28 championships were won by the driver leading after 17 races.
His top finish
Kenseth's top finish in three years in NASCAR's top stock car series was eighth place last season, when he led Winston Cup with five victories. He certainly doesn't want to talk about winning a championship with half a season to go.
Actually, he's tough to get talking at all.
But what he is willing to discuss is consistency. That's the main reason he has been leading the standings since the fourth race this season.
"We've been pretty consistent, we've been pretty competitive," Kenseth said, "and we've been there at the end, so that's important."
So far this season, Kenseth has only one win, but he also has seven top-five finishes and 14 top-10s and has completed every race.
Will start 14th
His only problem so far has been qualifying: Only twice this season has Kenseth started a race better than 12th. He will start today's 400-mile event 24th in the 43-car lineup.
"Qualifying and racing are two different things," he said. "Our qualifying has been average for us this year. We've been middle of the pack. ... It would be better to start off in the front because we could probably collect more bonus points than what we collect now. But our race setups have been good."
He's not far behind in bonus points -- five for leading one lap and five for leading the most laps in a race -- as it is.
His 55 is tied with fourth-place Labonte, behind Earnhardt (75) and Jeff Gordon (60).
While Kenseth is happy to be out front and very pleased that his No. 17 Roush Racing Ford has completed all but one lap so far this season, he isn't feeling very secure.
"A lot of people haven't really noticed we had that one streak where we faltered a little bit and they gained 120 points on me in three or four weeks, and we lost a whole bunch of points," he said.
"Since then, we've been able to get some of our momentum back and, hopefully, we can keep that."
Challenge
If he does stay out front, Kenseth knows he is also going to find it harder to avoid the spotlight he generally shuns.
"If we can continue doing what we're doing, I think it's going to get busier, and more people are going to talk about it, and more people are going to be on you about it," Kenseth said. "I've already seen that the last couple of weeks. It's been cool because mostly everybody's been leaving us alone."
Most of the attention this week has been on Harvick, the only Cup winner in the Joliet track's two-year existence.
Only three other drivers -- A.J. Foyt (Ontario), Gordon (Kansas) and Tony Stewart (Homestead) -- won the first two races at a new track.
"We pretty much go into the weekend thinking we'll have ... a chance of winning the race," said Harvick, who will start 11th. "That's just the mind-set you have going to a place where you've had so much success."
Stewart will start from the pole for the first time since last August at Indianapolis, with four-time series champion Gordon alongside.
Rookie Greg Biffle, the surprise winner last weekend at Daytona, will start seventh, with Earnhardt 16th and Labonte 18th.