Matt Kenseth was born in Cambridge, Wisonsin in 1972 and started racing at an early age. Like many drivers in Nascar today, Kenseth grew up in a family that was involved in racing. His father made him a deal, he would buy a car and drive it, if Matt would work on it. Then when Matt would turn 16, the driving responsiblity would fall on Matt's shoulders.
At the age of 19, Kenseth moved into the ranks of Wisconsin late model cars and became the youngest winner ever in the ARTGO Challenge Series. He broke the record set by Mark Martin.
Kenseth won over 46 victories over the next three years, 1993-1996, including the Miller Genuine Draft National Championships in 1995 as the youngest champion ever. He repeated this feat the next year with another title win.
Matt started racing in the NASCAR All Pro Series in 1995 along with the other events. In 1997, he moved up to the ASA Series where he got the call up to the Busch Series.
The move to the Busch Grand National Series proved quite successful for Matt as he finished runner up for Rookie of the Year in 1997-1998. His first full season tour with the Busch Series was quite successful, in fact so successful, he got called upon to sub for Bill Elliot at Dover Downs where he finished sixth.
In 1999, Kenseth was sponsered by DEWALT Power Tools for the Busch Series as a member of Rousch Racing. Matt finished this season in third place in points and had 5 starts in the Winston Cup Series.
Already very succesful in the world of racing, 2000 became Matt's breakout year. He was racing full-time in the big leagues. He won the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway becoming the first rookie to do so. He also won the Raybestos Rookie of the Year award at the seasons end.
Throughout the 2001 year, Matt struggled but came back the next year. Who knows what the future will hold for this young racer.
Sources include www.nascar.com, http://www.mattkenseth.com/html/MattBio.html, and http://www.bayerracing.com/bios/mattbio.shtml