In the movies, 'The Quiet Man' was John wayne, Kenseth played that role in the Daytona 500

            DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Quiet guys often find themselves being stereotyped. Just because a guy is quiet, it doesn't mean that he's also characterized by a whole string of other adjectives. It doesn't make him bland, boring, timid, peaceful, unemotional and unassuming.

            Take that back. Matt Kenseth is unassuming. Perhaps as a result of being unassuming, many fans don't assume Kenseth to be as good as he is. Jack Roush has no such problem. Roush blamed himself for Kenseth's woes in 2008, when he failed to win a race and finished 11^th in the Sprint Cup standings. The alternative would have been to blame Kenseth.

            Kenseth got a new crew chief. The very first notable result was a Daytona 500 victory, his first. It was also Roush's first. It was Ford's first in nine years.

            It was a big deal for a quiet man.

            In the post-race press conference, Kenseth had to defend himself against the charge that he was unemotional. "I actually am a pretty emotional guy," he said. "You guys just don't always really see it."

            Kenseth was unassuming about it, though.

            The first 36-year-old from Cambridge, Wis., ever to win the Daytona 500 went on the offensive a bit later when Ken Willis, the humorist who also writes sports for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, asked a question. Willis's questions are often as whimsical as his columns.

            "Matt, wild celebration tonight in the RV lot?"

            Kenseth had been waiting a while for this one.

            "Oh, man, I'm going to go paint it plaid, just like you said," he answered, matching Willis whimsy for whimsy. "Going to New York tomorrow night and paint the town plaid. Wasn't that your quote?"

            Willis: "You got a long memory."

            Kenseth: "Like an elephant."

            A good time was had by all.

            Kenseth famously dreads the annual awards ceremonies held by NASCAR at season's end in the Big Apple. A cabin in the Wisconsin woods is more his preferred "away from the track" pastime.

            "It's not always my favorite thing to do," he said, referring to New York. "But I'm really looking forward to going around and, actually, people calling me the Daytona 500 champion. It's pretty awesome. I'm going to enjoy it the best I can and try to find some time to celebrate when we have time in our schedule for it."

            Meanwhile, they were dancing in the streets of Cambridge, where plaid spray paint is a bear to mix.