Does anyone else think there has been a spark missing this season in Winston Cup?

In the final year of R.J. Reynolds/Winston sponsorship of NASCAR's biggest and most popular series, it seems like the 2003 season has not featured the kind of excitement, action and thrills that have become synonymous with Winston Cup racing.

Why, at the risk of sounding trite -- and being inundated with e-mails from angry fans -- it feels like it's been a season which at times has just barely skirted the B word: b-o-r-i-n-g.

That's not a knock on Matt Kenseth, who has led the standings for the past 31 weeks, at times threatening to turn the championship chase into a runaway. Even though he's won only one race, Kenseth has managed to maintain his stranglehold on the No. 1 spot through consistency, race-in and race-out.

Kenseth will likely and finally clinch the title -- and deservedly so for the kind of season he's had -- this Sunday in Rockingham, N.C. With a 228-point lead heading into the race, Kenseth has to end the day just 186 points ahead of his closest challenger to take home his and Roush Racing's first Cup championship.

Contrast the way the end of this season is shaping up to the end of last season, and there's no comparison between what was a hot season in 2002 and a lukewarm campaign in 2003.

Last year, Tony Stewart came from behind to grab the championship lead in exciting fashion, surviving a hard-charging, last-ditch effort in the final races by eventual runner-up Mark Martin.

Stewart did not officially lock up the title until the final race of the season at Homestead-Miami, Fla. And while he did so with just enough cushion to hold off Martin, it was done in the same kind of fashion that Stewart races: on the edge.

For the points race was close enough that if Stewart had suffered a flat tire that sent him crashing into the wall, or had been taken out in a crash during the season finale, it's very likely Martin would not have spent 2003 as the reigning Cup champ.

	Stewart provided plenty of excitement in NASCAR last season.

Nor, for that matter, has there been the same kind of off-track imbroglios in '03 that we witnessed last season. Kenseth didn't have to earn the title with a late-season rally, nor did he do so while under an unprecedented double-probation by NASCAR and his chief sponsor, as Stewart did.

We didn't see Kevin Harvick get slapped with a one-race suspension and probation for the remainder of the season for his on-track battle with Coy Gibbs at Martinsville in Spring 2002.

Sure, Jimmy Spencer popped Kurt Busch in the kisser at Michigan earlier this year, drawing a suspension for Spencer and probation for both drivers, but it just didn't have the same kind of impact that the Harvick or Stewart incidents did from last season.

And, for the second consecutive season and the third time in the last five seasons, the guy with the most wins won't win the title. Last season, Kenseth led the series with five victories, yet finished eighth in the final standings.

It's the same case this season: Ryan Newman, last season's Winston Cup Rookie of the Year, shook off a horrible start to his sophomore season to win a series-leading eight races thus far -- nearly one-fourth of the season's races. Yet for all the domination he's had over Victory Lane (the next closest driver, Busch, has four wins), Newman will have to do everything he can in the final two races just to finish in the top-five in the final standings (he's currently fifth, having moved up one spot after this past Sunday's race in Phoenix).

The last two Winston Cup seasons have been marked by tragedy (Dale Earnhardt's death in 2001) and tempestuousness (Stewart and Harvick in 2002), which set the tone for each of those campaigns.

But when NASCAR writes the final chapter on the 2003 season, what will be the underlying theme? Dullness? A lack of overall drama? A decidedly tedious and monotonous race to the championship? A wishy-washy end to Winston?

On the other side, there will be numerous NASCAR purists who are bound to say that while this season hasn't been the most exciting, it's more in keeping with NASCAR's staid, non-controversial family values type of racing. Rather than have Terrible Tony as the front man (remember all the hue and cry about what kind of champion Stewart would be, and whether he'd do anything to embarrass NASCAR), we have a homogeneous guy from the homogenized state of Wisconsin, a.k.a. America's Dairyland, on the verge of winning the championship.

You can't get much more all-American than that, folks.

Don't get me wrong, the genteel Kenseth is a great guy, even though some may hold his monotone voice and clean-cut personality against him. He'll be a great representative for the sport as reigning champion next season, not to mention just the kind of non-controversial figurehead for Nextel to promote as it takes over the series' sponsorship from RJR/Winston.

But let's face it, when it comes to reigning champions -- and an overall theme to the way 2003 has gone -- "Modest Matt" just doesn't have the same kind of ring to it as "Terrible Tony."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@MSN.com