LAS VEGAS, Nev. - Another year, new rules, same points leader.

Matt Kenseth is on top of the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings again after winning his second straight race, this time dominating Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The eighth win of his career came on the heels of a victory two weeks earlier at Rockingham, giving him one more win than he accumulated all of last season on the way to the Cup championship.

"This a race car driver's dream come true to come out and win two in a row," Kenseth said. "It's unbelievable to have this good of a car and to be able to lead all those laps and kind of dominate the way we did the last two races. It's pretty cool and I just can't wait to keep racing."

Kenseth led 123 of 267 laps Sunday in winning the Vegas race for the second straight year and moving to the points lead, the spot he occupied for the final 33 races of 2003.

Criticized last season for winning the series title with boring consistency and only the one victory, Kenseth is answering his critics by getting off to a great start in 2004, also winning Feb. 22 at Rockingham after finishing ninth in the season-opening Daytona 500.

"I've learned it's always something," Kenseth said, shaking his head. "It would be hard for anybody to argue that we didn't have a dominant car at Rockingham and all you saw in the headlines was that the caution didn't fall right, that we weren't on the lead lap and we shouldn't have won.

"But I'd rather have 'em talking about me because we're doing so good than something else, I guess," Kenseth added, grinning.

In his win at Rockingham, Kenseth had to hold off a challenge from rookie Kasey Kahne, winning by only inches. This time, there was no one to challenge Kenseth after he moved past Kevin Harvick on lap 230 to regain the lead for the fourth and final time in the 267-lap event.

The 23-year-old Kahne, in only his third Cup start since replacing longtime NASCAR star Bill Elliott in the No. 9 Dodge at Evernham Motorsports, wound up second again Sunday. He inherited the runner-up spot five laps from the end when Harvick ran out of gas and coasted to the pits. Harvick was 21st.

Kahne, who started from the pole, crossed the finish line 3.426 seconds - about half a straightaway - behind Kenseth's No 17 Ford.

"To run second in these races is fine with me right now," Kahne said. "We want to win and we're going to win sometime."

Tony Stewart finished third, followed by Jamie McMurray, Mark Martin, Elliott Sadler, Casey Mears, Kurt Busch and Rusty Wallace.

The race was supposed to be the first true test of the new combination of a shorter rear spoiler and softer tires, intended by NASCAR to make the racing more exciting by allowing more passing.

This race didn't look much different than the previous six on the 11/2-mile Vegas oval, with mostly single-file racing. There were 18 lead changes among 10 drivers, but many of them came during pit stop sequences and had nothing to do with passing on the racetrack.

Still, most of the drivers liked the changes.

"The tire that Goodyear brought has made this racing fun again," Stewart said. "You can't go out and just run real hard. That's how we lost second to Kasey Kahne. I busted the tires trying to get by Harvick."

Kenseth appeared to have the fastest car all day, building leads of up to 4 seconds several times.

He was leading Stewart by about 20 car lengths when Kevin Lepage's blown engine dumped oil on the track on lap 183. The leaders made their final pit stops on lap 184 and an uncharacteristic slow stop by his Roush Racing crew left Kenseth seventh for the restart on lap 193 with Harvick in the lead.

"If there was ever a time to have a bad one, that was the time to get a little behind," Kenseth said of the slow stop. "We actually adjusted the car a little bit and made it better."

Once the green flag flew, Kenseth moved steadily toward the front, finally taking the lead from Harvick on lap 230.

The victory vaulted Kenseth into the series lead one race earlier than he took the top spot for good last year. He leads Stewart by 88 points going into next Sunday's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Sunday's race was disastrous for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who came in leading the points after winning the Daytona 500 and finishing fifth at Rockingham.

Earnhardt, who said the team didn't know why the car was so bad, struggled throughout. He spent considerable time in the garage area before coming back out to salvage 35th place. Earnhardt fell to seventh, 125 points behind Kenseth.

The win also continued the dominance of Jack Roush's team at Las Vegas, where his cars have won five of the seven races.

AP-ES-03-08-04 0405EST