MATT KENSETH, No. 17 Crown Royal Ford LOOKING AHEAD TO DAYTONA, THE SECOND RACE UNDER LIGHTS. IS YOUR CAR SET UP SIMILAR TO THE SHOOT OUT? “I don’t think your car set up will be a lot different, I think the biggest difference going there this time than if February is the weather. The track should be more slick than February. I don’t know if that will make much difference or not with the way we are racing there. It should be maybe a little bit different.”
WE HAVE HAD A COUPLE RACES WITH THE TWO CAR DRAFT. DO YOU LIKE IT? “No, I don’t like it but there isn’t a lot you can do about it because two cars shoving each other is so much faster than the normal style of draft or anything else that is going on. Unless the rules or cars change I don’t see it changing.”
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST THING YOU LEARNED FROM THE 500 THAT YOU CAN TAKE TO NEXT WEEKEND? “Man, just to try not to have a wreck. I have been wrecked at both speedway races so far. I need to avoid that. Pushing and getting pushed is difficult. I don’t know how it will be. If it is real hot it might be easier to get spun out or spin somebody out. I think it will be a challenge.”
LOOKING AT YOUR CAREER HERE AT SONOMA, YOU HAVE ONE TOP-10 FINISH HERE AT THIS TRACK. WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE HERE FOR YOU? “The whole thing. Obviously this has been one of my worst tracks. I guess I am not very good at it. I guess the biggest challenge for me is to help these guys get in the car what I need to run fast laps and for me not to make mistakes. We have had some fast laps here and qualified really well here a few times but I have a hard time giving them information or suggestions sometimes to make the car drive how I need it to drive.”
HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO GET BETTER AT ROAD RACING? “It is kind of the same for everybody. You can’t test here and you only come here once a year, so it is kind of the same for everybody and you just need to be able to figure it out better.”
KURT BUSCH INSIDE MENTIONED GUYS GET MORE AGGRESSIVE ON ROAD COURSES BECAUSE THE CAR CAN TAKE MORE OF A BEATING. HAVE YOU SEEN THAT? “Yeah, I think some of that is this car. I think the biggest thing is two-wide restarts. It used to be on road courses that there were only two passing zone and nobody would dare try, I don’t know why, you just didn’t. There wasn’t room. That pretty much all went out the window with the two-wide restarts. Everyone is fighting for spots and you run side by side on corners you would never dream of doing that a couple of years ago. It has really changed a lot. It is like going to Martinsville, only worse. There is a lot of beating and banging.”
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT HOW JEFF GORDON RAN HERE LAST YEAR? “I didn’t really see any of that. Usually Jeff is in the front of the road courses and I am in the back, so I didn’t see any of what he did last year.”
