[media-credit name=”talladegasuperspeedway.com” align=”alignright” width=”163″]
[/media-credit]Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Aaron’s 499 (Talladega Superspeedway)
NSCS Qualifying (May 6, 2012)
MATT KENSETH POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
TAKE US THROUGH THE FINAL FEW LAPS. “I think we had the winning car we just didn’t have the winning driver. That last restart Greg and I got together like we did at Daytona and of all the cars I raced around all day Greg was really pushing me fast. We got in front of the 2 and Kyle and as soon as we became clear it wasn’t long after that that I looked back and we were separated and those guys were outside of him. With nobody behind him he lost his speed and with me not paying enough attention during that to keep us hooked up it cost us a shot at the win, it cost Greg a shot at the win. I didn’t do a good job of managing that they way he was.”
WHEN THE SUN CAME OUT IN THE AFTERNOON HOW DID THE TRACK CONDITIONS CHANGE? “It didn’t really change much for me. Maybe lost a little grip but I think that depended where you were. It didn’t change a lot for me.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE ENGINES AND THAT? DO THEY NEED TO HELP YOU COOL THE ENGINES? “I will say that it is hard to lobby for something because they have all the information. NASCAR will sit down and they can look at every single cars water and oil temp and RPM’s and all that stuff. I think NASCAR probably has a better idea of how everybody ran. We know where our own car ran and those in our organization. It gets hot in the back when you start pushing. I was back there a couple times and it was hard to push. I think that is kind of what they were looking for. We could push a couple laps and that was about it.”
WERE YOU WORRIED ON THAT RESTART? WERE YOU WORRIED SOMETHING LIKE THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN? “I am always worried on a restart. In a plate race you can only see a couple cars behind you. I don’t know about Kyle, his is better probably at doing that stuff than me but I worry about all kinds of stuff because I can only see the first couple cars behind me. If you get in front of a bad lane, even if you have one of the fastest cars like I feel we did, you can still get beat pretty easy. You can see at the end that with better management and keeping Greg locked to me that I don’t think those guys would have beat us. I think that if I could have stayed on his front bumper we would have been first and second. You are always worried at these places because you only have so much control.”
YOU SAID YOU NEEDED TO SLOW DOWN FOR A CHANCE AT THE WIN. WERE YOU TOO FAST? “I wasn’t too fast, I was just too stupid I guess at the end to keep him with me. I think there was a lot of stuff that happened there at Daytona in the 150’s and the 500 where I didn’t worry about if the guy behind me was detached because he had two or three guys behind him in his lane and we were still fast enough that he could push me out far enough where a tandem couldn’t beat us. I had that same strategy today. I thought we would be okay and I think that if they would have stayed behind him until we got to turn three we still would have been okay. When they bailed out it made Greg’s car go slower and he lost his momentum and couldn’t stay sealed up to me. I should have watched him and drug the break a little better. Earlier in the race when Greg was behind me he could push me so hard that he almost spun me out. I didn’t think we would lose our seal until we got to turn four. Typically in the restart everybody pushes each other and stays in line for awhile. I was hoping all four of us would be locked together until we got to max speed but that just didn’t happen.”
WHEN YOU BECAME DETACHED, IT WAS JUST A SECOND OR TWO, IT HAPPENED THAT QUICK? “Yeah, it is harder on the restart at least for me because people are pushing and you switch gears and you can feel it get light. A lot of times when it gets light you are still attached. As soon as I realized I was detached we already had two or three car lengths of separation.”
DO YOU THINK YOU WERE A VICTIM OF YOUR OWN CONFIDENCE IN YOUR PLATE RACING GOING BACK TO DAYTONA? “Not confidence, no not that. What happened in Daytona and what happened here today, I never drug the brake and he could shove me so hard. Once we were attached I made sure we were attached I made sure we were attached getting into one and we pulled out of the bottom lane in front of those guys and I didn’t think there was a chance I drove off. We were going and he was pushing so hard that I didn’t think we could become separated.”
YOUR CAR HAD SOME DAMAGE, ALMOST LIKE A HOLE, WHERE DID THAT DAMAGE OCCUR AND HOW DID IT AFFECT THE CAR? “Any damage doesn’t help when you are the lead car and the first car to see the air. I had a big run on the 13 and they were in the middle groove and I had room to get going and made the move and I think he went to block as soon as he saw that I had such a big run he kind of got me in the right front. That is what happened to the fender there. The B post fell off, I don’t know why. It pretty much fell off.”
