Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Sylvania 300 Advance (New Hampshire Motor Speedway)
Friday, September 21, 2012
· After winning 10 of the first 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway from 1993-2004, Ford Racing has managed only one victory since then in the last 15 races.
· Greg Biffle owns that win as he captured the first race of the Chase in 2008. Biffle is the only active Ford driver to win a NSCS race at New Hampshire.
· Mark Martin won the first NSCS pole in NHMS history in 1993 while driving the No. 6 Ford.
Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Zest Ford Fusion, is looking to rebound after an 18th-place finish last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, due in part to a broken shock that needed to be fixed. Kenseth spoke about his expectations for this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway before Friday’s practice session.
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Ford EcoBoost Ford Fusion – “We’re just gonna do the best we can this weekend. It’s been a track that has not been real good for us as far as performance and really finishing position, so we’ll work as hard as we can to get the best finish we can and see how it goes.”
WHAT’S THE MOST DIFFICULT ASPECT OF THE TRACK FOR YOU? “It’s kind of normal short track stuff, except for here it just seems like we struggle a lot to get the front end of our car to turn and still have any kind of rear grip so we can get it really loose in and off, but we just really struggle getting it to turn in the middle.”
DOES IT MEAN ANYTHING BRINGING YOUR RICHMOND CAR HERE? “No, it doesn’t mean anything to me. I don’t have any special cars right now that I feel are a lot better than any other one, so it doesn’t really mean a lot to me.”
DOES LAST WEEK’S RESULT CHANGE HOW YOU LOOK AT THIS WEEK? DO YOU GAMBLE MORE, LESS, NOT AT ALL? “I don’t think it really changes a lot. I think you go out every week and do all the things you can do to try to win. I don’t think you really have to change that strategy a whole bunch. There are very few instances where that changes. If you can make it on fuel mileage because you think it might go green to the end, and you’re the only one that pits or something goofy like that, but, other than that, beside pit strategy gambles, I don’t think there’s anything different you do anyway.”
WOULD YOU BE MORE LIKELY TO GAMBLE PIT STRATEGY-WISE CONSIDERING YOUR SITUATION? “I don’t know. You always try to do the best you can with it with the idea of trying to win every week. I don’t think that ever changes. You never try to call a race or drive a race car or do any of that to lose or not get a better position, so I think you always try to get the best shot that you think you can for that particular day to get a win.”
LOOKING TO DOVER. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCES THERE? “Dover has been one of our better tracks historically. It doesn’t mean anything for next time. We haven’t been really dominant there, but we’ve been able to get some top-fives there the last few times we’ve been there, which is good, but we still need to be a little better there too. The 48, I think, has been pretty dominant there these last two or three races, so we’ve got a little work to do there, but it’s definitely one of our better tracks.”
IS TALLADEGA ANOTHER PLACE YOU COULD POSSIBLY GAIN SOME GROUND? “Yeah, you hope so. Anything can happen at Talladega. Everybody views it as a wild card because you can crash and a lot of stuff can happen, but certainly the first three plate races we’ve been pretty dominant and hopefully we can do that again and get a finish.”
MATT KENSETH CONTINUED — DO YOU HAVE A NUMBER YOU LOOK AT INTO THE CHASE AS FAR AS THE AVERAGE FINISH YOU’RE TARGETING? “Not at all. I know we’ve got to have something to talk about, but it’s impossible to predict. You’ve just got to be better than everybody else is and what it takes for the championship is to have more points than the other 11 guys, so it’s really dependent on what they do, so I think you just take it one week at a time. I think the whole Chase field is really competitive. Most of them are gonna be up in the top 10 or top 15 every week, so you’ve got to go out there and run hard and try to get the best finish you can.”
IS THIS PLACE A LITTLE MORE IMPORTANT TO QUALIFY WELL AT CONSIDERING IT’S SO HARD TO PASS HERE? “Yeah, I think that’s important. I’ve never really qualified well here, so I’m a bad one to ask, but certainly it is hard to pass and the closer you are to the front anytime you’re in a race, the better off you are.”
DENNY HAMLIN CALLED HIS SHOT AND SAID HE’S GOING TO WIN THIS WEEK. HAVE YOU EVER DONE SOMETHING LIKE THAT? “No, not at all. That works really good for some people and not as good for others. I’m one of those guys that really doesn’t like to make predictions, especially winning ones, because you either say, ‘Oh, OK he said that,’ or else it’s disappointment, so I’ve never been like that. Some people are like that and it works out really well for them, it builds confidence and all that. I’ve just never been like that. I like to try to do it first or else I just end up disappointed.”
