TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Matt Kenseth — Notes & Quotes
Kansas Speedway – October 3, 2013
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How was the track today?
“I think the track was fine. We were just kind of off most of the day, so I thought it was in good shape. It seemed like they tried to put rubber down on the corners or did something — it looked kind of different — but I thought everything with the track was fine. It was in good shape.”
Were you happy with the old tires?
“I would have rather left everything alone for us, especially after today. Today was a struggle. I was glad we got the extra practice and of course tomorrow is a new day and we’ve got a lot of stuff to look at it, but today was kind of a struggle. Whenever anything is working good for you, you kind of like to leave everything the same. But, yeah, when you come back, it’s the same for everybody and you’ve just got to figure it out.”
Did the tires impact your performance?
“Well, the real answer for me is I don’t know. Probably the guys — did you do the tire test — so probably, I know Kyle (Busch) I think and I think Greg (Biffle) was here, so some of those guys can probably tell you better. I don’t really know — different car, it’s six months later, weather is a lot different — there’s a lot of other variables, a lot of things that changed since the last time we were here in April or whenever it was, so it’s hard for me to say.”
Can you tell a difference between the new tire and the old tire?
“For me again, I don’t — it’s hard to say unless you can run the other tire kind of back-to-back on the same weekend, so I did the second part of the Atlanta tire test with that dual zone tire, but that’s a totally different kind of race track and all that. When we put it on and everything was fine and I couldn’t — if you would have told me it was — I knew it was a different tire, but if you were going to tell me it was something new, that dual zone thing and all that, I wouldn’t have really known the difference.”
Are you going to race with the car you used in testing today?
“I can’t give away strategy secrets. You’ll have to watch it the whole time. I don’t know what he’s (Jason Ratcliff, crew chief) going to do. He was planning on running this one, but the way it ran today he might change his mind. I don’t really know because I came straight over here, so honestly I’m not really sure.”
Can you be a team player and still be an individual competing for a championship?
“Well, I think you can be both, right? Yeah, I mean I don’t think anything changes. I think you want to be both. I think Carl (Edwards) and I have been, were teammates for a long time too and I think I’ve always said I think when Sunday starts it’s one against 42 as it should be. You never want to put your teammate in a bad spot if you can help them and not hurt your own effort — all that kind of thing — and I think you always try to do. But at the end of the day, it’s about your respective team and I think being a good teammate is really — throughout the meetings, during the week — sharing information and practice you find something that your helps your car and you go talk to them about it, work with their crews, work with the driver. I always feel like that’s more being good teammates is trying to work together to get all three of you cars — the goal is to have all three cars run one, two, three and of course your goal is for your car to run one, but you try to help them as much as you can. But at race time, it’s racing. They drop the green and everybody is going to go out and try to get the best finish they can get for themselves.”
If you find something in your corner of the shop do you have to share it with the other teams?
“Well, I don’t know if they changed anything over there (Roush Fenway Racing) since I left, but our shop is round so we don’t have any corners, so we all share equally. It’s one big circle. It’s like the circle of trust — we’re all in it.”
Does it mean anything that Jimmie Johnson made a final run and jumped to the top of the leaderboard?
“I didn’t really look at the board and I didn’t hear what you said — did you say (Dale Earnhardt) Junior or did you say Jimmie (Johnson)? Oh, Jimmie was fast? That’s weird. He was parked by us. He looked really fast all day, so I don’t know. I didn’t look at the times, but maybe they did qualifying runs at the end or something. It looked like he was real fast all day. I don’t think the top speed on the board really meant a lot today. The car goes out there and before the track got rubber and got warm. I mean, we were 13th on the board and we weren’t near that good. That made it look a lot better than we really ran most of the day, so I don’t think that one lap on the board meant a lot whether it ranked — unless you’re on top and then it meant a lot. Sorry, I started thinking that. I was like, ‘Carl (Edwards) was up on top.’ I started to think of that as I answered.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued)
Are your concerned by your struggles today?
“I heard after (Dale Earnhardt) Junior won the pole last week that he called me a ‘worrywart,’ so if that’s the case then I’m concerned. I’m always concerned about everything. I really am a worrier, but, no, I’m not really that concerned. We had a lot of things we wanted to do today and we didn’t get any of them done or very many of them done because we sort of struggled today. I always wish it would have been more of a productive day, but on the other hand I think we can be thankful it was free test day and we can start over tomorrow.”
What makes Kansas a unique 1.5-mile track?
“It’s hard to explain what makes them all different, but they’re certainly all very unique and different and I think that — I don’t know why fans say it, but I will say I think it’s probably not the fans that have been to the tracks live, especially different tracks. When you come to these race tracks and watch them from the grandstand, I think they’re really different. I mean, the racing at Atlanta — I don’t know how you could possibly compare that to the racing at Charlotte. It’s just so different. Yeah, they’re the same size, but other than that it’s like saying Martinsville (Va.) and Bristol (Tenn.) are both half miles. ‘We’re going to talk about the half miles this week, Martinsville and Bristol’ — I mean, could they be any different? Nobody does that. I think it’s just cause probably the biggest percentage of the tracks are probably miles-and-a-halves, so people like to group them together for some reason. I’m not really sure why they do that.”
