Toyota NSCS Martinsville Matt Kenseth Notes & Quotes

TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Matt Kenseth — Notes & Quotes
Martinsville Speedway – October 25, 2013

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How do you approach this weekend?
“Really just approach it the same as any other race.  This is obviously one of Jimmie’s (Johnson) best tracks and HMS (Hendrick Motorsports) always runs good here, but it’s also one of Denny’s (Hamlin) and Kyle (Busch) runs really well here.  So, it’s certainly a place that I know we need to come in and perform and we need to run up front and we need to get a good finish.  You can almost pencil the 48 (Johnson) in — anything can happen, but past history shows that they’re pretty hard to beat here.  Really just go out and try to perform.  Hopefully, we can run up front like we did in the spring and get a better finish.”

Would you prefer to be leading the points?
“I can’t imagine for the life of me anybody that wouldn’t want to have the points lead or why you wouldn’t want to have it. Certainly, we started off strong.  We still perform pretty well, we didn’t have the finish last week and that was really disappointing.  A couple other ones we didn’t quite have the finish, but certainly I wish we were still leading and you would want to have as big of a lead as you could and I think anybody would.”

Do you lean more on Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch at Martinsville than other Chase tracks?
“I don’t know if I lean on them (Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch) anymore than any other track.  We work really closely together all the time.  Certainly, you tend to go over and talk to them more and things like that if you happen to be somewhere and you see they’re running really well and you’re struggling a little bit, things like that.  Certainly, I think this spring Denny helped me a lot and I think Kyle helped me a lot too.  Especially Denny because he was out of the car and Mark (Martin) was in it so we were down there parked by each other and got to talk to him a lot and pick his brain a lot and look at a lot of stuff.  You try to use all the tools you have and certainly, Denny and Kyle run pretty good everywhere, but especially here is one of Denny’s best places so certainly I try to pay as much attention as I can.”

What do you think of NASCAR potentially changing the qualifying procedure?
“I think to be fair you kind of have to wait until the final rules come out and kind of look at them and see how it all works.  I didn’t really put a lot of thought into it.  We still have four really important weeks coming up this year and I’m kind of focused on getting through ’13 and trying to get back up on the top where we were the first five weeks.  I really haven’t put a lot of thought into it.  They had a lot of different ideas, which they usually do to try to spice things up a little bit more.”

Were you pleased to be a part of the meeting?
“I think any time that you’re invited into a meeting — which it was an open discussion — but even if it’s a listening only then I think it’s always productive.  It’s always smart to try to include as many people as you can with the thought process so you get more time to process things and that type of thing.”

How much will you want to know where Jimmie Johnson is on the track during the race?
“Not at all.  It doesn’t really matter or change what you’re doing.  I’ve never wanted to, no matter where we are in points or what’s going on really, where  anybody else is.  The field is so competitive that I think you approach every week trying to win and if you win then you know everybody is behind you so I think you go out and try to qualify the best you can. Hopefully, lead some laps and be in position to try to call the race to win and try to drive it to win and try to have winning pit stops.  I think you go out and race as hard as you can, finish as high as you can and after it’s all over I guess you look at it and see where you are.  You can’t control what anybody else does or how anybody else runs or how anybody else finishes. All you can do is control your own car and team and I think you just try to focus on that.”

Can you compare Martinsville with tracks from the Midwest?
“No, it’s not like any other track I’ve ever raced at before this.”

Why has Martinsville been a challenge for you?
“I don’t know why it’s always been such a struggle, although I do feel like the last couple years on average it’s been much
better.  It’s not like any other track, but I think if you can find something that feels good to you that works for your style and
maybe adapt to your driving style a little bit, but I think if you can find something that you like and find something that
works then it always makes the tracks easier.  This spring at least the first half of the race we were really good and really
competitive and really, really helped me be better because we had the car good.  I don’t know, some tracks feel natural to
you and comes real easy, fits your style and other ones are just a lot more work.  This one has just been in general a lot more
work for me than other tracks.”

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued)
Do you have concern over the right side tires for Texas after the incident in testing?
“Can I really talk about it?  No, not really.  I don’t really know much about it.  Whenever you have a tire failure, you’re definitely concerned, but I don’t really know more than that.  I haven’t talked to Goodyear yet since they got all the stuff back and looked at it.   It was certainly nothing that we did.  It was certainly a defective tire for whatever reason and if there’s more of them, I don’t know.  Whenever you have a tire failure you always worry.  I don’t really know what the story was with that.  I haven’t heard yet.”

Are you weird about numbers like Jimmie Johnson is about doing a 20-mile run?
“I’m not weird enough to do a 20-mile run either.  It would take me a week to run 20 miles even if somebody was chasing me.  I just texted Jimmie (Johnson) a little while ago though and told him that we’re friends and everything, but I would appreciate it if he wouldn’t ask me for any advice this weekend.  He’s going to leave me alone.  He’s not going to ask me for any tips on Martinsville until the weekend is over.”

How does the mental and emotional challenge of the Chase evolve?
“I think it all depends where you’re at.  It probably constantly changes so hopefully we’re still in it all the way down to the end.  I think the longer you’re in it and the longer it’s within your control and you don’t need somebody else to have problems and if you can beat them on the race track then you win and if he beats you, you lose and that kind of thing.  I think the closer it gets to that then probably the more pressure there is or however you want to look at it.  If you’re out of it and you know that they have to have a problem for you to be able to win it then I don’t think there’s a lot of pressure and unfortunately that’s where I’ve been more Chase’s up to this point.  Wish we could have had that last week, but that was last week and you have to put it behind you and go race from here on out.  Good news is we are still in it as of right now. Hopefully, we can have a great race on Sunday and still be in it when we leave here.”

Is this weekend and this Chase more of a challenge for you?
“I think every weekend is a challenge.  When we go to Dover I feel like that is one of my personal best tracks and yet you can almost pencil the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) for a win if he doesn’t have a problem and loses on pit strategy or something goofy happens and he breaks or whatever.  This is a track just like that except for it’s not one of my best.  I think for sure it’s a challenge.  I think it’s probably less of a challenge than last weekend because at least you’re kind of in more control over your own destiny here where you don’t have to worry about, ‘Okay, if these six cars go in my line then we’re going to go to the front and if they don’t then I’m going to get the shaft and be 20th.’  You kind of have a little bit more control.  Certainly, it’s a challenge.  As far as the Chase being different so far for me it’s been a lot different.  Honestly, the only Chase that I can recall, there might be some more, but that we were fast enough to win it and race people on speed without just being consistent and having problems and could go out and win races was probably ’06 or whatever.  It’s been a few years since I felt like honestly with everything being equal that we could go head-to-head with anybody and I really feel like this year if we hit everything right we could win at any given weekend.  I feel that confident about my team and my equipment. Hopefully we can have a good day today and still be in it when we leave here and hopefully within single digits or hopefully be ahead.  I really feel like the next three weeks if we do everything right and just everything goes even with everything then I feel like we can race with anybody.  We can race anybody head-to-head for it.  I feel good about that.  You never know what’s going to happen, but I feel like we’re certainly capable.”

Do you just try to get through this weekend?
“It’s not about getting through this weekend.  Like I said, I’ve obviously never won here and don’t have a lot of good finishes here so just looking at that I know this is probably going to be more challenging.  The next three tracks, I think we’ve won at all of them and had good cars there and had decent history there.  I feel like all three of those are the type of tracks that if we hit it right that we could have a chance to go win and race with anybody.  This one we could still do that certainly it’s just more challenging and probably more of a stretch to think that I can beat the 48 (Jimmie Johnson), 24 (Jeff Gordon), 11 (Denny Hamlin), 18 (Kyle Busch) and some of those people head-to-head.  We would have to hit it just right and I’d have to not be as clumsy as I usually am here.”

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued)
Does your performance here in the spring make you more optimistic this weekend?
“It gives me a lot more hope that you’ll have a good run here like we did in the spring and like we did at New Hampshire — that one is usually bad so that makes me feel better about coming here and going to Phoenix, which past history haven’t been as good.  I feel good about our packages and our equipment when it comes to short tracks and big tracks.  I’m optimistic. I’m excited to get on the track today and see what we can do.  I feel pretty good about it.”

How close are you to Ross Kenseth’s operation?
“I own all his (Ross Kenseth) Late Model stuff right now so I’m pretty close to it.  Real close to it.  Ross has been doing really well.  As we all know, it’s a different time right now to move up and to get opportunities.  It used to be car owners would call you and be like, ‘Hey, do you want to drive my car?’  You might even get paid part of the purse or whatever and you get an opportunity to move up and do it and now they call you and are like, ‘Hey man, you want to drive my truck? Give me $120,000 and you can drive it at Martinsville.’  It’s a lot different world than what it was so certainly he’s been running good and I think if he can continue to run good and continue to work really hard at it then he’ll get his opportunity down the road.”

Does Jimmie Johnson run better when he has the point lead?
“I can’t ever recall them running bad.  Really, I don’t.  People always say, ‘Man, it’s a great track for Jimmie (Johnson).’  Is there a bad one?”

Would you be willing to move someone at the end of the race if you had a faster car?
“I’d try to pass him if I had a faster car and you’re catching anybody at the end you’re going to go do what you can to try to pass them.  One thing before they reconfigured Bristol, and it was all on the bottom and even this place , what I learned not so much racing it, but watching just as much as racing is that if you have a good car and everybody says this is a single lane track, but if you have a good enough car then you can pass.  I’ve watched Jimmie (Johnson) win a lot of races here, Jeff (Gordon) win a lot of races here, Denny (Hamlin) and very seldom do any of their cars have a scratch on it when they’re done.”