Last year, Matt Kenseth started off teh seaosn real strong in his first year with Joe Gibbs Racing – picking up a win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Flash forward a year later and things haven’t started off so smoothly as Kenseth wrecked in the Daytona 500, before finishing 12th at Phoenix and 10th last weekend at Las Vegas.
Kenseth felt that he started the weekend off at Vegas reasonably, but ended up not doing well in qualifying as he started 29th. From there, he said the race was up and down for he and his team as they were stuck around 10th all day.
“I felt like if we could have made it on fuel, and we would have been out front or did the strategy that the 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) and 99 (Carl Edwards) and a couple of them guys did, then I felt like we could have finished fifth or so,” Kenseth commented. “Certainly that wasn’t as good as what we were last year. I think just trying to feel around the ride height thing more than anything — the aero package is different and it’s tighter and it’s all that stuff, but it’s the same for everybody. I think just working to try to get more of a baseline and a feel for the no ride height thing and come up with something that works a little better.
“Certainly not where we wanted to be, but we were something that I think we learned a lot from and we can work on.”
It goes without a doubt that Kenseth comes into Bristol this weekend looking for something positive.
“It’s a challenging track — I always like coming here no matter what the configuration is,” Kenseth commented. “It’s changed a lot over the years, since they repaved it or put new concrete on it. It’s one that I look forward to — it definitely changes a lot during the weekend.”
Kenseth added that the key of the weekend is making sure that you get your car handling enough to pass on the bottom as everybody seems to run the top when it comes to the current configuration. So far, Kenseth is off to a good start as he qualified third for Sunday’s race.
Qualifying well at Bristol can be key to having a good day as a result of tight, aggressive racing with pushing throughout hte field. If you can keep yourself up front all day, you can most likely stay of trouble.
However, there is the question as to whether things will be more aggressive this year as a result of the new points system with wins rewarding you a place in the Chase. Kenseth says each person will have their own theory with regards to it, but he doesn’t feel it will change the racing.
“If somebody is on your bumper at most of these race tracks, especially these little tracks like Martinsville, here, places like that where you can get moved out of the way and you’re holding the guy up in second and you’re leading, you’re always expecting some type of aggressive move,” Kenseth added. “I’m not sure how much that will change. These are all big races to win and everybody is out there racing hard to win. You never know — you never know what the new system with the rules and format and all that stuff is going to bring. I think we just kind of wait and see.”
