Toyota NSCS Bristol Matt Kenseth Notes & Quotes 314

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Home Depot/Husky Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Is Bristol a track you look forward to?

“It’s a challenging track — I always like coming here no matter what the configuration is.  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.  I think the track is going to be drastically different here in a little while and it probably will again in qualifying later this afternoon and how it will be in the race again.  You always have to pay attention to that and try to get your car to work good enough to where you can pass because once the race gets going then everybody piles in the top — then it’s definitely a challenging track to pass on.”

Do you expect more aggressive driving to win races with the new format?

“Everybody is going to look at that different and have different ideas or theories about that.  I’m not sure how much it changes — maybe it changes a lot or maybe it doesn’t.  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.  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.”

Have you been able to pinpoint where the team struggled at Las Vegas?

“Qualifying was a lot different than practice.  I thought we practiced fairly reasonable.  I thought we were off a little bit at Vegas, but practiced reasonable.  Qualifying was obviously really bad and I’m not really sure why.  The race we were kind of up and down.  We were just stuck around 10th somewhere and could never really get there. 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.  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.”

How is passing different at Bristol with the new configuration?

“I don’t know if it’s harder to pass than when everybody was on the bottom — it’s way easier to get side-by-side and get there, it’s just hard to finish the pass.  When it was on the bottom if you could get under somebody or you got them off the bottom and moved them a little bit, once you were under them it was over and there was no way they could challenge on the outside.  There is kind of more grooves and you can get side-by-side, it’s just almost impossible to finish that pass because all the momentum off the top.  I don’t know, I think a lot of it has changed since two versions of the car ago — when the bumpers started lining up it started being different than what it used to be.  Even the last race here before they reconfigured it, it was pretty tough to pass or move someone and do that.  I think the strategy changes a bit and you just want to be in front of them and be faster and try to get away.  It’s probably a little bit harder to move somebody out of the way running around the top.  If you can get off a corner better than somebody or you can get a run underneath them enough I think the pass you probably see for the win here is more to try to get alongside of them off the corner and get into the corner on the bottom and try to just carry so much speed you slide up in front of them.  Hope you clear them and hope they don’t cross over and pass you back.  I think that’s probably more the style of the last lap — bonsai type thing — you try to make to beat somebody more so than like it was before when we were on the bottom and try to move them up off the bottom so you can pass.”

Will running the Nationwide race on Saturday help here at Bristol?

“I don’t know yet.  I feel like with all the different tire on both sides compared to what we ran here the last few times, we haven’t been on the track since last fall, we haven’t tested or anything like that so I think the extra time sometimes helps — it’s good to be on the track a little bit and get another race under your belt.  I don’t know whether it will help or not.  I certainly don’t think it hurts.  It makes today a little bit busier, but after that it’s nice to get out there and get the extra track time, especially with the new tire.”

What will qualifying look like with no cool down laps being permitted?

“With no cool down laps, less chaotic and confusing hopefully.  I think it’s going to look more like practice somewhat and more like a normal qualifying session except there will be more cars out there.  Everybody should be able to be more patient and pick and choose your time when you want to get rolling.  Be able to wait for a clean lap and go.  I think everybody with the cool down thing, especially when you’re in the three rounds like the bigger tracks everybody would try to blast off immediately so they had more time to cool the engine down for the next round where you really don’t have to worry about that as much or worry about the tires cooling off, but not the engine.  I think you will probably see people hopefully more clean laps and less people be in the way.”

Are you still telling your wife to try to have the baby on a Monday?

“We kind of had to change that around a little bit because it’s supposed to rain Sunday.  If it rains Sunday — she was praying for Monday so we had to change that to Tuesday if it’s going to be this week.  Oh, it’s supposed to snow Monday so I guess if we can’t race then we can still have her on Monday.”

Do you have a standby driver for California?

“Sam (Hornish Jr.) is going to standby on the Nationwide car since we’re doing double duty and then although Jeff Burton is not crazy about going to the west coast, he agreed to standby to practice or something if we needed that for a session.”