Toyota Racing
NSCS Matt Kenseth Notes & Quotes
Texas Motor Speedway
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Are you looking forward to this weekend’s Texas race?
“Typically, Texas has been — I felt like — one of our better tracks at least statistically and how we generally performed here. Last spring we didn’t run particularly well. Last fall we ran better. I got myself put to the back kind of toward the middle of the race — was able to work our way back to fourth or something like that. It’s a fun track. It’s one I’ve always really, really enjoyed since the first time I came here. I’m looking forward this weekend. There’s a few different things — with that new right side tire and obviously the new rules on the cars and all that stuff. I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Do you get involved in decisions about tires or do you just say tell me what I’m running and how hard I can push it?
“Neither really. I think that some of its regulated, some of its recommended, some of its team’s through time figuring out whatever you can do to make your car faster or to try to get an edge. I think things are constantly changing and you’re trying to keep up with that. You always try to figure out how to go as fast as you can without having a failure — whether that’s with engines, parts and pieces, components, tires — whatever it may be. I mean I think it’s always kind of been like that.”
How much are you thinking about the fall race here and challenging for the championship?
“That’s a long ways away. And that’s not exactly true. You have to be in that eight, or whatever, so there’s only eight guys that if they win this race go to Homestead. You always hope to be learning for the next time you go back when you go to race tracks that you go two times, for sure. Especially if you feel like — this time around the rules package is a little bit different. There’s a few things that have changed and we’re still trying to I think get our arms around that as tight as we like, or as tight as we had it around last year’s package — it’s still different (and) we’re still learning. I think we’re going to probably — no matter how you leave here — I’m sure the set-ups and what we’re doing is going to evolve a lot before we come back in November. For sure, I think you want to — if you run good in the first time, you probably have a little more confidence coming back the second time.”
What will do you expect to learn here at Texas this weekend that will help at 1.5-mile tracks?
“Everybody likes to group the mile-and-a-halves — and really I think they’re all really unique. Texas is a very unique race track with the transitions from the straight-aways to the corners — the transitions are a lot different than any other race track that we go to. I feel like this place is pretty unique. I think the surface, tire drop off, wear — where you run on track for the race — will be somewhat like California. There somewhat like each other. High speed race track like that. Again, I think all the racings been good this year so far and I think that everybody’s still learning these new set-ups and the ride height thing and the added down force and all that stuff. Everybody’s still gaining on that. I would expect the competition would keep getting closer together for the next month or two while everybody’s kind of still figuring it out.”
What would you watch now if the remote control for the Big Hoss TV was in your hands?
“I don’t know. What’s on tonight? The Badger game Saturday night. Cheeseheads are playing down here. I don’t know what I’d turn on right now. I don’t know what’s on cause I’m getting ready to practice. I guess I’d turn practice on.”
Do you feel differently at this point in the season from a year ago at this time?
“It’s funny, I think — I’ve been asked a few times about having a slow start and we’re like six points out of the lead, or nine points out of the lead or something. So, it’s kind of funny the way it works. I feel confident. I feel good. I felt really confident at this time last year coming off that win at Vegas, led a ton of laps at Bristol and just got caught up in that wreck, ran pretty good at Martinsville. We had a really great start last year — led the most laps at Daytona. So, I had a ton of confidence coming in here last year, especially feeling like it was probably one of my best tracks personally through the last whatever 10 or 12 years or whatever. Had a lot of confidence coming in here and we didn’t run as good in the first race as we thought we should have. I still have a lot of confidence. I feel like it’s been a little more challenging I think for the teams to get caught up with these new rules because your set-ups are just different. We don’t have the same baseline we had last year and all that kind of stuff. But, I feel like every week we keep improving and we keep getting closer. We didn’t have the dominant cars at California — the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) and 24 (Jeff Gordon) were really dominant — but Kyle ( Busch) was still able to get the win there at the end of the race. I feel like we’re gaining on it. I’m confident, but I’m also looking forward to getting to work tomorrow. It’s a very unique schedule. So, we’ll be able to get some practice in, have a night to look at some stuff and then hopefully everything nailed down by the time we get done qualifying Saturday.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued)
Do you like the fact that NASCAR is providing more flexibility in terms of tire pressures?
“There’s probably more than just one thing that goes into some of the problems there. We certainly have different cars this year. We have a lot more down force than we had before and the rules package has opened up. Our corner speeds are up, so obviously the tire loads are up. Those are all things you need to think about when you’re picking out your set-up and air pressures and stuff. I think they need to leave us tools to work with. I think it’s up to us — I think if we see there’s a problem and it’s something that we’re doing, whether it’s speed or not, you still have to finish the race to be able to win it. So, you have to be able to adjust to that if there is something you can do to control that. So, it seemed like there was some problems there that maybe could have been avoided.”
