MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What is your outlook for Bristol this weekend?
“I enjoy coming to Bristol. Anything can happen. The last few races we’ve had really fast cars here. We were fortunate enough to win one of them and wrecked in the other two. So, I’m hoping this is our turn to win one because it’s been every other race. I like racing here. It’s always really challenging. Really, really fast with this car and these rules. So, I’m looking forward to getting out there today and hopefully getting it to where we need to handle for tomorrow and hopefully getting qualified good because that’s always an advantage here as well.”
Do you feel you are pretty well locked into the Chase with your current points position even if you don’t get a win?
“I never feel like you’re a lock for anything until you’re really a lock for something. Until it’s mathematically impossible to be out. I never feel like you’re in. We want to win. We’ve been doing the best we can do every week. Obviously with the season we had last year I didn’t think we’d be sitting here at the end of August without a win for sure. But, like I said, we’re doing everything we can do. We’re doing the best we can. It’s been an interesting year. We started off I felt like really solid and then I feel like our performance has got steadily better but we’ve just been caught up in a lot of stuff. Some of it I guess is your own doing and if you were running better you wouldn’t be caught up in it. You can always look at that. Speedway wrecks — last week the 10 (Danica Patrick) car spun out there in front of us and we got caught up in that wreck. Just been caught in a lot of stuff that’s really cost us a lot of good finishes and even though they’re not all DNF’s on the stat sheet there’s a lot of races that we weren’t running competitively at the end because we’ve been in accidents. So, to still be where we are in the points I guess is a good thing with all of the trouble that we’ve had but certainly we want to go win but you can only do the best you can. You can’t force them. You go out and race as hard as you can every week and try to get the best result you can and hopefully you’ll get some wins.”
Why has Bristol been such a good race track for you?
“Every week is an opportunity. I’ve always liked this track. It’s changed a lot through the years, not just with the configuration change but with the car changes as well. I think what it takes right now to run good and have a shot to win and be competitive is way different than it was before this car and before the configuration and all that kind of stuff. So, like everywhere, it changes. Last year I felt like we had a pretty good setup for the track and we were fast both races and in the spring it was pretty fast as well and again got caught up in a wreck — slowed up for a wreck and got ran over from behind and that kind of ruined our day. It’s like most tracks, I think it if you have a good setup for it that’s the first thing is having a fast car, but it is a track I enjoy. You can still attack it and be pretty aggressive, so it’s a fun track. It’s a lot of work the way it is right now and with these rules and these cars and everything because you’ve got to attack it every single corner but that also makes it a lot of fun.”
How do you balance trying to get a win and trying to get as many points as possible each race?
“You don’t. You finish as best you can every week and you hope that’s a win. The days that you have cars that are good enough to be upfront and to win with you hope that you have everything else that goes along with that. You don’t make a mistake on the track, you don’t get caught up on a wreck, you qualify good enough, you have good pit stops, good strategy and you do all of those things to have a shot to win but you take what you have every week and you make the best you can with it and finish as high as you can every week. If you could win every week you would do it. There’s a lot of competition out here and you do the best you can every week and like I say hopefully there’s days that you have cars good enough to win and you have everything go along with that and you can get some wins. If you don’t you try to do the best you can with what you have and finish as high as you can just like you always have since you started racing.”
Hypothetically, how would you react if you were in the same situation as last year and instead of allowing you to win Kasey Kahne wrecked you because he needed a win? Would you react differently with a different scenario?
“You’re right, that’s a hypothetical and there’s a lot of moving parts to that. That was the big conversation last year but man, unless you’re in those cars it’s kind of hard to understand. It’s not the old Bristol where you ride around the bottom. It’s not the old cars to generations ago where the bumpers don’t line up and you can barely touch somebody and knock them off line and knock them out of the way easily without being caught in that wreck. You’re all right around the wall almost wide open. I shouldn’t say almost wide open but you’re in the gas a lot compared to what used to be. So, I don’t know. I think every situation is different and I think whatever happens you deal with it but if the roles were reversed I don’t really race anybody any different. I’ve never been in a race that I didn’t want to win. I never felt like there’s not urgency to win. If you are in that spot and you want to get the win you’re going to want to do whatever you can to get that win but you’re also not going to — most people anyway I don’t think are going to go wrong someone and wreck somebody for the win and do all of that stuff. Because first of all it’s not as easy as it looks from in here and from the cameras. Second of all, you’re probably going to get that favor returned to you somewhere along that line. So, I don’t know. Everybody races as hard as they can for the win I think and if you’ve got that opportunity and you can take it and make the pass you’re going to do it and if you can’t you’re going to finish second I guess.”
Do drivers locked into the Chase relax more in the next three races?
“I just don’t think it really changes that much. I guess there’s some situations where it could — you might have a favorite care or something like that where you might save it for the first race you’re in or something like that. Other than that, I just don’t really feel like it changes that much. I always think you want to run the best you can every week, you want to win whenever you can, you want to have that momentum carrying into the Chase. For the guys that have already won, you get more bonus points for the first round if you can win again. There’s a lot of incentives you win races so don’t really buy the fact that anybody is really folding it in and getting ready for the Chase and saying, ‘Okay, we don’t care about the next three weeks, we’re just going to get ready to go race in a few weeks at Chicago.’ I don’t know if I buy that and especially at a place like this, there’s nothing you’re going to learn here that’s going to apply to anywhere else we go to the rest of the year. I think it’s a race. I think it’s a huge event and everybody wants to win at Bristol — it’s the Bristol night race. I think it’s one of the most hyped, intense, entertaining races that we have all year and I think that all 43 guys are fired up for that and they’re going to go out and race to win no matter what they’re telling everybody.”
What are your thoughts with the changes taking place at Roush Fenway Racing?
“I can’t speak to anything that’s really going on over there. I’m almost two years removed from that situation or even a little longer really. I don’t know. It’s a great race team. They’re bringing some news sponsors back into the sport, which is really exciting. You’ve seen a few people do that — JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) getting another team started and bringing another new sponsor into the sport. I think all that is good and all that is a good sign for the sport and for the organizations and drivers — everybody involved. Greg (Biffle), he’s always been a contender to win races and race for a championship and I don’t see that every changing.”
How do you setup a pass on another car at Bristol when you can’t move them up the race track?
“I guess you have to figure out how to move them down the track. It’s different because the groove is on the top, but it’s not any different than trying to figure out how to pass somebody anywhere else. You have to figure out how to get your car working good enough to go where they’re not so you have to figure out how to get a good enough run. If they’re on the top you have to figure out how to get a good enough run to get your car turning good enough on the bottom to finish a pass just like anywhere. Certainly it is a lot different than it used to be. You have to plan out your moves a lot more it seems like because it’s easy to get stuck on the bottom and get passed by other cars. Certainly different.”
How was the package at Michigan during the test?
“I thought that test at Michigan was really interesting. They went through all the high downforce stuff and less power and kind of the direction they went this year, but even greater and it was honestly really bad. It was really singled out — you couldn’t pass, you could draft a little more on the straightaway, but you’re almost wide open in the corners. It was really bad and at the very end they took all the downforce off and gave us all our power back and did all that and it was pretty much unanimous from the drivers and if you watch the film with just two of us, it was awesome. It was like going back 15 years in time or something like that and know you could actually pass in the corners instead of worrying about drafting in the straightaway. You could get one guy on the bottom and one guy on the top, the air wasn’t so turbulent that you couldn’t get outside of people so the track got really wide. It was like the track aged 10 years and it was awesome. Everybody got out with a smile on their face. You actually wouldn’t feel as guilty cashing your paycheck on Friday anymore because you actually had to drive the cars like you used to. I think you’d get some single car spins again and some people that stepped over the line. You really had to drive the car, it’s not just stuck and glued to the track kind of like the more air they put on them that’s how they get. They just get stuck and glued to the track and the front guy has a way bigger advantage. I think everybody was really excited about it. I don’t know what NASCAR will do with it, but it sure was a lot of fun to drive and re-watching some of it and looking at data and doing all that, it seemed like the racing was better too and if your car was handling a little bit better you could actually make the pass instead of getting stuck there in dirty air. I think everybody is excited about that so who knows which direction they’ll go, but I think all the drivers and the people working on them and everything are hoping they lean that direction.”
Do you expect the racing to be more intense here and at Richmond?
“I don’t know if it will be any more or less than normal. This track is really fast and everybody is running really close together so certainly there is always a chance to have problems and to get caught up in wrecks. I don’t think it will be any more or less than normal. I think everybody is going to go out there and race hard and hope to be up front and get a win and like we talked about, passing is a little bit more difficult than it used to be so it gets exciting really quick when you start catching lapped cars and have trouble getting around them and the guys are catching the leaders from behind. I think the racing is going to be really good. I think the Richmond spring race was really good. It would have been better without the last two cautions because I think we would have won, but other than that I think it was a really entertaining race. There was a lot of beating and banging and close racing at the end of that one as well. I think especially with this aero package, the slower tracks we go to I think it’s a little more mechanical and the racing is a little bit better. I think the racing is going to be real exciting all the way from here to the end of the year, but certainly until we get to the Chase.”
What would you say to fans about your confidence in potentially winning the championship this year?
“I wouldn’t try to convince them of that, unless I’m misunderstanding the question. Last year we had four wins up to this point, we were on a few poles, we led a ton of laps — obviously we haven’t performed like that this year. Obviously, last year the way we were performing my confidence for winning a championship, assuming we get in the Chase, was way greater of course. That should be pretty obvious. Just because you’re in the Chase doesn’t mean you have a chance to win a championship. There’s going to be a lot of cars that get in the Chase that aren’t going to have a prayer of winning the championship. That’s the way it’s always been and with having 16 cars instead of 12 there’s going to be even more of them. That being said, my confidence isn’t nearly as high with how we’re running at this point this year than last year. I have a ton of confidence in my team and organization and my pit crew has been doing better than ever, but we’ve just been off on speed a little bit so certainly with only three weeks to go to the Chase, even if all three of us get in we realize that we all have to be running better to have a legitimate shot at winning it and we’re all working really hard at that.”
