MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Home Depot Husky Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How do you approach Talladega knowing how critical it is to transfer in the Chase?
“Obviously this is one that everybody has been worried about. In this round, we have not performed well in the first two rounds, even besides our problems last week, we probably — I think we would have finished in the top-10, but probably not a lot better than that. I haven’t even looked at the points, but obviously we were behind and it would be a good race to win. Just go with that idea and go try to race hard and try to be up in the front and try to win.”
How would you feel to win a championship without winning a race?
“I’d be happy winning a championship no matter what the format is — obviously the format has changed a lot throughout the years. It feels really different for me this year because if it was last year right now we’d be done. If we could come here and get a real good finish and finish ahead of a few cars we could possibly get all our points back again and be even going to Martinsville next week. That’s definitely a different feeling than it was before. Obviously I wish we would have won some races by now. The season we had last year, I never dreamed we would go 12 months without winning a race even though I realize how hard it is and you never really — I never really lose sight of that because I’ve been around for a while so you have to enjoy it when it’s going good and you realize it’s really hard to win races. Still the way we ran last year I didn’t think we’d be sitting here right now without a win. I certainly wish we had some wins — got five weeks left I guess so we still have a chance to win some races. I hope we have a good day Sunday and get into the next round. Even if we don’t, I still think we can win some races before the year is over.”
Are you disappointed or regret your actions from last weekend?
“None of it — you never want to get into confrontations, at least I don’t. I like to avoid them. I’m definitely not built for fighting and it’s not really in my genes — not something I ever really want to do, but I guess everybody has their breaking point. Last week was bad enough to run bad all night and to be frustrated and then get two tires and get towards the front and Brad (Keselowski) clearly saw me roll outside of him and he hung a right on purpose and ran me right into the wall and ruined my night and possibly took us out of Chase contention. So, I was mad enough about that and then to come down afterwards and have your stuff off and your net down and come and pull those high school stunts playing car wars after the race was just absolutely unacceptable. That definitely put me over the edge. I don’t regret my actions. I’m not proud of them or happy about them or any of that, but I don’t regret them. I don’t know that I would do anything different if the same thing went down again.”
What is the plan for the race in order to protect points or try to gain positions?
“You’re not going to think I’m telling the truth, but I haven’t really looked at our spot, but I thought somebody said we were ninth so if we’re ninth we certainly don’t want to protect that. We have to, I think be eighth after this race or better. I don’t know, I think there’s going to be varying strategies. I think the top few guys that have a big cushion, I would be shocked if they didn’t just ride around in the back until the last pit stop or something like that. You never know, this place is unpredictable and enough people get that mindset and you won’t have the big wreck until the last lap and if you’re not in the front on the last lap then you’re not going to get a good finish. Everybody is going to have a different plan. I have to get with Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and get with everybody and my plan or I think where we’re at and really needing to win at this time of the year I think if our car is fast enough then we go up there and try to lead laps and try to be in position and try to win this thing.”
Would you have reacted the same earlier in the season?
“I would have. Really, obviously I was probably more upset about getting ran into the wall than I would have maybe been on week two of the season. There’s probably a little bit there and some of that is from frustration from the season of not running to our potential and being taken out of a Chase race. The stuff afterwards of getting hit after the race, my reaction to that was besides taking my stuff off and thinking it’s ridiculous to get hurt after a race is over by somebody acting like a little kid using a car for a weapon. I thought that was ridiculous, but that’s the second time he’s done that this year just to me. After the Richmond race he (Brad Keselowski) came and wiped us out down in turn two and then came down pit road and took another slug at me and knocked the side off our car. Besides people having to pay for them and work on them and all that stuff, it’s just not acceptable. After that happening again was probably most of my reaction.”
Were you expecting a fine from NASCAR?
“I was not. You never know, but I think that in the past if you go in there and first of all it was not a planned action and I didn’t go in there with fists flying or anything else like that. I just really wanted to get to him (Brad Keselowski) I guess, I’m not sure what I wanted to do when I got there, but I wasn’t really expecting one. It was obvious I didn’t really have a plan right?”
Would you change taking your belts off when you did in hindsight?
“When you’re on pit road after a race is over I thought that would be pretty safe. That’s what we’ve done every week for 15 years, you know what I mean? You get to pit road and while you’re waiting and everybody is going in the garage at two miles an hour you start getting your stuff off and get ready to get to the trailer and get out of the car. So, I thought that was acceptable and that was safe. I mean, I know under a wreck and anything like that while the event is still going on I know they certainly want you to stay close to your car, but once you’re on pit road after the race or in the garage area of all places I think it’s always been a practice to start getting your stuff off and get ready to get out — been in there a long time.”
Did you intentionally hit Brad Keselowski when you took the ‘wave around’ with six laps to go?
“Well, Brad (Keselowski) is greatly exaggerating that point. If you watch video you can see he had no marks on his right front of his car after that. He said it tore his whole right front off. I did indeed swerve at him when I took the wave around because I was mad he put me in the wall and totally ruined my day, but if you look at his car there is absolutely no damage on it. That was just him greatly exaggerating the story.”
Will you want to know during the race where you are in the point standings?
“Yeah, only if you can do something about it I guess. It just depends on the situation. A lot can happen here. It’s so different from any other track. If you don’t get that green-white-checkered and it ends like — I think it was last fall’s race — where they’re kind of all lined up and Joey (Logano) and I got together and tried to make some moves and got shuffled out and lost four or five spots. Jimmie (Johnson) tried making some moves and got shuffled out and lost some spots. With me and Jimmie racing for the championship last year we both kind of got in the top and we’re like, ‘Man, we’re not trying that again. I’m not going to go from 16th to 25th on the last lap.’ So, I guess in that type of case you would like to know, but if it’s crazy green-white-checkered and everybody is three-wide and you need as many spots as you can get I guess you don’t. So, I think it kind of changes here more so than any other track. It’s kind of an interesting race to have the cutoff because a place like Charlotte or Kansas or whatever they can give you the information but there’s not usually a lot you can do about it. If you’re five car lengths behind the guy and you’re running as hard as you can and you’re not catching him if they say you need one more spot what are you going to do about it? But, certainly that could change here and there’s probably going to be a lot of different strategies and teammates out there and all kinds of different things going on because it’s a track you can’t really do a lot by yourself. So, it depends on the situation.”
Is it cruel to have Talladega be a place where an elimination happens in the Chase?
“I think it will make for a lot of great storylines, a lot of things to watch. It’s been a race in the Chase since the Chase started. It’s certainly a track whenever you’re fortunate enough to be in the Chase it’s when you always kind of have in the back of your mind and probably every year for me — except for last year or a couple years ago when we were running so good here — but, other than that it’s when you always had in your mind, you’re like, ‘Oh man, you could come out of that race 43rd as easy as you could come out of there third or second or first.’ It can be very unpredictable. But, it’s always been in the Chase and I think it’s always had very big implications or had the possibility to have very big implications for the Chase. So, it’s not really that much different right now. I mean, yeah, it’s a cutoff race but it’s one of the three.”
How wild and risky could Sunday’s finish be at Talladega beyond what we’ve seen in the past?
“I think a lot of it is always circumstances here. It almost always ends with a green-white-checkered and whenever you have a green-white-checkered or less than a 10 lap run or so it’s always extremely crazy. It’s always three-wide and sometimes even four-wide. Everybody in there trying to put their car in places where there’s not a lot of extra room or maybe no extra room. So, I think it’s always like that. They’re always huge races. Everybody wants to win, nobody wants to wreck but everybody wants to win and it just kind of lends itself to that kind of racing. So, I’m not sure how different it’s going to be. I’m assuming by what someone told me there’s probably four or five cars that it’s really important to get that finish and then there’s probably another group that it’s just important not to get wrecked. So, I think there’s going to be a lot going on but I think the finish is going to be intense no matter what.”
