MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Are you looking forward to racing here at Michigan?
“With this organization, I feel like we have been running really good here the last few months and hopefully we can continue this weekend.”
How do you approach this race with the aero package?
“For me, my approach is always the same. You always want to show up and do your best and qualify best you can on Friday and finish as high as you can on Sunday and hope you’re battling for a win. I don’t think that really changes. I think you’re always trying to bring your best stuff. Now if the rules are different or the same, obviously if you do well and run well, there’s things you can translate into maybe some other races down the road whether it’s in the Chase or not in the Chase. If the rules are different, probably not as much but there are still some things that can transfer, but certainly when they change things around it’s more of a one off.”
Are drivers concerned about heat buildup in the race car with the new aero package?
“Well some of them must have been because they made a rules change. They let us get some more air in the car, which we’ve always had the option to and there were some drivers that got real hot and were very vocal, so now we all have to run with the ducts open to cool the cars, which has always been an option. The guys that were hot wanted to make everybody have it, so it wouldn’t just slow their cars, would slow everybody. It all depends on the weather. With this package, it’s way hotter in the car than it is without it. Indy was almost unbearable in practice, but the race wasn’t really that bad, at least for me. I don’t really foresee any problems cooling the car for everybody. It’s definitely warmer than the normal package.”
Are you looking forward to returning to Bristol and racing under the lights?
“I don’t know that Bristol really changes that much. It’s always a little bit different in August than it is in April, but racing at night usually the track takes on more rubber in August than it does in the spring. It’s a track I really like. We’ve ran really well there since I’ve been at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing), we had some bad finishes but we always have performed really well and if we can do that again – we had pretty fast Camrys there in the spring.”
How will the aero package perform here at Michigan compared to Indy based on the track design?
“I don’t know that it will be a lot different with what you feel in traffic and that type of thing. The race tracks are just massively different. Indy is all by itself and Indy if not the toughest, one of the toughest tracks to pass that we go to no matter what package we bring. I think it will be a little different. The race track is a lot different, so we’ll see what it’s like.”
How different will this package be compared to previous races?
“I think it will be different. Probably not as different when your by yourself, but at Indy it was a lot different when you were in traffic. I think it’s going to be different for sure.”
What’s the biggest difference with the aero package?
“I think mainly it’s not only the spoiler, but the tail extension, it doesn’t let the air underneath the car come out, which perpetrates a lot of the drag and what NASCAR was looking for. There’s a lot less underbody and the heat just stays under the car more and what’s making heat, it just doesn’t come out as much with this current package.”
