Joe Gibbs Racing driver Matt Kenseth spoke after final practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway:
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How was the car in practice?
“I think we were okay. You look at fast lap time and it wasn’t a fast lap time, but I had cars all stuck in front of me just the way we pulled out on the race track so we didn’t get a fast lap. We’re just working on stuff we work on every week for the last 15 years – trying to get the car to turn in the middle and have good bite. Just the same stuff. Trying to make sure we had the speed, which the speed seems okay. Just trying to get the drivability a little better. The traffic here is very difficult so we’re just trying to get it where it’s really good by itself and manageable in traffic.”
How do you expect the track to change if the rubber is washed away by rain tomorrow morning?
“There’s a lot of things we have control over and the weather is not one of them so I’m not going to worry about the weather. Even if it does rain, assuming it dries up then the track is going to get back like this sooner or later anyway and you’re certainly not going to adjust for the first 20 laps. You’re going to be right for the last 300. I don’t think it really affects much of what we’re doing besides maybe the temperature a little bit.”
JASON RATCLIFF, crew chief, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What all was the team working on in final practice?
“I guarantee you there’s nobody that made any more changes than us – those guys changed a ton of stuff. I feel like we have a lot of notes going into tonight. We learned a lot. I think we need to be about a tenth quicker to run with the fastest car, but all in all I think we’re pretty close. Just need to make a few tweaks here from where we ended.”
