TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Matt Kenseth – Notes & Quotes
Talladega Superspeedway – October 23, 2015
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Matt Kenseth was made available to the media at Talladega Superspeedway:
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 DeWALT Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How is the car for this weekend and what is your approach for the race?
“It’s always hard to tell where you stack up here at Talladega really until you get into the race. Maybe a little bit in qualifying, but really until you get into the race and get into different situations hopefully get to the front, you never know how strong your car is in my opinion until you get to the lead and if you’re fortunate enough to get up there if you can keep it there and pull the pack and make moves to stay in front. Practice is just kind of a small group just kind of feeling it out and make sure everything is alright and good and just get ready for tomorrow.”
After hearing Brian France reference Joey Logano’s move at Kansas as ‘quintessential NASCAR,’ does that change how you will race others moving forward or the ‘code?’
“I don’t know what that word means, I wasn’t very good in high school. I barely made it through Cambridge High School so I’d have to Google that word first to find out what – Nate (Ryan, NBCSports.com reporter) would know because Nate’s very educated. Once I learn what that means, then I can probably answer that better.”
When is blocking accepted and is it more accepted at a restrictor plate race or during the Chase?
“There could be a lot of different examples there, I think there’s a lot of different scenarios here you’re talking about. Certainly at Daytona and Talladega, speedway racing and putting your car in front of another car is the way you have to race and everybody knows that. Now when somebody is up alongside you, you can’t run somebody in the wall or run them down to the infield because you’re going to get wrecked or cause a wreck, you know that. It’s certainly your job to keep your car in front of somebody else’s. Every situation is different when you’re at a track and you’re under somebody and they run you into a wall or run you into an inside wall or something, that’s unacceptable. I think somebody trying to keep their position if they’re leading a race, that’s their job is to try to get in the lane you’re in especially when you’re not even up alongside of somebody, you know that’s kind of your job to try to find out where there’s the most grip, find out where he’s working and try to find that grip for yourself and try to get away and try to get the win.”
What is your expectation and thoughts on only one green-white-checkered attempt this weekend?
“I’d have to think about that a little bit more probably and look at some of the replays of past races, but typically – I might be wrong on this, but it seems like typically when there’s green-white-checkereds at superspeedways we don’t typically wreck until the second lap anyway so we usually only have one of them anyway I think. Typically green-white-checkered, when you’re two-wide, I kind of wish it maybe went single-wide because I think there’s actually more passing because you can get a run and pass somebody. Usually them green-white-checkereds when you’re two-wide, the first lap you’re not totally up to speed, most cars are blocked in because you’re two-by-two, especially the bottom lane – second on back if the leader is running the white line, yellow line then you’re on the yellow line and you have a car in front of you and a car outside of you and a car behind you so there’s really nothing you can do. Typically the wreck happens after the white so hopefully it doesn’t come down to that, hopefully we don’t have one and we can race without it and have the fastest car out front mixing it up for the win.”
Did you get some feedback from Ross Kenseth after his test session at Martinsville?
“He (Ross Kenseth) said it went pretty well. He’s never been there and there’s no other trucks there and the track is green and all that, but I think he’s excited to get the chance to be able to go run a Truck Series race. It just kind of all came together in a few short days. He’s excited to get there and he had a fun test and looking forward to seeing how he does there.”
Have you talked to Joey Logano?
“No. Um, no. Yeah, I haven’t heard from him (Joey Logano).”
Is there anything you would do differently last week in Kansas?
“Well, I wouldn’t have done anything differently because I didn’t do anything wrong. I did everything I was supposed to do. I tried to get away. He (Joey Logano) drove the car in the wall himself twice. I don’t know how you can possibly either, ‘A,’ block someone or put somebody in the wall when they’re not up alongside you – it’s pretty talented if you can do that when somebody’s four feet behind you, so, no, I did everything I could to win the race. That’s the way I’d race to win any race is to race hard as you can and do whatever you can, be clean about it and go as fast as I could go and that’s all I was doing. I got hit from behind. I couldn’t do anything about that. I couldn’t change that.”
Would you feel better if Joey Logano said he wrecked you intentionally to win?
“Yeah, some day he might mature a little bit, but, first of all, he should have stopped running his mouth, ‘A,’ and, number two, he’s lying when he said he didn’t do it on purpose because he lifted your tires off the ground offset to the left and he’s too good a race car driver to do that by accident.”
Have you been upset this week?
“No, I’ve been in a great mood. I’ve had a lot of fun. Nothing to be mad about or be in a bad mood about. Just looking forward to carving pumpkins tomorrow with the girls (NAMES). Just been – I think Talladega is one of the more mental draining races you have, so really just trying to get focused down here. It’s more of a mental race than a physical race, obviously, so just thinking about Talladega and you can’t do anything about last week. Just thinking about Talladega and trying to figure out how we can possibly get a win here.”
Do you feel increased pressure to win this weekend at Talladega?
“Yeah, not a lot you can do here to make your car go faster, obviously. It’s all about being in the right place and being positioned properly and not making just the right moves for yourself, but yet the moves that the rest of the cars make too and certainly being a race in the Chase everybody’s kind of on a different agenda or some people are locked in and are just going to help their teammates – there’s all kinds of different scenarios, so, yeah, just go race as hard as we can and hope for the best, so try to do the best we can every week. We had real fast cars the last two week. Do the best we can this week and if we don’t win, we’ve got four races left this year to go try to win some more races.”
