MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How does it feel to be fastest during Friday’s practice?
“I felt like we had a really good hour-and-a-half. It was productive, so one of our goals was to get a good lap in case it does rain tomorrow, they always go off first practice speeds and we’ve been bit by that this year. We wanted to try to lay down a lap early when the track was as good as it could be and we were able to do that in case there is bad weather for qualifying, then we just worked hard on race trim the whole time. Felt like we got through a lot of stuff. Felt like we gained a lot. I feel like we’re closer than we’ve been in a long time in balance and in speed. Still have a lot of work to do tomorrow, but I felt pretty good about today.”
Do you feel like a contender or are you still trying to learn your way around Indy?
“Well, all of the above, I guess. I’ve always felt like (Indy) has been one of our race tracks, but you really don’t know until you get there and you get into the race, even through practice. Even last year, we had an incredible year and we ran so good at so many places I’ve never ran good at before, but then we went to Indy and we finished well, but we really didn’t run well last year compared to how we ran everywhere else. Texas has always been one of my best tracks and the last three races there haven’t been as good as they used to be. You just never really know. Like I said, my car drove really good today, so that’s encouraging. I feel like every week as an organization, we’re getting closer and getting faster and getting stronger — putting more cars up in the mix. I feel good about it, but a lot of things have to go right to have a shot here. You’ve seen a lot of different races with different strategies and a lot of things happen here. But, the first part is having a fast car and we seem to have some speed in it, so we’ll build on that.”
Does anything you gain or learn at Indy translate to other intermediate tracks?
“Well, you hope the stuff carries over everywhere, but I thought we were really competitive at Kentucky. I thought we took a big step forward there. At Loudon, I felt like all three cars were all top-five cars. The 2 (Brad Keselowski) definitely had everyone covered. Other than that, I felt like we were pretty even with most the cars — better than a fair amount of them. You hope so, but Indy is really unique. I don’t think there’s another track even close to what Indy is like.”
What will qualifying be like on Saturday with as sensitive as the track is to weather changes?
“Man, you’re asking the wrong guy. If you look at my qualifying numbers this year compared to last year. Obviously I don’t know. I think it’s going to look a lot like practice. You’re going to want to get one lap and you’re going to want to be in the best air you can be in and try not to have other cars around you. So, three rounds here is a lot the way the tires drop off and like you say, as temperature sensitive as the track is and as sensitive as the cars are to traffic as well.”
How does this year compare to the season you had last year?
“Last year was such an incredible year. I know we came up short of the championship, we exceeded every other expectation I think we ever could have dreamt of putting the whole thing together. Obviously expectations are high and when you’re sitting here almost in August and don’t have win yet, you always get asked about that, especially with this new system and all that. The year really hasn’t been a bad year, we’ve had a bad month there where I wrecked it two or three times and had some other things happen, but we just have been as an organization lacking a little bit of speed. I feel like we’re gaining on that and feel like we’re getting closer. I think the rules changes and the things that happened over the winter just affected us differently than some other teams and it’s taken a while to get caught up to that. Overall, I feel like from a team perspective and execution and all that stuff, we’re probably better than what it was last year. As soon as we get the speed to go with it and have some things to go our way, it’s possible to get on a roll. To answer your question, yeah, you never forget how hard it is to win races and to run up front, so you have to really enjoy it when you can and keep working on it when you’re off.”
Where does the Brickyard rank among the tracks the Sprint Cup Series races at each year?
“Popular is kind of a loaded question. Popular with the fans might be different than popular with certain drivers. Everybody has the tracks they really like and other ones they don’t like as much. As far as prestige and places you want to win at and all that, I think the Daytona 500 is one of those that all racers would like to win more than any other race. I think the Brickyard is probably second in most people’s book, for sure.”
