MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Husky Tools-Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What is your mindset right now in Dover?
“I’m just thinking about qualifying right now. Just got through practice and we worked on race trim a little bit and just trying to get ready to qualify today and get ready tomorrow to try to get ready for Sunday.”
Will you want to know the status of making it to the next Chase round during the race?
“I don’t plan to — the only time I would really want to know is if there is something I could do about it. If you need two spots to make it in and you’re running as hard as you can and you can’t catch those two guys in front of you with the way cautions fall and you’re a couple laps short on fuel and they need you to slow down to a certain spot — there’s certain circumstances I guess you would want to know if it comes to something like that, how much fuel you have to save or slow down or something. If you’re running as hard as you can like you do, unless pit strategy falls funny and you have to save fuel, but if you’re doing everything you can do anyway then it doesn’t matter. I guess it depends on the situation, but most likely not.”
Are you intimidated by the performance of Penske Racing in the Chase?
“I don’t know. Not for me right now, I have my own problems to be concerned with and wasn’t really thinking about that. I’m more concerned with getting a good run on Sunday and hopefully getting to the next round and getting zeroed back up with everybody and hopefully pick it up a notch when we get to Kansas next week. I haven’t really put a lot of thought into that. They’ve (Penske Racing) been really strong this year, especially lately. It doesn’t surprise me that they won the first two races at all really. I don’t know that changes my outlook necessarily in the whole Chase yet.”
Are you in support of the new testing rules for 2015?
“I’m a big fan of it, especially the no Daytona testing stuff — we really don’t learn anything there. The way I look at it is that it’s kind of the same for everybody depending on what happens with the Goodyear tests, but from the rumors I hear of how we’re going to do that and provide a car from every organization, I think that makes it fair for every organization whether you have one team or four. You will be able to do the same amount of testing. Not going to all those other tracks and stuff, I just feel like when you make a rule like that it’s the same for everybody. Like Homestead for instance, I think every single car that’s in the Chase is going to Homestead to test together. Whether we all test together or none of us test I think it’s the same thing. I’m a fan of that and I think it will save the owners some money, it will keep our road guys that are on the road hard all the time — keep them at home a little bit more and in the shop more. I think it’s good. I also think in a way it makes better racing. Everybody is so close to the same speed now it’s easier for somebody to hit it and then maybe the next guy to miss it, which always creates more passing and maybe separate the field a little bit.”
