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Matt Kenseth Preseason Thunder Q&A
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Q: (Inaudible).
Matt Kenseth: Really with all of the rules you're not going to see a big difference just because inaudible it's very similar to what we had. It's probably going to be a little bit better, and we already had a great race last year. And so it's going to be a great car, a great street car, that's for sure.
Q: The drafting practice this morning, you guys were out there in relatively decent packs, what can you tell us about that and how the Fusion handled and anything significantly different?
Matt Kenseth: It's going to be the same what we've had the last couple of years. I believe the spoiler size and the plate size, all that is the same. Unless they change that, you're going to see the same race. It seemed like it was the same as always, you needed a few cars to really be able to move around and get much done, which is normal. It's hard today because the biggest pack we had was maybe six cars, and obviously the more cars you get, the more turbulent it gets the more you can move around the pack and push people by.
Both of my cars, they are a little bit different and both drive like they should be. You know, I don't think we're really going to notice a difference from the driver's seat. I don't think we're going to feel anything different, which is probably good because we had good balanced cars before. I think it's going to be a little bit better and something you're going to be able to measure in. This day and age it's not like it was even five years ago when we went from the Taurus and changed a lot of that stuff around. So it's not like that, I mean, the quarters are the same and the size, all that stuff is basically the same, just a little bit of a look, the nose is just a little different, the tail is just a little different.
Q: Jack said that even though he won the championship two years in a row for his organization, he really considers last year to probably be the best year ever. As a team player, your comments on that. And also as a follow up, how would you rate last years, because given just a few races had you not had problems with tires, you would have been right up there all along?
Matt Kenseth: You know, if you look at the year as a whole and average everything out, I think it was a successful race for us. We wanted to do much better than that, I think we probably led maybe more laps last year than what we ever had. We were in position to win a few races, a couple of them we cost ourselves. I think overall we ran pretty good. I think Roush Racing ran better last year than they have every other year. We ran the worst up until the last inaudible. We just needed to be a little bit more consistent. I think overall it was a great year for everybody at Roush and I hope we get closer to the championship this year.
Q: How did the rookies do in the draft today from what you saw, and can you talk about Carl's year last year and how you think they will do this year?
Matt Kenseth: The rookies in the draft, you know, the rookies these days have a lot of experience in the Busch Series and doing that, and these cars are much easier to drive than the Busch cars with the wickers on them. I'm sure they will do fine. It's hard to see that until you get in race condition and three and four wide and all that kind of stuff I already forgot your other question. Oh, Carl. I'm sure Carl will do great. He had a great year last year, I think he won four Cup races and five Busch races. You know, Carl obviously has a lot of natural talent and he's pretty smart, does the right things at the right time. So I don't see him slowing down, that's for sure.
Q: Can you talk about the difference between a test like this in Vegas and I guess the Super Speedway being what it is, are you really looking more toward Vegas to see how this car really handles?
Matt Kenseth: Sure, we only do speedway racing four times a year and Daytona is fairly different from Talladega, so we really only do this twice a year really. Look forward to Vegas. Here we just run a couple of laps and see how much speed you have. With all of the rules today, you can't change rear springs and rear shocks, all of the different stuff we used to change to try to travel, NASCAR has pretty much caught on to it and basically made a rule for basically everything. There's not really a lot that we can do when we get here. Really what you run off the truck is what your car is going to run. It's kind of boring testing really at this track.
When you go to Vegas, any track where you have to let off the gas, it's different because you're working on all kind of different stuff, you're working on your aerodynamics, you're working on your handling package. Vegas is a fun place to go, especially in the wintertime when you haven't been in the car a lot. So you go there and test and have an idea about your downforce. We run 32 downforce races and four Speedway races, so really, both are important. Daytona 500 holds a lot of importance, but as far as how your year goes, your downforce is most important because that's what we race the most.
Q: How dangerous is traffic out there I heard Robby made what happened with Jimmie Johnson last year at Talladega probably cost him the championship?
Matt Kenseth: I don't know, I don't want to go there with any predictions or anything like that. It's like anything, I mean, it all depends how and where it's done and what situation. So I mean, I don't mind it. Obviously there's guys like any kind of racing, you know, we're running different types of races than we do during the year that you're more comfortable with than others that are pushing you. The only time it gets to be probably a little bit dangerous is when you're three wide during the middle and the car behind you is pushing you and you maybe can't see the car in front of you that you're already on him. Sometimes that kind of stuff happens. But if it's done in the right place and the right situation, I don't think there's anything really wrong with it. A lot of people don't like it, but if you get bumped driving inaudible in the wind tunnel Vegas, I pushed him so hard Hanna brought me up one position, too. It's like anything, there's a time and place for anything and the way the rules are structured it makes it inaudible which makes for more exciting racing but it also makes it where you can updraft somebody and run it.
Q: You raced at one point or another against all of the guys in this year's rookie field, who impresses you and how do you assess the field?
Matt Kenseth: Who is the rookie besides Sorenson? Martin? Who else? There's a whole bunch of them. They are all really good, I've raced against all of them. Marvin reminds me a lot of Dale Junior. He did the same thing in the Busch Series, won the championship for two years and now he's coming up. So I think he's going to be real tough. I think that the Sorenson is going to be awesome. He has a lot of natural talent. First time I've seen him racing. He's young and he's ready to go. I think all of them guys will run good, really. I think that's a really talented group, one of the talented group of rookies and biggest group of rookies that we've had for a long time. So that will probably be a neat thing to watch.
Q: Not to be too technical but Jimmie Johnson yesterday was talking about the front spring, the 20 car was ahead of everybody on and he indicated that he thought NASCAR might make a change or something up there, going to Las Vegas and downforce tracks on the old package is important, are you hearing anything about that? Do you have any feel?
Matt Kenseth: If you find out what they are doing, will you find out and give a copy to me? I don't know what it was. I don't really know. Jimmie was talking, usually Chad is the first guy to figure out everything, half the rule book today is filled up about what Chad is doing and they had to make a rule for him to quit doing it inaudible probably just everybody got caught up. Obviously the 21 wants to race and the 48 wants to race and obviously they were doing it within the rules because they won races.
Q: There's talk a couple of you Roush guys running the Rolex 24, is that something that we might see?
Matt Kenseth: Not this year. We were talking about it but they already had the test last weekend, so I don't want to go do it. Last year Kurt and Greg and I and Maxwell did and it was a lot of fun, but our stuff didn't run very good and we didn't keep up inaudible. The only thing, I was trying to make sure we had competitive stuff and we could keep up. It was late to put it all together. I would love to do it again, if we could be competitive, maybe not be the best car out there, but at least competitive where we could feel like we have a chance at winning. Last year we didn't feel like we had much of a chance.
Q: How would you assess if you were to kind of preview your team and rank yourself heading into this year? You have some new guys on the team, and second question, how do you think that the new testing policy is going to affect maybe a benefit to the veterans?
Matt Kenseth: I feel good, we have a few new people. We didn't have that big of a turnover, we moved one guy up to car chief that's been there for a year and a couple new guys. We have some young guys that are moved up and getting tired up about doing it. The testing thing, I don't know if it will be I don't think that will be an advantage to the veterans. The thing that really concerns me about the testing procedure is all of the same for everybody, but this week, for example, they are doing tire tests in Atlanta. Well none of us have a chance to test Atlanta and I don't have a problem with it. But the two cars testing with Kurt, they are going to do the tire test, so they got a leg up on everybody coming to Atlanta. I don't know who else is doing it. That's the only part of it that bothers me who is going to test tires where. Teams can test there, Goodyear and NASCAR inaudible picks two or three teams to go test and to track the tiers, that's obviously a big advantage and we don't have a chance to go do that. So that concerns me, I'm sure they will have a handle on it hopefully. I think that gives us a big advantage.
Q: Second half of last season was so good for you, what was the difference in that second half from the first half and what do you bring into that in 2006?
Matt Kenseth: There's a couple things, really only two things. We had some problems with our cars aerodynamically that were not quite right that we figured out what we were doing wrong and fixed our bodies and put it back in the first place it should have been and that got our cars running competitively. We didn't have quite as many problems, in the Chase we didn't have as many flat tires, just silly things happening. Last year in the race at Bristol, we were running second or third with 15 to go, and had a flat tire and finished 35th and Phoenix had the same thing happened. A lot of stuff like that happened that it felt like it was pretty much out of our control and we were not running as good. Once we fixed our cars and got them running as good, we were able to run the front end, we had a little better luck.
Q: Can you talk about some of the guys that have moved up on the team? Is there a learning curve you want to get ironed out early or is there experience where you don't have to worry about it?
Matt Kenseth: I'm not really worried about it. This test is good for that. It gets the whole group working together and getting in a routine and a system of changing things and everybody knows what their responsibilities are and that type of thing. It worked the new guys a little bit and inaudible you test at Daytona and when you go test at Las Vegas, so when you come down here for the real deal, everybody is ready to go.
Q: Robby was saying the other day that with so many cars on your team, within your operation that you really can't take one car's data and apply it to all of the others, but have you noticed this week that some of what you've been doing has been kind of watched by some of the other guys within your operation?
Matt Kenseth: I think they work pretty close together when they are building Speedway cars. The thing for me is the wind tunnel and what we built and what we did, we thought one car would be three tighter than another car and this and that, and everything seems it back up what we learn. They actually seem to run what we thought they would run. A lot of times you can get one that you think is great in the tunnel and get on the track and be really slow. They have both been about where we thought they should have been.
Q: For you personally, is testing shaking things out for yourself after a short winter off?
Matt Kenseth: Yeah, it kind of is. After you run a few laps here, it doesn't feel like you're going that fast, even though you're running 35 or whatever. Just because the track is big and you're out there by yourself and all that. After sitting for a month and a half, after you run a few laps, it feels like you're running fast for a few laps, and it's fun to get back in the race car and get back at it.
Q: Do you still find time to ride motorcycles and if you do, do you prefer to cruise, speed or both?
Matt Kenseth: Pretty much just cruise. We had some time this year, we ran I think there was five of us that went from Texas to Phoenix in the spring, Kenny Schrader, Kyle, Jeff Reed and Bill Davis and myself, we all rode up there. That was fun. And then my brother and I actually rode from Phoenix to Homestead, took that whole week and did that, that was a really long run, that was 2m700 miles or something. That was a long ways. It's something I really enjoy, kind of gets you away and to me, it's something I like to do.
Q: What did you do in the off season and how do you the short off season?
Matt Kenseth: I stay pretty busy. We went back to Wisconsin for the holidays. I've been learning to fly and I got my pilot's license in May and this winter I school for about five weeks and got my instrument rating and got that about a week ago. I've been spending my spare time flying this winter and going to school and trying to learn more about that.
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