MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion – WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY GOING INTO THE RACE? “Our strategy really hasn’t changed to this point. I guess you could have circumstances during the race where maybe your strategy would change a little bit depending on if something happens to a couple cars you’re racing really hard to try to get in, but, really, you’re gonna prepare like any other race. You’re gonna go out there and drive it like any other race and call it like any other race. We show up and try to win and try to perform the best we can every week.” 

 

DO YOU GUYS DESERVE TO BE IN THE CHASE WITH THE WAY YOU’VE RUN THIS YEAR? “We’ve won a couple races and there are cars in front of us that are gonna get in that haven’t won races, so I think that all the top 12 deserve to be in there no matter what – if that’s what the rules are. We all have the same opportunity to gain points, lose points from Daytona all the way until after the race is over here Saturday night, so I think whoever the top 12 end up being, those are the guys that should be in there because they’re the ones that have enough points to be in the top 12 after the race.” 

 

WILL YOU WANT TO KNOW WHERE THE OTHER GUYS ARE YOU’RE RACING IN THE RACE? “No, not really. If you get down to the end and something is going on – like last year we were trying to race to get in there and we got wrecked real early – so we were kind of wondering what was going on and I wasn’t getting a lot of information. So, really, I think you’ve just got to worry about racing your own car – race as hard as you can all night long and at the end of the night where you finish, if that’s good enough, then you’re gonna be in.” 

 

WHAT DID YOU DO TO TAKE YOUR MIND OFF THIS? “Nothing really, to be honest with you.   I think about performance. I think about making the chase. I think about what we can do to get the team running better and what I can do better – all that stuff from before we get to the race track at Daytona all the way until we’re done racing at Homestead. Really, when you go to Daytona you’ve got your mind on the chase and pursue getting in pursuing a championship.” 

 

DO YOU DWELL ON IT? “No, I honestly feel the same today as I felt four weeks ago – the day before the race. We’re always trying to do better and finish as high as we can, make the chase, it’s something we always try to do. This is the last week before the cut off and I realize we’re not in by very far and we could easily not make it with the way Kyle runs here, but what are you gonna do? All you can do is your best. You put your best foot forward. You race as hard as you can race. You do everything you can to prepare and have the best pit stops you can and hope at the end of the day it’s good enough.” 

 

CAN YOU SEE A SCENARIO LIKE NHRA LAST WEEK WHERE ONE DRIVER APPEARED TO LET HIS TEAMMATE WIN SO HE COULD QUALIFY FOR THEIR CHAMPIONSHIP? “I don’t know. All of that stuff is possible and it happens all year from Daytona to here. I don’t want to misspeak, but somewhere not too long ago I know there was one car that pulled over and let his teammate lead a lap – he had to slow way down to let him lead a lap, passed him back, and took off so that’s the same thing. There’s just more emphasis on it and they’re gonna talk about it because it’s Richmond and it’s the last race. I don’t know how many points the leaders have, but it’s in the two thousands, so a lot of those two thousand points there are five points here and 10 points there given to help teammates and friends and stuff like that all year long and I don’t think that’s really any different this week.” 

 

DOES IT HAPPEN WHERE SOMEONE COMES OVER THE RADIO AND SAYS BACK UP A SPOT OR ROLL OUT OF IT SO SOMEONE COULD PASS YOU? “That has not ever happened to me. I’ve never had anybody do that to me and I’ve never done that to anybody at this point, so I don’t really foresee that happening. Everybody is trying to get the best run they can. Certainly, if you have a teammate or a friend or somebody you respect or they respect you on the track, and maybe you have a chance to lead a lap and get points – just like any other week all year – that stuff probably happens, but I certainly don’t think you’re gonna see teammates or anybody do anything goofy to change the outcome.” 

 

WOULD YOU HAVE A PROBLEM IF IT HAPPENED TO YOU? “I don’t know. I can’t really talk about hypothetical situations. If something happens, I could probably give you my comment on it.” 

 

YOU’VE BEEN OUTSPOKEN ABOUT WHERE YOUR TEAM ISN’T WHERE IT’S ACCUSTOMED TO BEING. HOW IS YOUR CONFIDENCE GOING INTO THIS RACE? “It depends what you’re asking. If it’s our confidence level as far as winning or if we get in to win a championship, or if we’re talking about our confidence level of going from having 20^th-place cars to now we can run 10^th, 11^th, 12^th. We are improving. Are we where the 48 and the 5 and the 14 and all the guys who are gonna race for the championship are? I don’t think so. I don’t think we’re to that point, but, certainly, our stuff feels like it’s been steadily improving. I feel like our fortunes have gotten a little bit better, where we’ve been finishing almost as good as we’re running or sometimes a little bit better than we’re running, which is important. So I feel like we’re gaining on it. I don’t think we’re in championship form right now by any means, but I think we’re gaining on it.” 

 

WHO WOULD YOU SAY IS THE TEAM TO BEAT IN THE CHASE? “I don’t know. I’m more worried about getting in right now. If we get in after Saturday, I guess I’ll figure out who the teams are gonna be to beat, but I think until somebody dethrones the 48, it’s the 48. I’d pick them every race of every year until somebody knocks them down.” 

 

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS WEEKEND? “I’m looking forward to the weekend. We’ve tried some different stuff than we have been doing. Richmond and the short tracks used to kind of be our specialty. We used to do really well at all the short tracks a few years ago, and since the car came along, I haven’t done as good with this car at short track or we haven’t run good – however you want to look at it – but we have tried a lot of different stuff. We’ve been doing a lot of short-track testing and, hopefully, our cars as a group will be better this time.”

 

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – “Things are good. My foot is better this week than last week, that’s for sure. My Aflac Fusion is pretty fast. That’s probably the highest we’ve been on the sheet in the first practice here in a long time, so all that work has been paying off. We just want to keep this as low stress of a weekend as possible. We want to run well and just be solidly in the chase. That’s the key.” 

 

HOW WILL THE FOOT AFFECT YOU HERE VS. ATLANTA? “I thought I’d have more trouble at this track, but the extra week of time has made my foot feel a lot better, so it shouldn’t really be an issue. I thought it was gonna be more of an issue last week, but that ended up being the least of my concerns during the race. It was fine.” 

 

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE NATIONWIDE RACE TONIGHT? “The Nationwide battle is still alive. We’ve got enough races left that a lot can happen. I feel like right now, in a way, that’s more important than what’s going on on the Cup side. We just have to run well this weekend over there to make it in the chase, but we need to go win the thing in the Nationwide car, so I can’t take it easy.” 

 

ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED IN ATLANTA THAT IF SOMETHING CATASTROPHIC HAPPENS TOMORROW? “Oh, yeah. I think if we just run well and don’t have any failures or don’t get caught up in a wreck or something like that, then we should be fine, but I’d much rather be in that green section of that wall. If we wouldn’t have had that wheel weight puncture the oil cooler last week, I think we would have been in there, but I know what can happen and I won’t sleep easy until it’s over.” 

 

ARE YOU SURPRISED HOW TIGHT IT GOT SO QUICKLY? “Yeah, it got real tight, real quickly, but that’s a sign of how competitive this sport is. It’s really competitive. You look at what Kasey has done and with one or two weeks of good runs, you can move right up in there or you can fall back out, so I just hope I don’t have two bad weeks in a row.” 

 

HOW MUCH WILL IT HELP HAVING KASEY KAHNE NEXT YEAR RATHER THAN TWO GUYS THAT AREN’T AT HIS LEVEL? “It’s always hard to tell who is at what level, but I know just based on performance the way that 9 car has been running, that’s a big deal for us to gain them as quasi teammates. That’s pretty cool. Kenny Francis is real smart. Kasey is a great driver. A.J. is a great driver and Elliott has proven that he’s a great driver, so I think we’re gonna get some solid folks over there that can help us. It’s cool for Ford, too. I think that will make us more of a powerhouse and maybe be able to compete and stay on the upside with those guys at Hendrick.” 

 

HOW BIG OF A FACTOR WILL DOUBLE-FILE RESTARTS BE IN THE CHASE AND DETERMINING THE CHAMPION? “I keep saying we still haven’t seen the worst-case with these double-file restarts. I think that there’s huge potential for a shake-up based on that, especially as we get towards the end of the year and the stress level for everyone gets higher and higher and more is on the line for different people for different reasons. You still could have that massive wreck at a place like Texas or California, based on those double-file restarts, so it’s something you have to treat with respect.” 

 

WILL IT CHANGE IF BUSCH OR MARTIN AREN’T IN THE CHASE AND THEY’RE GOING FOR WINS WHILE YOU’RE PROTECTING YOURSELF? “The thing with the double-file restart is if you have nothing to lose, then you just go hard and you can pick up more spots. There are more cars right there and you can pass more cars if you’re very aggressive, but if you’re on the other side of it and you’re just trying to make it out of there unscathed, it’s pretty tough, so there are different strategies going on with those double-file restarts.” 

 

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE MERGER? “Like I said earlier, I’m really excited about having the Richard Petty team join up with Yates. I think having Kenny Francis and Kasey Kahne, that’s gonna be great. My trainer has worked a lot with A.J. Allmendinger and he said that guy has supernatural talent, so I’m really excited about that. Elliott Sadler is a great guy and a great driver, so I think we’re gaining a group of people, and then the behind-the-scenes folks – all the folks that make those cars go so well – that’s good for Ford and good for Roush.” 

 

HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE 10 BONUS POINTS FOR WINS? “I don’t think about the bonus points too much. There’s nothing I can do about them. I want to try to win this race here at Richmond. It would be nice to have 10 bonus points, but I think the chase will come down to the guy who has the least amount of bad days, just like it did last year and the year before. It comes down to not always the last 10 points you can get, but not losing those 100 points and having a bad night.” 

 

IS IT POSSIBLE A TEAMMATE WOULD INTENTIONALLY PULL OVER AND ALLOW THEM TO GAIN A SPOT? “I’ve already thought about that in regards to my teammates and if there’s anything I can do to help my teammates, I’d do it. This is a team sport and especially at this point in the year, having more of your teammates in the chase is good. I don’t know about everyone’s team in particular, but if I can help Matt and Greg, then that’s what I’m gonna do.” 

 

WHAT ABOUT IF YOU’RE WINNING? “That’s a tough call. It’s not the 10 points, it’s the win. If that’s what it took and that’s what had to happen, then that’s what I would do.” 

 

WOULD YOU TAKE KYLE BUSCH OUT? THAT’S ANYTHING? “You can’t take somebody out because you’re not just taking that person out, you’re taking out their team and their sponsors and all that stuff, so I don’t think it’ll come to that. I think that would be an ugly way to have the season shape up.” 

 

HOW MUCH DO YOU WORRY ABOUT RUNNING WELL VS. SOMETHING BAD HAPPENING? “The thing is worrying about things you can’t control is not good, that’s not productive, but I would say 50 percent of my thoughts are, ‘Let’s get this car good. Let’s make it as fast as we can.’ That’s where my active thinking is going, but, still, I can’t get rid of the, ‘Hey, we’ve got to be cautious, be a little bit more careful, anything can happen,’ that mentality is still there. Look at what happened last week with Vickers and those guys replacing an axle – stuff like that – we’ve got to be ready for anything. Our oil cooler, the difference between being in the chase and winning the championship could be 30 seconds in the pits or 10 seconds in the pits – one lap on the race track – so all of that stuff is important.” 

 

MATT SAID HE FEELS LIKE ROUSH HAS BEEN TREADING WATER THE LAST SIX MONTHS. HOW DO YOU COMBAT HENDRICK WHEN THE CHASE STARTS? “The Hendrick guys have definitely done a good job. You just look at the history books and it shows you that they’re very strong. What we’ve been working on are little things and when we get a little behind trying to minimize that and the duration of our struggle – trying to figure out what we’re doing and get back on track. I don’t know what to tell you other than we just work as hard as we can, and I’ve just got to hope that, A, we make it in the chase and then, B, we have good luck and performance that I know we’re capable of during those 10 races. If we can time it just right to peak during the 10 races, struggle a little bit for the first 15 next year and then peak again, if we could do that every year, we’d be fine. We just have to be careful not to run like we ran in the beginning of this season in the last 10 races. I don’t know exactly how to do that.” 

 

A NEW CAR THIS WEEKEND? “Yes, we’ve got some stuff we’ve been working on this weekend and it seemed to be a lot better in practice. This is the best I’ve run in the first practice at Richmond since my first time here.” 

 

SOMETHING FOR THE OVERALL SHORT TRACK PROGRAM? “Yes, hopefully it’s something we can apply to all of the short tracks. We need to run better at Loudon. Last year we ran really well at Loudon in the chase, but that was one out of six races. This is a different race because of everything that’s going on, but we’ve got to run well at Martinsville and Loudon.”

 

 

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – THE MANDATE IS PRETTY SIMPLE THIS WEEK. “Yeah, I think so. We got a second chance there at Atlanta last week, but we worked our way back up. Our car seems pretty decent here so far this weekend. As the track got slick, we didn’t feel we were as good in the hot sun as we were when we first unloaded. When practice first started it was a little cloudy and overcast, so, hopefully, that will mean good fortune for us at night when the track cools down. But we think we’re decent right now, just not exactly where we want to be.” 

 

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE PETTY MOTORSPORTS MERGER WITH YATES? WILL THAT HELP AS FAR AS HAVING MORE FORDS ON THE TRACK? “I think so. I think it’s gonna help our organization, having the depth of the Petty organization with us or an alliance between us, and I certainly think it’s gonna help Ford Racing in general. I think it’s a good thing for us. Obviously, they had to do something about a manufacturer and I’m glad that they chose Ford.” 

 

HOW MUCH ATTENTION DO YOU PAY TO OTHER GUYS TOMORROW? “We just do what we can do. We always run fairly well here. I like this race track. We’ve always been able to typically run in the top 15, or top 10. We have a lot of top 10s and top 5s here, so, hopefully, we can repeat that performance. That’s all we really need to do. Literally, that’s all we need to do is do that to get us a chase spot. We feel like we can do that as a team, but anything can happen to any one of these six cars that are right on the bubble.” 

 

CAN YOU RELAX AT ALL WHEN YOU’RE IN THIS SPOT AND IS LOUDON A GOOD PLACE TO START THE CHASE? “I think Loudon is a great place to start the chase off, especially since I won there last year. I think it’s a great place. It’s a good old NASCAR-type short track and, I tell you what, I will be relieved and celebrating and sleeping very good for five days after I make the chase, if I make the chase. I’m looking forward to that.” 

 

YOU MISSED THE CHASE IN ’06 and ’07. HOW BADLY DO YOU NOT WANT THAT FEELING AGAIN? “A lot. This sport is about the chase and it’s about those 12 guys and the guys going to the banquet. It’s about exposure and TV spots and exposure for your sponsors and that all comes with the chase. The chase and those 12 guys are spotlighted in our sport. I know that and it’s rough to be on the outside. I was for two years in a row and I’m close now, but, deep down, I feel like we can make it and we can get ourselves in, but we’re just gonna try as hard as we can. We have for the last 25 weeks and we’re just gonna continue to get in, but I understand things happen.” 

 

WHAT KIND OF A DAMPER DOES IT PUT ON THE LAST 10 RACES WHEN YOU’RE NOT IN? “It’s a big deal when you’re not it. There’s really nothing to look forward to the rest of the season. Winning races, obviously, and you’re really waiting for next year to get started so you can make a run at getting in the chase again.” 

 

IS IT HARD KNOWING THAT BIG MOVES ARE MADE IN THE STANDINGS MAINLY WHEN SOMETHING BAD HAPPENS AS OPPOSED TO GOOD AT THIS STAGE? “You’re absolutely right. It’s no secret that we’re gonna be in the chase if nothing extraordinary happens on tomorrow night. It’s just that simple. We’ve got a 68-point lead and we need to finish roughly 15^th or better. That will probably be good enough to get in and, of course, it depends on what happens. There are so many scenarios. As long as I’m within 10 spots of Matt Kenseth, I can finish anywhere in the field. If I finish in front of Mark Martin, I can finish anywhere because he’s right there in the points, so there are a lot of scenarios, but if nothing out of the ordinary happen – it’s just a standard old race – then we’ll be getting in. It’s gonna be a little bit different story for the 17, the 18 and the 83.” 

 

WHAT WAS IT LIKE WINNING THE FIRST TWO CHASE RACES LAST YEAR AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN? “It was pretty neat to win the first two races. It was really special for us and our team to start the chase off like that. And then the third race we finished third at Kansas, so I really felt like we were off to a good start. We slipped a little bit and didn’t run as good as we planned to in some places. We actually had a decent run at Martinsville that chase, but we’re just gonna have to be better at a few other places in order to win the title, and those guys are gonna have to give just a little bit. They’re gonna have to slip up just a little bit somewhere.” 

 

YOUR NUMBERS ON DOUBLE-FILE RESTARTS ARE DOWN AS FAR AS GAINING SPOTS COMPARED TO OTHERS. HOW HAS THAT CHANGED AND HOW CHALLENGING HAS IT BEEN? “It seems like you always pick the wrong lane. You don’t have a choice, but it always seems like you’re in the wrong lane. Like at Pocono, I’m on the bottom and that lane gets slowed up. I’m on the top, somebody gets loose and up nearly in the fence. Then Bristol was a perfect example. I’m fourth and we just kill the guys on the bottom – the top lane does – and so I get into third after passing Marcos and then eight laps to go the caution comes out and he starts fourth and just drives by me, so it’s really lane sensitive – what lane you’re in – and what happens in front of you.   Last week is a prime example. I worked all night long to get back to the front of the field. I start eighth right behind Mark Martin and I’m thinking, ‘OK, if we just get a good restart here, I’m better than two or three of these guys. We’re gonna end up fifth or sixth.’ Mark Martin spins his tires on the restart and they’re passing us three-wide both sides. We lose four or five spots going into turn one and go back to 13^th before getting back to 10^th. So it’s luck of the draw. I would not have expected him to do that with the experience he has, but things happen. I think it’s coincidental what lane you’re in and somebody gets crossed up.” 

 

DID YOU DO ANYTHING THIS WEEK TO BREAK THE TENSION? “I went to Boston and went to the baseball game. I did some advance media – a Winner’s Circle appearance for Loudon – so I went up there and did some TV stuff and went to the baseball game and stayed the night. That’s what I did this week. I had to do a few things or I probably would have been over at Eldora. I don’t know if I would have been racing, but I would have been signing autographs and watching. But it always seems I’m busy everytime that race comes up. I’ve been thinking about it 24/7, but I’ve been doing other stuff as well.” 

 

WHO IS THE FAVORITE TO WIN THE CHASE? “I really feel like the 99 has pretty good momentum. He’s done well and he’s proven he can do well everywhere he goes. I think that he’s definitely a guy that can do it. The 14 has shown signs that they’re capable this year. You can’t really count the 48 out and I hate to bet against any of those guys up there because Denny Hamlin or Jeff Gordon or whoever makes it in – Matt or Kyle – I think everybody is capable, but there are a few guys that have run extremely well that look like favorites.” 

 

WHAT ABOUT KYLE’S SCENARIO? HE COULD BE OUT OF THE CHASE OR IF HE MAKES IT, BE THE LEADER WITH ALL OF HIS WINS? “Yeah, it’s pretty extraordinary how the point system works, but I think it’s interesting by all means and it’s fair. Certainly, it’s a good system and a good playoff point system, I think. I just wish I had a couple win going into the chase. Hopefully, I can do what I did last year, if I make it.”  

 

ANYTHING YOU WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY IN THE CHASE THIS YEAR? “I’ll be truthful with you, we’ve struggled as a company this year. We don’t have any wins other than Matt’s two wins. We probably should have won a couple races, California and a few others, but we’re just trying to be competitive every week. We’re just gonna go into this thing like we have all season, just try and win these races and do the best we can. We’ve got some new front-end geometry stuff we’re trying here this weekend. It seems to be working better. The car is running better. Maybe we’ll try it on the mile-and-a-halfs, so we’re gonna be testing and tuning and dabbling when it comes to the chase, to be honest with you – just trying to win those races. We know we’ve got to win or finish in the top five to be able to win the title. We know we’re capable of it, we’ve just got to prove it.”