MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion – WITH SO MANY GROOVES AT THIS TRACK, DOES THAT MEAN IT’S EASIER TO HIT ON A GOOD SET-UP HERE? “Well, there’s probably a little more room for error – some room to look around a little bit, depending on how your car is running, but, really, your car has got to handle pretty reasonable to work in any of the groves. It’s not like you can be off on the bottom and run really good on the top or vice versa. So, you’ve still got a handle on getting around there. There’s a lot of corner here, but it’s nice that there’s a lot of room to move around and be able to pass.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE LAST FOUR TRACKS BEFORE THE START OF THE CHASE? “I feel good about all the tracks, but, to be honest with you, the last couple of months everything’s been a surprise. I don’t know. We could show up at our best track and not run good, and show up at what I think is our worst track and run halfway decent, so you never know. I like all of the tracks that are coming up. I don’t think there’s one that really a bad track for us. We’re capable of doing well at all of them.”
OF THOSE FOUR TRACKS, IS MICHIGAN A PLACE THAT YOU CAN WORRY LEAST ABOUT OUTSIDE INFLUENCES? “I think they’re all about the same. This might be a little more forgiving here on double-file re-starts – at Bristol or Richmond or somewhere, it might be a little bit tighter quarters and maybe a chance to get swept into something, but I think all of the tracks coming up are pretty good, really. Since they re-did Bristol, it’s way more forgiving than it sued to be. There’s two or three grooves there to move around and work as well. So, I think all of them are pretty decent.”
THE COT HAS ONLY RUN ONCE AT KANSAS AND HOMESTEAD ONCE BEFORE, THAT WAS ’08 – AND THOSE ARE TWO CHASE RACES. IS THAT A PROBLEM, OR IS IT THAT ONCE YOU FIGURE IT OUT AT OTHER 1½-MILE TRACKS, YOU GET THE KNOWLEDGE YOU NEED? “I don’t think that’s a problem. I think that all of the tracks are similar – if you can figure out for here, you shouldn’t have that big of a problem at Homestead. Everybody has data, has been to all of these tracks a bunch of times, so I don’t think that matters much.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – MICHIGAN IS A MULTI-GROOVE RACE TRACK. DOES THAT MAKE IT EASIER TO HIT ON A GOOD SET-UP HERE? “You know, it is a little bit easier to get something to work here because this race track provides so many opportunities. This is the only downforce race track we go to that you can four- and five-wide and still have room. It does narrow up a little bit off of turn two, but that’s really the only spot. But, in the middle of the corner, entering the corner, you’ve got plenty of opportunity. Normally, you could get your car to work somewhere – bottom, top, middle. Normally, you could get it to work somewhere.”
SO, IS THE KEY GETTING THE CAR TO WORK FIRST, AND THEN IT WILL WORK IN MOST OF THOSE GROOVES? “Always, as with any race track, it’ll work one place better than another, and sometimes you have to drive somewhere you don’t want to because that’s where the car is the fastest. So, a lot of time I work on my car to be near the bottom of the race track, and you could usually get it to go at the top, but it’s not what I prefer.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE COMBINATION OF YOUR TEAM AND THE CAR RIGHT NOW? “I mean, really good. I like all of the race tracks coming up – especially this one, my favorite track to come to. I feel really good about the next four races, you know, finishing in the top five.”
THE TEAM? “They’re doing great. We’ve got really good cars and the team is doing a fantastic job. Right now, I feel like we’re in a great spot. Certainly, we’d like to be higher in points, but these are the cards we’re dealt, and we’re going to do the best we can.”
AT ANY POINT BEFORE THE CHASE, DO YOU START LOOKING AT THOSE FINAL 10 RACES AND PLAN WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO DO THERE? “I suppose at some point we’ll start looking at those final 10. We’ve talked about them a little bit. You know that Loudon and Dover are good race tracks for us. We know that Kansas is a good track. So, really, the ones we’re focused on are Martinsville, running good at Talladega, the other mile-and-a-halfs, obviously. There’s a lot of great tracks for us in the Chase. There’s less that aren’t great for us. Martinsville, we’ve been hit-and-miss at, and Talladega. Other than those, they’re great race tracks for us.”
OTHER THAN THE OBVIOUS, WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO TO BEAT THE GUYS AT THE FRONT, LIKE TONY STEWART AND JIMMIE JOHNSON? “Those guys and just got they’re cars running really good. Hendrick has a great platform and a great engine program, they’re building good cars, so those guys, they’re going to be tough to beat. But, we’re just going to have to be as good as they are and then just hope that if we have better track position or whatever, to beat ’em.”
HOW DIFFICULT WILL IT TO BE TO FEND OFF THE DRIVERS OUTSIDE OF THE TOP- 12 WHO ARE LOOKING TO KNOCK SOMEBODY OUT? “That’s going to be difficult. They were trying last week, and they’ll be trying the next couple of weeks, so we’re just going to have to run better than them.”
AND THEY’LL BE MORE AGGRESSIVE THE NEXT FEW WEEKS? “Yeah, it’s going to happen. We’re just going to try to keep our nose clean and finish in the top five. We know that we can win here. We know we can run in the top-10, top-five at Bristol. We think we can win at Atlanta. And, hopefully, we’ll have a hundred-point lead comingdown to Richmond, and just a top-20 finish will get us in.”
ON RETURNING TO MICHIGAN, WHERE HE RAN OUT OF FUEL LATE IN JUNE’S RACE. “A lot of people forgot about that; Mark Martin won. Hopefully, it won’t come down to fuel mileage, and if it doesn come down to fuel mileage, our guys have been working really hard that if it does come down to fuel mileage again, hopefully, we’ll be able to beat ’em.”
DOES THIS RACE TRACK MUCH FROM THE JUNE RACE TO THE AUGUST RACE? “Yeah, it’s going to change. It’ll be hotter and slicker this weekend.”
IS IT DIFFICULT TO COMPETE AGAINST A TEAMMATE (MATT KESNETH) FOR CHASE SPOTS? “It is. It’s funny, because Matt and I run fairly close set-ups and we like our cars about the same, and our driving characteristic is not a lot alike, but it’s similar. So, hopefully, it won’t come down to that; hopefully, Matt and I will both be able to make it. But, we’ve traded that spot, that 12th-place spot, a couple of times now. Hopefully, we can just continue to both stay in the Chase.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – “This is a fun weekend. Yesterday I went to Livonia to Roush Industries and Jack’s museum. We had a couple thousand of people, it looked like, that came out. They had a car show – Mustangs, Thunderbirds and a lot of neat stuff, and it was really cool to meet all of those fans, and I got to sign autographs with Jack and his daughter and Erik Darnell and Matt. Met a lot of cool folks. This place is special for me. This marks my fifth year in Cup, this race, this weekend. So, that’s pretty good memories from five years ago this weekend, and our success here has been great. So, I look forward to this one.”
IS THIS THE VERY BEST PLACE FOR YOU TO GET YOUR FIRST WIN OF THE YEAR? “This is a good spot. The way things were going a little bit differently last week, we might’ve gotten our first win at Watkins Glen – who would’ve expected that, you know? So, it is what it is. I go do the best I can – if I win the next 10 in a row, that’s what happens, and if we don’t win one, we don’t win. All I can do is the best I can, and, you’re right, I put more pressure on myself than anyone. The mission, right now, as much as people would like to write the story – ‘Hey, they broke through and got a win this season’ – I’m way more interested in being in the Chase and winning the championship. That’s the key. So, if we get the wins, we get ’em. Yeah, this will be a good place. We’ve had, I think, the best average finish of any track, I’m not sure, but this seems that it’s right up there as far as all the tracks we go to. For me, this is a good one.”
THIS TRACK HAS SEEN A LOT FUEL-MILEAGE WINS. SO, IS THAT A STRATEGY FOR YOU GOING IN, KNOWING THAT’S HOW IT COULD VERY WELL END? AND, AS A DRIVER, DO YOU EVEN HAVE TO HEAR THE CREW CHIEF SAY, “START SAVING FUEL”? “Yeah, it always helps if the crew chief says that, but the June race here, that last lap people were running out of fuel, and I said afterward, and I still feel, that those races are really exciting for the drivers. I mean, they’re nerve-wracking, it’s another variable. You try to save fuel – I don’t know if you’re actually saving it or it seems like you are. But I’ve been really fortunate. We get great fuel mileage with our Ford Fusion. And, I did think about that this week, because we’ve had such great fuel mileage, I need to stay on top of that. Throughout the race I try to be aware when I’m driving so that when that last run comes, when Bob says, ‘Our best run you got this mileage and that’s how close you’ll make it to the end,’ I’ve got to drive like that. So, I’ll be focused on it. Because it does happen a lot.”
IS THERE PRESSURE TO WIN HERE IN JACK ROUSH’S BACKYARD? AND, IF IT IS, HOW IS THAT EXPRESSED TO YOU? “There is that pressure, but it’s not from Jack, directly. It’s expressed when all the folks from Ford, and Jack and his family, and all of the people from Roush Industries are standing there in Victory Lane. I’ve been fortunate enough to stand in Victory Lane with them a couple of times – I mean, the joy and elation and excitement. I guess the way I’m putting it is I didn’t realize the pressure until after I saw how happy everyone was. And now I realize that’s what we’re shooting for here. I’ve seen Jack do flyovers at the Truck race in his P-51. This place is special, so, that pressure comes from that feeling that I’ve had here before, I’d like to have again.”
IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE YOU’VE WON A RACE. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR WITHOUT WINNING A RACE? AND DO YOU PRACTICE BACKFLIPS JUST TO STAY SHARP? “I got to do a couple of backflips in the Nationwide Series, so I feel good. Trust me: If I win the Cup race, it’ll be no problem doing a backflip. I’ll have lots of energy. You could definitely win a championship without winning races. I’d rather not win one that way. It’s funny: As a driver, I go out and do the very best I can in every race. I mean I drive as hard as I can, I try to get everything I can. And at the end of the race, you get your result. If it’s a win, then that’s great. If it’s 20th and you did your job right, that’s all a person can do. It’s only been, what, 20 races, 21 races, 22 races since we won? I think I’ve won 15 or 16 in the five years that I’ve been doing this, so a few a year, average in the five years I’ve been doing this. I’d like to win the next 20 in a row, 10 in a row, whatever, but all I can do is the best I can. I think once our team , on a whole, gets more competitive, more like we were last season, if our on-track performance goes to where it was last season, our pit crew is better now then it was, I think we can have some amazing results. But, until then, I’ll just keep driving.”
ARE YOU GETTING TIRED ABOUT TALKING ABOUT HAVING A GOOD SEASON, DESPITE NOT HAVING WON? YOU ARE SIXTH IN POINTS, BUT THE PERCEPTION IS THAT IT’S NOT THE SEASON THAT YOU HAD HOPED FOR BECAUSE YOU HAVEN’T WON YET. “Of course. That goes without saying. I don’t even know what to say about it. Obviously, I would like to win; that’s why I do this. It just seems to me a little foolish to even ask it because it’s so obvious that that’s what I’m here to do, so I don’t know what to say. I’m doing my best, just like I did last year. But I understand. The reason I don’t get upset about it is because I understand that that’s part of it. You guys have to ask and people wanted to know, ‘Hey, how’s it feel? What do you think about it?’ But. It’s like saying, ‘Want to talk about a dog that got run over when I was a kid?’ It’s not something fun to talk about, you know what I mean?”
ON THE 2009 SEASON. “From where I sit, yeah, I think I’ve done a better job this season than I have in a lot of – I’ve done as good or better job this season than I had last season. We don’t have the results to show for it, but I feel I’ve done a really job. We’ve had some scenarios. I mean, let’s just look at this, guys. If we would’ve had a good pit stop at the end of the race in Texas, would’ve won the race. If things would’ve gone a little bit differently at Talladega, I would’ve won Talladega. Pocono, if I didn’t have to worry so much about fuel mileage there, about points, it’s very possible I could’ve won that race. I mean, those are legitimate; three races, could’ve won. Nobody would’ve been asking me questions. That question wouldn’t even exist, and the only reason it does is because of just very slight extraneous small things. So, if I were to go and change my whole mode of competition based on slight things that I can’t control, that would be really foolish. I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do. I do the best I can, you know? All you have to do is go back and look and Jeff Gordon went for a while without winning, and everybody all of these theories, and all of a sudden he started winning again, and everybody was like, ‘Oh, everything is okay.’ It’s not like he was doing anything differently. So, I giess if there’s fans or media who feel like I’m tired of answering that question, I just don’t feel like there’s any substance to it. I think there’s a question that’s more pertinent, and that’s, ‘Are you doing anything differently?’ The answer is ‘no.’”
YOU HAVE TWICE COME CLOSE TO WINNING A CHAMPIONSHIP: IN 2005 AND 2008. ON THE SURFACE, 2006 LOOKS LIKE 2009, BUT IN TERMS OF CONSISTENCY, THIS IS A FAR BETTER SEASON. SO, BASICALLY, DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING IN 2006 THAT HELPED YOU THIS YEAR? “That’s a good question. I learned something that applies to the question earlier: About halfway through 2006, I felt like some of the fans that [were] mentioned may have perceived me feeling now, I felt like, ‘This is not going like I want.’ I almost was a little panicked. I thought, have all this expectation, all these people, and my sponsors now, and I thought, ‘Man, I have to make something work because I have to win, because that’s what we did last year and that’s what everyone expects. I realized about halfway through that season that that line of thinking was not going to be productive. That was going to head me down the wrong path. So I think that thing I learned the most, the thing I valued the most from the lessons I learned in 2006, was just be calm, be confident, know, ‘Hey, I can do this, I’m not doing anything differently, this is just the way racing works sometimes.’ So, I think that’s the biggest lesson from 2006.”
DO YOU FEEL YOU’RE RUNNING GOOD RIGHT NOW ENOUGH TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP? “That’s a good question. That is something that I am just a little concerned about. I feel like we’re getting better. I feel like we’re getting close. We still need to be better. I feel like Jimmie and the 48 are the guys to beat. Obviously, Tony’s really good. He’s accumulated a lot more points than anyone else so far this season. I feel like he’s right there, neck and neck, with them, and for us to be able to beat those guys, without any luck involved, we’re going to have to get just a little better. We’ve been working hard, we’ve been working really hard, found a couple of small things that could be really good. We need to b e better at some tracks like Loudon, need to make better decisions at Talladega, and even on these mile-and-a-halfs, need to be just a little bit better, still.”