Restrictor Plate Racing Returns As Kenseth and Edwards Ready For Talladega

 

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion – DOES IT MATTER THAT YOU DON’T HAVE YOUR DAYTONA CAR OR ARE THEY ALL SO CLOSE IT DOESN’T REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE. “I don’t think it really matters. If it was the old cars that were much more specialized, it would probably make a difference, but, really, with these cars the rules are so tight there’s very little we can work on and it really shouldn’t be a problem duplicating the car. They’re all pretty close.” 

 

WHAT DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THE TIRE TEST AT INDY? “I think there’s some work to do. I’m not really sure what they all do or bring. I know when we tested last October, they had a tire that was a little faster than they’d like, but it wore really good. We actually ran 30 laps – a full fuel run on it – and they didn’t bring that back. They brought a different tire back this time when we tested that was a lot like last year’s tire, it would wear to the cords in 12 laps, so I know they can do because we had some stuff last October we tested, so I’m sure they’ll probably try to come back with something like that.”

 

ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC OR CONCERNED NOW? “I’m not really an expert on tires. I was optimistic after October’s test that they kind of knew what they did wrong and they found a tire that was soft enough where it would rubber the track up and work and all that. Now this Wednesday I didn’t see that tire. We ran a tire that acted a lot like we were there last time that turned into dust and didn’t really rubber the track up and wore out in 10 or 12 laps, so the stuff we had last October seemed pretty good. They’re gonna go back to work and I think we’re actually going back this week for a day to try some more stuff, so I’m sure they’ll get it.” 

 

ARE YOU GOING BACK? “I believe so. I’m not 100 percent sure, but I believe so.” 

 

MENTALLY, HOW DIFFERENT IS YOUR APPROACH AT A RACE LIKE THIS COMPARED TO PHOENIX? “It’s totally different. This race and Daytona are somewhat similar, but, really, these races at Talladega are really all by themselves. It’s a lot more mental than physical, or getting your car to handle, it’s more about the draft and being in the right place at the right time and not being in the wrong place and not being caught up in a wreck like it seems like we usually are. So, yeah, it’s a lot different but you just go out there and try to make the best decisions you can, and I guess try not to be the guy who causes a wreck. If everybody thinks like that, there wouldn’t be a wreck usually, so just kind of go out with that mindset.” 

 

DOES DAYTONA GIVE YOU ANYMORE CONFIDENCE ONE WAY OR THE OTHER WHEN YOU COME HERE? “Not really much, maybe a very, very small amount, but not much. It’s a different race than this one is. It’s a lot about handling and the track is a fair amount different than what this one is now, so it never hurts but it probably doesn’t mean a lot.” 

 

WHERE DO YOU GET CONFIDENCE FOR A PLACE LIKE THIS? “Everybody tries to analyze it and come up with different plans. Some people lay back and do all that stuff, I’m just gonna try to go race. You just never know where the safe spot is. You could hang out in the back and get caught up in something. Last year we were all the way up to second place behind Stewart, who won it, and that was when Carl and Greg got together and we collected in it and we were running second. So you just don’t know what’s gonna happen. You just have to do the best you can with your car, try not to make that bad move, try not to be the guy who causes the wreck and just go from there – try to be in position for the end.” 

 

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT RICHMOND? “Three-wide might be pushing it a little bit, but it definitely a track you can run side-by-side on and that you can pass really well. I think everybody enjoys going to Richmond – fans, drivers, crews, everybody does, but, for us, we’ve struggled there since they’ve gone to this car. We haven’t figured it out and we didn’t run good at Phoenix, so we’ve been working really hard this week and next week to bring something there that will be competitive.” 

 

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE ALL-STAR MEMORY? “When we won it.   That’s my favorite memory when we passed Newman right at the end of that race to win it. We were having a pretty good battle and to be able to pull it off was pretty cool.” 

 

WHEN IS THE PROPER TIME TO GET ON YOUR CREW OVER THE RADIO? “I think every situation is different and you don’t always know whether people are listening. The more we get the fans involved and the more things we’ve got going on, obviously, is better for the sport and it’s better to grow the sport. But when we started radio communications, it was between basically the driver, the crew chief and the spotter. The crew could hear, but they wouldn’t really talk. That’s the way a lot of us still think about it because that’s how it always used to be and a lot of times you’ll forget that other people are listening to every word and judging you. I hear there’s a TV show, I’ve never watched it, but I hear there’s a TV show that does the last 10 minutes every week of just eavesdropping on people’s radio and throwing it on TV. I know I’ve been a victim of media eavesdropping and taking pieces of a conversation and put it on TV and it wasn’t even what we were talking about. I think a lot less is probably said on the radio than it used to be just because a lot of us don’t even feel like you can be yourself because there are so many people listening. There are also things that are said in the heat of the moment. You’re out there trying to be competitive and racing hard and doing all that stuff and a lot of times you’ll say things and not really be thinking about everybody else who is listening.” 

 

IS THERE A RIGHT TIME TO GET AFTER THEM? “I don’t know. That’s kind of why you have a crew chief. He’s the head of the crew and they’re down there on the box with the crew and they know what’s going on and you really don’t, so there are gonna be times where you express your frustrations and times you’ll say things, but does that really help? Probably not.” 

 

HAVE YOU EVER SAID ANYTHING YOU REGRET? “I don’t know that I’ve ever said anything that bad. Not really. They get a lot of praise when things go right and when they win races for me and when things don’t go right, they know that they’ve got to work on it and they’re smart enough to be able to figure that out. They don’t really ridicule everything I do on the track, so I try not to do that to them either as long as they’re working as hard as they can at it.” 

 

WHAT KIND OF POTENTIAL DOES DAVID RAGAN HAVE? “David’s run really well since he came in. Being with Jimmy is a huge advantage, being with the team that he’s with and having all that experience is a huge advantage, but David has been able to adapt really quick. He’s come out of the Legends cars and has been able to get right in stock cars and be competitive.” 

 

WHAT DO YOU FEEL LIKE AFTER A RACE, ESPECIALLY LIKE THIS ONE? “Every race is different, to be honest with you. The weather has a lot to do with it. Whether you wreck or how hard you wreck has a lot to do with it. It just depends. Every race is different.” 

 

IS THIS ENJOYABLE BECAUSE IT’S MORE OF A CHESS MATCH? “It can be. There are times when it can be very enjoyable and there are times it can be very aggravating. Really, it depends. If you have a really fast car and you’re the guy up there going for the lead, it’s really enjoyable. When you’re stuck in the middle of the pack and they’re three-wide and everybody’s pounding on each other and you’re watching the wreck happen, it’s really not that much fun.” 

 

HOW MUCH CONTACT IS THERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PACK? “Whatever you see on TV, probably. You get some bump drafting here and there, but in the middle of the pack there’s probably less contact than there is if you get single-file. It’s hard to push someone or be pushed when you’re right up against someone, so, hopefully, there’s not a lot when you’re in the middle.”

MATT KENSETH NATIONWIDE PRESS CONFERENCE (Qualified 3^rd) – WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE RACE? “I’m sure it will be entertaining. I haven’t run a Nationwide race here at Talladega for a while, so I’m looking forward to that. This is the same car we had at Daytona and I think we qualified second. It didn’t race quite as good there, but it seemed to have a lot of speed, which should be good for here, so I’m looking forward to it.” 

 

ANY THOUGHTS ON HOW THIS RACE WILL PLAY OUT? “I don’t really know what will happen for sure, but it seems like you can pass pretty good with these cars with this aero package, and I imagine it will be a pretty big group until or unless there’s a wreck and weed some of them out. So you probably watch for that the first half of the race, at least, and hope you’re either toward the front and, if you’re not, probably be pretty careful and be watching around a lot. But, after that, it seems like there’s always at least a 10-car scramble for the win at the end and you just hope to be part of that group.” 

 

IS THIS A RARE TIME YOU LOOK FORWARD TO COMING HERE BECAUSE YOU RAN GOOD AT DAYTONA? “Yes and no. As awful as most of the season has been, besides the first couple of weeks and Texas, I kind of look forward to coming here because I know my car will handle as good as everybody else’s, so that aspect I look forward to it, but you never know what’s gonna happen. It’s one of those places that’s fun when your car runs good and you’re not caught up in the wreck and one of those places that’s not very fun when you do get caught up in a wreck and your car doesn’t have enough speed to stay up with the leaders. You just never know. We ran pretty good here last fall. I think we were running second when the big wreck happened and we got caught up in it even though we were in the front, so we just hope to stay out of that and be somewhere in that lead group at the end and have a chance.” 

 

CAN YOU IMAGINE TAKING THIS CAR WITH THE PLATE TO A TRACK LIKE CALIFORNIA? WOULD IT BE A DISASTER OR WOULD YOU BE IN A TIGHT BUNCH? “The cars are the same, other than the restrictor plate really and the wickers and stuff, so the cars aren’t really that different. I guess what you’re probably trying to ask is if you made us go really slow there so we could hold it wide open if we’d be in a good group. Yeah, you would but not with this plate. We’d be going too fast. I think at California our corner speeds are obviously much slower than here because it’s much flatter. It’s a different track. Yeah, it’s two miles, but it’s really totally different. You’d have to get them to go pretty slow to be able to be wide open there.”

 

 

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Claritin Ford Fusion – WHAT’S YOUR OUTLOOK ON THIS WEEKEND? “The Fords have run well at this place. I’ll never forget Dale Jarrett’s win here and our Nationwide car seems real strong, so it would be a great place for me to get my first win of the season. I haven’t had a superspeedway win yet, so, to me, everytime I come to these tracks I know the opportunity is there to get that first one. It’s nerve-wracking in a way to race here, but it’s something that’s so different it’s a cool change of pace.” 

 

LAST FALL YOU STAYED IN THE BACK BEFORE TRYING TO GET TO THE FRONT. HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT YOU’LL DO THIS TIME AROUND? “I don’t know how I’m gonna run it. If we’re running up front, I’ll probably run real hard and try to stay up there. If you start falling back, it’s just tough to sit there and run in the middle of 30 cars and think that that’s safe to do. It just kind of depends on what everybody does. You can’t lose the pack, but if there are four or five guys back there running, you can go back there and kind of catch your breath a little bit and make a run for the front later.” 

 

DO YOU LIKE THE CHESS MATCH THIS PROVIDES? “In a way, I know it’s exciting for the fans, but I personally don’t think that this style of racing should be a part of the Sprint Cup Series. It’s just too bad we have to race like this. If it weren’t for points it would be a little different, but you’ve really got to go out there and put yourself in a position where you’re just at the mercy of everything and I hope that someday we can find a way to race at these tracks without being in that position.” 

 

YOU’RE PARTICIPATING IN A FORD EVENT WHERE A TEAM WILL BE TRYING TO GO 1,000 MILES ON ONE TANK OF GAS IN A 2010 FUSION HYBRID. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT? “That’s gonna be a blast. We’re going to Washington, D.C. right after we race this Claritin car on Sunday. We’re gonna travel up to Washington and I guess I’m gonna get to drive the last leg of the 1,000 miles on one tank of fuel in a Ford Fusion Hybrid. That’s gonna be really neat. For me, I’m proud to represent Ford and what they’re doing to build cars right now that the world needs, and it will be fun to go up there and do that. They’ve got Wayne Gerdes, the hypermiling champion, and these guys can get more than 1,000 miles out of a tank of fuel. I’ve got one of these Fusion Hybrids at home and I’m hoping to learn some tricks and save a little money. That would be cool.”