Ford Racing’s three Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers held their weekly Q&A sessions at Phoenix International Raceway on Friday. Transcripts from Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards follow:
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Valvoline Ford Fusion – HOW MUCH ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION TO THE OVERALL POINTS BATTLE? IT’S CLOSE FROM 1-3 AND THEN 4-10 IS PRETTY TIGHT AS WELL. “You kind of look at it when you get home and see where you moved up to in points or moved back to in points, but, other than that, I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to it. You just try to finish the best you can every week and hope to finish as high as you can in the points at the end of the year once the championship is not attainable.
WHAT ABOUT WITHIN THE ROUSH FENWAY TEAM. ARE THERE BRAGGING RIGHTS FOR BEING THE TOP FINISHER? “Not for me. Greg and Carl would have to answer for themselves, but I want to do the best I can for our team every week. If we had it our way, we’d be 1-2-3 in points and battle it out. I want those guys to finish as high as they can, but just like everybody else in the top 12 I want them to finish behind me. You want to do the best you can for your respective team and car.”
WHAT ELSE DO YOU WORK ON THESE FINAL TWO RACES THAT YOU CAN USE AS A SPRINGBOARD FOR 2011? “You do this during the year as well, but every off-season you try to look at all aspects of your program from personnel to equipment to driving to pit stops – everything. Certainly, the more recent races are always the freshest in your mind, so you want to get some momentum and you want to get the best finishes you can the last few weeks, so you’ve got something to look at and evaluate over the winter. Like I say, you want to try to win the races – you want to try to win every week – but it’s important for us to finish strong. We did move up to fifth in points, so it’s important for us to finish as high as we possibly can and get some momentum going into the off-season.”
WHAT’S THE MOST DIFFICULT PART OF RACING HERE? “The hardest part is both ends are quite a bit different, so to be good down in one and two without being too loose off of turn four is probably the biggest thing. There’s a little bit of a compromise, but you want to get your car to work as well as you can at both ends that are a lot different.”
DO YOU LIKE TO STAY INVOLVED IN RACING DURING THE OFF-SEASON OR JUST GET AWAY ENTIRELY? “I don’t really know of many races, except for the Snowball Derby, which my son is running that again this year and it’s the same weekend that we’re out at the banquet in Vegas, so I don’t know of any other off-season races before we start in February. It’s not like we’re off a real long time and not in a car. It’s only about a month-and-a-half.”
ANY THANKSGIVING TRADITIONS FOR THE KENSETH’S? “For the last eight or nine years we’ve been spending Thanksgiving at our cabin up in Wisconsin, so we get both of our families together and hang out there for a few days and relax. We eat a lot, watch some football and play some football and that’s about it.”
DOES THAT RECHARGE YOU IN A BIG WAY? “I don’t know that I really need any recharging. I’m good. I could keep racing or I could have a month or two off, so I’m not sure I really need recharging. I feel as good right now as I did when we came out here in the spring, to be honest with you. I don’t really need recharging, but I always look forward to spending time with my family whenever I can.”
DO YOU SEE JIMMIE COMING BACK AND WINNING THE TITLE? “Well, everybody is different. I wouldn’t beat against those guys until they lose one. I wouldn’t have bet against them the last four year and I wouldn’t do it this year either until it’s over, but it’s interesting. The three guys up there are all quite different, their teams are different, their driving styles and approach, I think, are different, so, in my opinion, the chase for the championship is pretty interesting this year to see which one of those three guys is gonna be on top when it’s all over next week.”
ARE YOU ENJOYING THIS BRAVADO COMING OUT OF THE 11 CAMP? “Not really. I wish Denny would have been careful last week and let me win (laughing). I would have enjoyed that more than their bravado and winning and doing all of that. I was happy to be up there racing for a win last week, but, like I said, I think it’s an interesting chase and there are a lot of good storylines for everyone to follow. When I get home it’s interesting to check it all out and see what all went on.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL AT THIS POINT IN THE SEASON? “I feel the same I felt probably the first time here. I don’t really feel any different. I’m not really wore out and I’m not necessarily ready for a break, although you always look forward to an off weekend and the holidays to spend some time with your family, but I feel good. We just came off a good run last week, which was encouraging, and put a little spring in all of our step, so, hopefully, we can finish the last two weeks like that.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – WHAT’S THE MOST DIFFICULT ASPECT OF RACING HERE? “Probably the difference in the corners. It’s like two different race tracks, almost and it kind of makes it challenging but fun. Turn one and two are completely different than three and four. One and two is like more of a short track corner and then three and four seems like it’s a lot more larger and faster because it’s a little bit wider and sweeps. That’s probably the most challenging thing.”
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GO FAST HERE? “It takes a car that turns really well and you can get the balance between the two ends right. That’s the main thing.”
WHAT’S THE VISIBILITY LIKE? “It’s terrible. It’s the worst race track we go to for visibility because the sun goes down right over the top. There’s a hole between the grandstands and however it works out, it seems that the sun is in your eyes for the longest period of time. That makes it really difficult to get your braking zone and get side-by-side. It’s really, really hard.”
DO YOU LIKE RACING HERE? “Oh yeah, I love it just because I grew up in the northwest and I’ve raced here a few times in the southwest tour. It’s a fun race track.”
WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIN THE TITLE? “I think Jimmie can do it. I think that Kevin can do it and I think Denny can do it. It’s whoever makes the least amount of mistakes these next two races. The least amount of mistakes on pit road, racing room on the race track with other drivers, whatever it comes down to – pit decisions – it’s gonna come down to obviously the best finish, but a lot of times it’s minimizing spots on the race track.”
EVERYBODY IS LOOKING AT THE TOP 3 BUT 4-10 IS TIGHT AS WELL. HOW CLOSE ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION TO IT? “Fourth through tenth we’re paying attention to because that’s where we’re racing for our spot in the points. It’s clear they’re paying attention to the top three because we led 234 laps last week and they didn’t even interview us, so it’s obvious they’re paying attention to the top three, which they should – that’s the championship – but if we would have won we would be fifth in points right now. We were clearly on our way to winning that race. There was no doubt and then the shifter broke and all I had was third and fourth gear. That was unfortunate, but we still finished fifth with the problems that we had, which is really good, but to think I was 10th or 11th or 12th in points, and if I would have won last week we’d be fifth, that’s a huge difference, so I do pay attention to how tight the points are because we are that close.”
WHAT ABOUT AMONG THE ROUSH FENWAY TEAMS? “We’re really tight as well and probably the one thing that I saw that surprised me the most is it’s like the top three and then the rest of the field. I’m surprised to see that it’s not kind of staggered out a little bit. It’s the top three within 50 points and then fourth through whatever is almost 50 points, so it’s kind of odd that there’s that big of a separation and everybody is still so tight.”
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THE BRAVADO FROM THE 11 TEAM? “I don’t know. I look at last week, if you want to take last week, we were better than all of them. We kicked the 11’s butt. We kicked the 48’s butt. All day long nobody could even challenge us until the shifter broke and then they challenged us because, obviously, I didn’t have all my gears to get up to speed. Now, can we do that every week? That’s a different story, but you’ve got to play some games with them and I guess that’s why I say that because last week was last week and we spanked them the entire race. But that’s only one week and you’ve got to do it for 36 to win a championship and get spots in the points and get talked about. But if I was in that position I’d be doing the same thing and it’s self-confidence as well. ‘We’re better than the 48. We’re gonna beat them.’ Those kind of things, that’s confidence.”
HOW MUCH DO MIND GAMES PLAY A ROLE IN THIS SPORT? “You can only do so much, but you can get under somebody’s skin a little bit, I guess. I don’t really pay attention to it. I worry about my car and how fast my car is gonna go today and qualifying good so we get a good pit spot and we’ll let them talk about whatever they want.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – HOW WAS PRACTICE? “Practice was great. I think we ended up fastest in practice, which is great. We’ve been focusing a lot on qualifying. AJ was really fast. I think Matt was really fast. We’ve come to this race track focused on qualifying, so we can start up front and have a good run. It’s not been the year we wanted, obviously, but to look at the points and see that we have a shot to finish fourth, legitimately, based on our performance the next two weeks is what we’re here to do, so it’s a good start for us.”
WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR GUYS TO MAKE UP POINTS AT THE END OF THE SEASON AND DO YOU THINK IT WILL CHANGE THIS YEAR? “That’s a good question. I don’t know why it’s so hard to make up points at the end. For us, I remember when I was battling with Jimmie, I think he won here and I finished third or fourth, and then we went to Homestead and we won and he finished 15th or something like that. I think the guys that’s leading, a lot of times in this sport the harder you try, the worse you do, so the guy that’s leading, I believe, has a little bit of a psychological advantage because he can step back a little bit. The guy that’s chasing will sometimes maybe try a little bit too hard. The difference this year though is that it’s Jimmie Johnson chasing. Those guys don’t make mistakes. They’re able to perform and make clutch performances when it counts. I still feel like Jimmie is the guy to beat. I know it doesn’t look that way right now, but I still feel like Jimmie and those guys are still the guys to beat.”
OTHER THAN THE MONEY, WHAT DOES IT DO FOR THE TEAM WHETHER YOU FINISH FOURTH, FIFTH OR SIXTH? “We want to finish fourth and not sixth or eighth or tenth because when it comes down to the end of the year you have to look at how you did with what you have. If you look at the laps led, I think we’ve led 150-200 laps this year. We have not had the best performing race cars and the best results that we’ve ever had, so, for us, there’s a lot of pride in making the most with what we’ve got. If we can finish fourth in points, that’s a heck of a job for what I feel like we had. For us, there’s a lot of pride in that – for me there personally is – and when you go back and look at history it looks nicer to finish fourth and third and second. If you’ re not gonna win it, you want to do the best you can. You’ve got to have goals and this is our goal right now.”
DO YOU EVER LOOK AT OTHER GUYS AND WISH YOU HAD WHAT THEY HAD IN THEIR CAR? “Yeah, all the time (laughing). There’s a lot of that that goes on in the garage. You look at a guy’s car, for instance, Denny Hamlin’s car at Martinsville, I watched what his car did and how it performed and I thought, ‘Man, they figured it out.’ It was driving like I wanted my car to drive. It’s like that at different places and I think everybody does that. You look at other cars and you watch them and I think that’s part of what makes a good driver or a crew chief or a car chief – to be able to look around and see where someone is beating you and try to figure out how they’re doing it. I guess that might be different than other sports because there’s a huge mechanical part to this that if you can figure it out, you can go faster.”
YOU’LL BE IN EUROPE FOR THE RACE OF CHAMPIONS IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS. WHAT ABOUT THAT EVENT IS FUN FOR YOU? “We’ll be traveling on Thanksgiving, so I’ll get to spend the morning with my family so that will be nice, and then we’ll travel over to Germany. I’m going with Travis Pastrana, so I’ll be curious to talk to him a little bit about that (coming to NASCAR). He’s a wild man. I think that will be good for him to come here. Hopefully, he does well. I think it would be good if he could do well, but that’s gonna be a blast. We go over there and I get to see a country I’ve never seen. I get to race against guys like Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Loeb, he’s amazing. That’ll be fun. It’ll be a rushed weekend. We leave on Thursday and I think we’ll be back on Monday or Tuesday for the banquet, but that’s a good way to relax, I think.”
DO YOU KNOW WHAT KIND OF CARS YOU’LL BE DRIVING? “They just sent me a list of the cars we’re driving and they’re some pretty interesting cars. They’re gonna try to get some cars to Columbia, Missouri and we’ll go somewhere to drive them, but I still don’t know what the course is gonna look like and I don’t know exactly the format. When we did it at Wembley Stadium, it was really, really tough. It was a really short course and they were cars that I’d never driven before, so it was really interesting. I think it makes me a better driver, though, because I got to ride with Sebastien Loeb and he’s the best driver I’ve ever ridden with. I’ve never seen anything like it with the way he drove the car through the wet, tight course. That was amazing.”
WHY DO YOU THINK JIMMIE IS STILL THE GUY TO BEAT? AND SECONDLY HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF BOB OSBORNE MADE SOME OF THE COMMENTS MIKE FORD DID LAST WEEK? “Mike Ford is a smart guy. He’s just saying whatever he can to get things stirred up so that maybe he has an advantage. I don’t personally know Chad and the guys on the 48 team well enough to know if that will work or not, but that’s just part of the game. Guys are trying to gain and advantage wherever they can, and the thing about Bob Osborne is that he is one of the most mentally tough people I’ve ever come across in my life. So whatever he says or does that’s fine. I don’t think you could get in his head, but everybody is different. I don’t know the relationship that Mike Ford and Chad have, but whatever they’ve got to do, they’ve got to do. I guess that makes it more interesting for all of us. I think Jimmie is still the guy to beat just based on how they’ve performed in really high pressure situations over the last half decade. They just have an ability and Jimmie has an ability, and I’m not saying that Denny doesn’t have that ability, but Jimmie has proven that they can do that. And then I’m not certain of statistics, but it just seems like Jimmie and the 48 guys have less trouble mechanically. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but that’s something that just seems that way to me. It could really come down to something as simple as that, but when I say Jimmie is still the guy to beat, it’s barely. That’s the feeling. I’m not cheering for one or the other at all. That’s how I feel.”
CAN YOU FORESEE PASTRANA BRINGING HIS FANS OVER HERE TO NASCAR? “Pastrana is an icon, really, I think. What he’s done, the ability he has to transcend motocross and freestyle and rally racing – all these things that he’s done – I think it could be huge. He just has to do well. If he comes over here and can do well, that’ll be great. That’ll be great for him. It’ll be great for our sport, his fans. I think it’s just very, very difficult to do it. He’s a smart guy, so I’m sure he has a plan of trying to get some experience in testing and things like that, but I’d be glad to help him – right up to the point where if he’s really fast I won’t help him (laughing), but it would be cool. I think all of us would agree that for him to be a part of this and to do well would be huge.”
THERE HAS BEEN TALK ABOUT THE FINAL RACE OF THE YEAR MIGHT BE MOVED IN A FEW YEARS. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT RUNNING THERE? “Ford Championship Weekend, I’ve always driven a Ford and it always seems like a fun weekend. I believe that the weather down there, I don’t know where you find better weather at that time of the year, and now that they’ve moved the Nationwide banquet and the Truck banquet to that Monday, to me, it feels like a nice place to go race and to finish the season. It’s also a track, I think, that represents the average track that we race on. It’s a mile-and-a-half, but it’s a true oval, so it is a little bit different. It’s a real fair track to end the season on. If it were a road course or superspeedway or a short track, there are more variables that play in. I think you can go to Homestead and you can perform the way that you should perform. I think it’s a good way to end the season, so I wouldn’t change it just based on all that, but I guess you never know.”