Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 USG Sheetrock Taurus, finished in second place at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday. Kenseth led a race-high 176 laps. Ricky Rudd (seventh), Kurt Busch (eighth) and Mark Martin (10th) also finished in the top 10.
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Power Tools Taurus
WOULD A LITTLE MORE TIME HAVE BEEN ENOUGH FOR YOU? “Yeah, it’s just you put yourself that far behind at a track that’s 100 percent dependent on aerodynamics. It’s pretty frustrating. We had a car that’s three-tenths faster than people and we lost.”
ON HIS SECOND-PLACE FINISH. “We just weren’t in front. It was a big advantage to be out front today. Hindsight is 20/20. You know, we were kind of a sitting duck. We knew we wanted to put four tires on the car because we ran so good all day, but you knew a bunch of them were going to get two, so with that last caution we just didn’t have enough time. But it was a great job by the guys in the pits. They did it perfect every time we stopped on pit road, and I got to thank USG Sheetrock for sponsoring the race on our car this week. At this point, to have the field covered that bad and lose it then.”
WHAT ABOUT THE MOMENTUM THIS TEAM HAS GAINED IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS? “They asked me two weeks ago if we thought we’d make the Chase and I really honestly think we can. Robbie’s done a great job figuring out some things on these cars to make them run faster. We’ve used a lot of Greg’s stuff, Greg and the 16 crew have helped us a lot. It’s just awfully frustrating when you get beat when you’re running that good.”
MATT KENSETH press conference
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 USG Sheetrock Taurus – “We pretty much led the whole race, and thought we had, if not the best car, one of the best cars, just disappointed to give it away. You hate to not be a gracious loser but it’s tough to lead almost every lap and get beat at the end on pit strategy. So, it was a tough loss for us to take, but we’ve been gaining some momentum and we’ve been running a little bit better.”
IT’S EASY TO LOOK BACK NOW AND MAKE THE CALL, BUT WAS THERE MUCH DEBATE AT THE TIME ABOUT WHAT TO DO, OR WERE YOU PRETTY SURE? “Well, there really wasn’t any debate. We were up front pretty much all day and we really didn’t have much to talk about. I think we led the whole last three-quarters of the race, so every time the caution came out if we ran 10 more laps we came in and got four tires. We never really had anything to talk about all day, there wasn’t any calls to discuss. And when the caution came out I just I said Robbie to we stay or do we get four? I wasn’t going to argue with him. I knew that some guys were going to get two. I knew the guys that were running right up front were probably going to get four, and I knew there might be a couple of guys that were gambling and stay out. It’s difficult to pass here when you get behind because of the aerodynamics and how fast we’re going. I still thought we had a shot at ’em until we got that last caution, and then we just didn’t have enough time, really. But, there was really no debate for it, and I don’t know if it was the right or wrong call. We didn’t win the race and we had the best car, so it just seems right now it was the wrong call but it’s hard to say if we went green for 20 laps or 19 or whatever it was on the last restart, I still think we would’ve won the race and it would’ve been the right call, so it’s tough to figure out.”
EVEN THOUGH IT’S FRUSTRATING NOT TO WIN, BECAUSE YOU AND DALE ARE SUCH GOOD FRIENDS, IF YOU HAD TO LOSE TO ANYBODY, WOULD HE BE THE GUY YOU’D RATHER LOSE TO TODAY? “No.” WHO WOULD IT BE? “No one. You don’t want to lose. We’re all racing to win and you hate to lose, especially on a day like this. I guess if you were going to lose, you’d rather lose by somebody like Tony that came out at the end of the race and was faster, wasn’t faster than us, but could keep up with us. You always hate to lose to somebody that you never had to race with all day and then you get yellows. I’m glad for him and his team, but I’d much rather be there, obviously.”
YOU’VE STILL HAD FOUR TOP-10S IN YOUR LAST SIX RACES. DOES THIS GIVE YOU OPTIMISM HEADING INTO THE SECOND HALF OF REACHING THE TOP 10 IN STANDINGS? “I said that a couple weeks ago. Obviously, if we go next week and run 30th, we probably out of it, but I said that a few weeks ago. I was watching all the articles about Dale, Jr. and Jeff Gordon and we’re not far behind them. Today we didn’t make up a lot of points on the leader, obviously, he finished right behind me. So, obviously we didn’t gain much on the leader, but we are gaining on the top 10, and it seems like we figured something out that helps us perform better, about three or four weeks ago, and if we can keep our performance how it is and not have problems, I think we can still get back in it.”
GIVEN THE TROUBLE PEOPLE WERE HAVING WITH TIRES TODAY, HOW BIG OF A GAMBLE DO YOU THINK IT WAS FOR JUNIOR TO TAKE TWO ON THE LAST STOP? “None. I mean, they only had 20 laps left. We were running full-fuel runs most of the day. It was still only one full fuel run. He pitted with 50 laps, and that was less than a full fuel run. I think we went 65 laps on fuel, so it really wasn’t any gamble at all as far as having trouble with the tires.”
WOULD THAT GAMBLE HAVE PAID OFF FOR YOU HAD THERE NOT BEEN THE LAST CAUTION THAT ATE UP THREE OR FOUR GREEN-FLAG LAPS? “I think it would’ve, because, especially on the restart, on the first restart I passed three cars and I was underneath Jeremy and almost had him passed and had a two-car cushion behind Tony and the caution came out. And after that I spent two or three laps passing Jeremy and then Tony got up in my right rear and passed me and I passed him back and he passed me back and I passed him back again, and that probably cost us two seconds to the leader right there. I knew after he passed me the first time and he had four tires, which that’s the way you have to race but then get the best finish you can, that the way we were racing we were losing a lot of time to the leader and I knew it was going to be tough to accomplish. But if we did get our 19 green laps in, I’m pretty confident that we would’ve got up there and beat ’em.”
RICKY RUDD – No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus (finished 7th) – “We had a really good race car. We knew it in practice yesterday. We needed a few adjustments when the race started to get the car freed up. We did that and we running fourth or fifth and doing real good. We needed another pit stop. The guys were cranking out really fast stops, and we came out on the track third. NASCAR said I was speeding. What happened was when I came down pit road, Dale Junior and Rusty pulled out and proceeded to pass me so I matched their speed. I don’t understand why if I was speeding the other two weren’t. I got sent to the back of the longest line. I really believe we had a chance to win that thing. It made me mad. On our last stop we took only two tires and made it back up to seventh.”
KURT BUSCH – No. 97 Sharpie Taurus (finished 8th) – “We had a good car. It was something to where we could finally maneuver through some traffic, and we caught ourselves mostly on the bad side of pit strategy; just happened to come through the field most of the day. At times we showed strength, at times we struggled a little bit, and then at the end, I think we were running fifth and we came out 15th, and we got blocked in the pits. The 32 was pitting, we couldn’t get out of our pit box clean, and then we only had two tires. So, the guys with fours went driving right by us. We did good. An eighth-place effort is nice, and we dropped a spot in points with an eighth-place effort – that’s how tight the points are.”
DID YOU TAKE TWO TIRES ON ANY EARLIER PIT STOPS, OR JUST THERE AT THE END? “That was the only time we took two. I hate the races that come down to that where, stay out, take two, take four – so far, we’ve had two or three of those races, and we’ve bit on all three of them. Hopefully, our luck will turn and then we’ll know when we need to make the right adjustment and how many tires. But, a good day for the Sharpie Ford. Eight place, Roush showed strength all around.”
DID YOU HAVE ANY ISSUES WITH TIRES TODAY? “We were a bit on the conservative side, just because Kenseth’s got to go fast to get into the Chase, we’ve got to maintain our track position and try to be a bit conservative, so that we can be smooth and end up with decent finishes, so eighth place is pretty good.”
WHAT ABOUT THE WILD RACING AT THE VERY END, WITH EVERYBODY JUMBLING AROUND? “That’s what happens when you have those cautions with 30 to go and you expect yellows, yellows happen. Guys run four, guys run two, guys run none, nobody wants to give and take.”
MARK MARTIN – No. 6 Viagra Taurus (finished 10th) – “The car was just so equal to so many, so passing was really difficult. And I lost a few spots on a lot of restarts and that hurt, it took a long time to get those back. That’s about what we had. We could’ve finished better under a better scenario, but it could’ve been worse. We could’ve finished worse under another scenario. So, I think all in all it was a reasonable day, considering.”
THE DAY, THOUGH, NEVER GOT TOO BAD, DID IT? YOU HOVERED AROUND 10TH PLACE MOST OF THE DAY. “Yeah, it was about a 10th-place car most all day. We just didn’t get ourselves in a position to do any better than that. We weren’t good enough to drive up there, and it just didn’t work out.”
DALE JARRETT – No. 88 UPS Taurus (finished 18th) – “We just struggled. Couldn’t get it to turn most of the time and it was tight off, and once we lost track position it was tough to make it up. It was just one of those days. We made something of it, they worked hard and made the most of it.”
WERE TIRES AN ISSUE FOR YOU AT ALL TODAY? “No, we didn’t have any tire problems, we just didn’t have enough speed.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Taurus (finished 39th) – ARE YOU OKAY? “Yeah, I think I’m fine. It was a real hard hit. I think what might be going on here is the tire might be a tick soft for the race track, and the loads on it. I don’t know if it’s soft or thick, but for whatever reason. We had at least two right rears come apart yesterday a little bit, and today we had what appears to be a right-front come apart. I know Goodyear works real hard and they’re doing their best. We had a race-winning car there today, that’s frustrating for me. It’s just real frustrating. I really think we could’ve won that race, so it’s very frustrating.”
