MATT KENSETH AND GREG BIFFLE FINISH THIRD AND FOURTH, RESPECTIVELY, AT NEW HAMPSHIRE
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Power Tools Taurus (finished 3rd) – “I don’t know, we got a lugnut jammed there for some reason and it did good coming back. The strategy worked out right, we didn’t really do it on purpose, but after we pitted there, we had only like 10 laps and all the leaders pitted and that got us back to the front and we were able to hold it.” HOW WAS THE CAR TODAY? “Most of the day it was pretty good. I changed it up right there at the end and that wasn’t the right thing to do, and I got too tight. Other than that, it was all right. I didn’t have anything for the 20. Some of the other guys on short runs could beat me, but on long runs we were pretty good.”
YOU CAME BACK FOR A SOLID THIRD-PLACE FINISH. “The DeWalt guys did a great job. We had great pit stops. Came back from that problem and didn’t really tear anything up and were able to work our way back through there through pit strategy and having a good car. It feels good to come here and get a good finish and look forward to going to Dover.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT RACING YOUR TEAMATE GREG BIFFLE OVER THE LAST FEW LAPS? “If it would’ve been any other time in the race he went of gone right by me, but right there you got to race all you can for that position. And the way the leaders were going at it I thought it maybe could’ve been for the win, so. He was handling better than I was. I was a little tight, but I had the top of the race track to contain my momentum. It was a good race. I just told him I was waiting for him to turn me.”
DID THE WEATHER CHANGE CAUSE ANY PROBLEMS? “Not really, we stayed about the same. We got a little tighter at the end of that one real long run. Actually, we stayed about the same.”
MATT KENSETH press conference
TODAY WAS ANOTHER IN A STRING OF YOUR RECENT SUCCESSES. ARE YOU WHERE YOU PLANNED TO BE? “I don’t know if you ever plan to be a certain place. You go out and race as hard as you can every week and hope to have good cars, hope to have things go your way, and go from there. I’m happy with our performance the last couple of months, it’s been much better. We had a couple of cars that were capable of winning races. Today we had a good, solid car, it was nothing for Tony and a couple others, but we’ve been having decent cars and we haven’t been having terrible luck, and when we do have bad luck it’s worked out okay – like catching that lugnut under caution instead of green. If that would’ve been under green we would’ve been done. We’ve been having things go our way a little bit more lately, so that’s good.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 National Guard Taurus (finished 4th) – “Calling two tires there under green, that was a pretty bold move. I’m just happy to see our sport is so equal, to see the 12 and the 20 race for position, and me and the 17, after 300 laps, to race for position like that is pretty incredible.”
HOW WAS YOUR RACE? “It couldn’t have been better. Awesome. I wish I would’ve gotten third, there, I think I could’ve beat my teammate but I couldn’t get position on him. But, it absolutely couldn’t have been better.”
DID YOU STAY OUT OF ALL THE TROUBLE OUT THERE? “Stayed out of trouble, not a scratch on the car, fourth in the first race for the chase.”
THOUGHTS ON THE FORMAT. “I love it. It makes us drive our butt off out here every week. Just as hard we could run right there.”
HAPPY WITH IT? “Yeah, I couldn’t be happier. That right there could have very well been the race that determines the championship, the very first one, for us.”
MARK MARTIN – No. 6 Viagra Taurus (finished 7th) – “I want to thank Jimmy Fennig and the whole 97 team. That’s a great race car. It was better than the finish we got. I didn’t get it done here for some reason, but the car was awesome, and I want to thank them for helping us out.”
KURT BUSCH – No. 97 Sharpie Taurus (finished 35th) – WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE 10? “He just started off the race too loose and got into us, and it’s tough to have that happen so early in the race, didn’t even get a chance to show our potential. The crew guys put the car back together, and we put some laps in and picked up a few spots. It’s just unfortunate. There’s guys you race with, there’s guys you can’t. And, he really doesn’t know where he is most of the time. At Indy he pinched me down, and we got into one another. He wrecked Sterling Marlin at California. There’s been a bunch of times. He just can’t handle driving his car knowing where he is at the same time.”
YOU SAID EARLIER THIS WEEKEND THAT YOU WANTED TO FOLLOW THE SAME MODEL YOU USED LAST YEAR. OBVIOUSLY, THIS IS DIFFERENT. HOW DOES IT CHANGE THINGS? “Now we have to go and attack each race for a win. We have to go to Dover and expect to win and try to build our points back up. This is a great race track for us, so we hope that we finish well. Dover’s not so great, we’ve been mediocre there, so now we have to go for the win. You want to race good at tracks that you know that you’re good on.”
HOW MUCH PRESSURE DOES THIS CREATE? “It’s just the same old deal, you got to go race your car. We saw Jimmie Johnson go on a tear last year and win four out of the last 10. So, we’re just hanging out, we’ll see if we can gain some spots back.”
WHY DID YOU FEEL THE NEED TO GO TO THE 10 PIT BOX RIGHT THEN AND THERE AFTER IT HAPPENED? “I just wanted to tell his crew chief that he started his car way too loose so hopefully they don’t hurt anybody else in the Chase.”
RICKY RUDD – No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus (finished 20th) – “When all the dust settled, Sterling didn’t pit that time right there at the end, and that put us a lap down. We were right on his bumper, getting ready to pass, anyway, the caution came out and that put us in a position where we were the Lucky Dog, but we had to start at the tail of the longest line with few laps to go. The car was never good all day. Not sure, this and Phoenix both we missed the setups, but we were still going to come out of there with a decent finish if the caution didn’t fall at the end like we needed it to.”
