Roush Fenway Racing's Matt Kenseth dealing with setbacks the best he can
Roush Fenway Racing's Matt Kenseth is 11th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, 41 points ahead of the 13th-place team. // LaDon George, NASCAR Scene
SONOMA, Calif. – Roush Fenway Racing's Matt Kenseth says that his veteran status doesn't make any setbacks easier to take.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver knows the ups and downs a season can offer. Still, sitting 11th in the standings after winning the opening pair of races this season isn't setting that well.
"It doesn’t make it any easier," Kenseth said of dealing with setbacks after nine full Cup seasons. "You want to win every week and put in your best effort every week, so when you don’t get the results it’s always disappointing, but you still can’t dwell too much on yesterday. You’ve got to move on to the next week and try to figure out how to do better.”
Kenseth, the 2003 series champion, is focused on doing just that.
He and his Drew Blickensderfer-led team want to gain ground in the standings.
Although he rallied from deep in the standings last year in order to make his fifth consecutive championship field, Kenseth says that this season it feels different.
“We were farther behind at this time last year, but certainly we’ve had a lot more opportunities this year to be a lot higher in the points and be in a lot more comfortable position than what we are," he said. "We’re not comfortable by any means … so we really need to start getting the results and start getting our finishes.”
Kenseth hopes that climb begins this weekend at Infineon Raceway in California, site of Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350.
He says that, over the years, the approach to racing at the track has changed. Now, he's hoping that he has the perfect attack come Sunday.
“It’s a challenge," Kenseth said. "When I first started it was more about not making a mistake and staying on course. You could bend up a car pretty easy or lose a lot of track position, and, of course, about gambling on pit road and pitting early in case there was a caution so you could get that track position.
"Today, these cars are a lot closer to the same speed and they’re a lot more reliable. It doesn’t seem like as many people make a mistake or break something or anything like that, so you’ve got to have your pit strategy right and have a good handling car. You can’t make mistakes and you’ve got to run fast all day, too.”
