Kenseth confident heading into California
By Lee Montgomery - Associate Editor
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Jason Smith / Getty Images for NASCAR
The Daytona 500 couldn’t have ended much worse for Matt Kenseth.
But there is no better place for him to recover than at California Speedway, site of this weekend’s Auto Club 500.
Kenseth worked his way to the front at Daytona, leading a lap and challenging the leaders before disaster struck. When rookie David Ragan lost control of his car on lap 161, he took Kenseth with him, crunching his Roush Fenway Racing teammate into the wall.
Kenseth returned to finish the race but wound up 36th.
He has plenty of reason for optimism heading into Week 2, however. Kenseth has won the past two February races at California Speedway and leads all drivers with six wins there in the Cup and Nationwide races, including a sweep of both series last February.
What’s more, he has a habit of bouncing back strong from Daytona. Kenseth has won the second race of the season four of the past six years, including two wins at the old North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham.
He has been particularly strong at California, where he has led eight of the past 12 races for a total of 379 laps, second among all drivers.
“I don’t know. I never thought we'd win two,” the unassuming Kenseth says. “I mean, you never really know. I always feel pretty confident going to California. It's been one of our better tracks throughout our time in the Nationwide Series and in the Cup Series.
“It's one we certainly look forward to. You look forward to trying to get some momentum back after our disappointing Daytona 500.”
There are two factors, however, that Kenseth must adjust to this year: NASCAR’s new car, which has never been raced on a 2-mile track, and the guidance of Chip Bolin, who took over as crew chief this year for Robbie Reiser, Kenseth’s longtime crew chief who became general manager of Roush Fenway Racing during the offseason.
Kenseth was sixth fastest during preseason testing at California, but that was NASCAR’s first practice at the track with the new car.
“You never know for sure until you race,” Kenseth said. “I was fairly pleased with our California test. I thought we learned a lot of stuff there. I was more pleased with that than I was with Vegas.
“But, I mean, you just don't know really where everybody else is at, what they've learned since then or what they were showing you or not showing you in the test.
“With this car, it's a little bit of an unknown because we haven't done it before. But overall I feel pretty good about it. I thought we were pretty competitive out there compared to how everybody was running at the time. I thought we learned some good things about the car.”
Kenseth actually won last year’s race with Bolin, the team engineer, calling the shots. He filled in while Reiser was suspended for a rules infraction at Daytona and led Kenseth to victory.
Bolin has been with the team since its inception and was a natural to take over for Reiser. Kenseth says he was pleased with how he and Bolin worked together at Daytona.
"Everything was good there,” he said. “Obviously we had a disappointing finish. But he made some great adjustments on the car. We went from being good, to getting it off, to figuring out how to fix it and being pretty competitive right before we got wrecked.
“Obviously a disappointing finish, but it was certainly not the guys' faults. We had good pit stops, good adjustments and had ourselves in contention, so I thought it was good.”
Bolin expects that to continue at California.
“Matt was really happy with the way we tested out in Fontana,” the crew chief says.
“The car seemed to be pretty fast, and he seems to be pretty excited about getting back out there. I believe as long as we don’t get caught up in anyone else’s misfortune, we’ll be fine.”
Bolin says the California track fits Kenseth’s style.
“Fontana is a momentum track with really long, flowing corners,” he said. “If you get off of one corner good, then you can get down through the next corner good.
“It kind of fits Matt’s driving style. He’s not necessarily the smoothest guy when it comes to throttle control; he likes to slam it and go. But he’s good about not slowing the car down too much getting in the corner, and that lets him get through the middle of the corners a lot faster than most people can. So, it kind of suits his talents more than anything.”
Even with a new car and a new crew chief, and despite the disappointing start at Daytona, Kenseth is optimistic about the 2008 season.
“I know Chip is going to do a great job. He's done a great job so far,” Kenseth said. “He's been very involved and a big part of the team ever since its inception. I'm not worried about that part.
“I know the new car is a challenge. But on the other hand, having one car to work on for the year instead of two, I think, will make it a little bit easier on the engineering staff, easier on the crew chiefs and everybody else. So I feel pretty good about it.”
