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Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 - Ford Post-Race Quotes
KENSETH CLINCHES NASCAR WINSTON CUP CHAMPIONSHIP
The driver of the No. 17 DEWALT Power Tools Taurus has posted one win, 11 top-five and a series-best 25 top-10 finishes in 2003. Kenseth's victory at Las Vegas in March served as the impetus for what became a consistent run to the championship and ignited a streak that saw him post 12 top-10 finishes in the next 13 races. He grabbed the points lead after a fourth-place finish at Atlanta in the fifth race of the season and has been alone at the top ever since.
The closest anyone has gotten since then came after the Richmond race in May when Dale Earnhardt, Jr. closed to within 20 points, but it eventually peaked at 436 points following the September race at Dover.
PAST FORD CHAMPIONS
Ned Jarrett, who is Ford's all-time race winner with 43, won his second series championship in 1965 and the first driver's title for Ford.
OTHER NOTES
Kenseth joins Tony Pedregon (NHRA Funny Car) and Paul Tracy (CART Champ car) as Ford's other major series champions in 2003. Scott Riggs and Jason Keller are still alive in their quest for the Busch Series championship next weekend at Homestead.
FORD'S NASCAR WINSTON CUP CHAMPIONS
MATT KENSETH CONTINUED - CAN YOU ENJOY IT NOW? "Oh yeah. I've kept all of my emotions and everything bottled up for so long. I don't think I'm a pessimist, but I don't like to count my chickens before they hatch. Even though everybody said they thought I was a shoe-in these last two races, I don't count on it until they say it's over and it's official. Anything can happen and sometimes it seems like if it can, it happens to us. I still haven't really had time to let it sink in. I know it's gonna sink in. I've got so many emotions going through me that I don't really know what I think right now. I'm just so thankful to have this opportunity. There are so many great race car drivers that never get the chance to do this. I've been real lucky to be with a top-notch team right from my rookie year and to be in equipment that was capable of winning races, and having an owner like Jack that will get us anything we want, and having four really great teammates to help us.
I've been real blessed to have Robbie Reiser as my crew chief and my friend for the last seven or eight years and that's helped too." CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR RACE TODAY AND THE WEEKEND IN GENERAL? "First of all, I thought we qualified great compared to the last two weeks. Yeah, we were off a little bit in the beginning of the race and I was scared to free the car up too much. The car goes through big changes here with the way the asphalt is. If you start off just right, you always back up too much at the end of the run. We had the car too tight to be too good at the end of the run. They'd get away from us so much in the beginning. We finally made some adjustments and I think we had it real competitive. I think we had at least a top-10 car and got very fortunate when that caution came out that I wasn't all the way on pit road and I could get back to the race track and not lose those laps. That helped us a lot, but we did get the car better towards the end when we needed it. I was pretty frustrated at times in the race because after the restarts I'd get passed by seven or eight cars and then I'd have to work the next 40 laps to pass them all back, so I was a little frustrated about how slow our car was on the short run, but in the long run I thought we had a pretty competitive car." TONY STEWART THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE AN APPROPRIATE PLACE FOR YOU TO CLINCH. DO YOU AGREE? "Oh, for sure. The sooner the better. Obviously, I wouldn't have had to go get ulcer medicine if we would have clinched it a few weeks ago - or as much ulcer medicine when I get older - but this is definitely a special place. That was a really happy day for all of us. We didn't have a sponsor on our car. Jack was in the process of helping us out at that time. I remember he was on the roof and excited when we won that race and it was a really cool day for us. Everything went good. We were able to win right at the end on the last lap, so this place definitely has a special meaning. I think it probably does for Jack and Mark because they won their first race together here - Mark as a driver and Jack as an owner at this race track. If I had to pick one track on the circuit if it could happen early, this would definitely be it. I think this is a cool race track. It drives like a short track and I think it kind of has a special meaning for all of us." CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR CAREER AND THE FIRST CALL FROM ROBBIE TO WHAT'S HAPPENED SINCE? "That's a long story, but Robbie and I used to race against each other in Wisconsin. I guess everybody probably knows that. He was down trying to run his own Busch team, but he couldn't keep a sponsor as a driver. He shut the team down and then a driver came to him with a sponsor and said, 'We'd like to run with your equipment if you want to be a car owner.' He started that deal and things didn't go well. Robbie gave me a call up kind of out of the blue to come and drive one of his cars because the driver he had wasn't working out. So, anyway, moved all my stuff. I ran Nashville my first race and the next week I went to Talladega and raced. That's where I met Mark. I met Mark in the driver's meeting there, actually. I guess he heard of me from racing in Wisconsin. We both drove for the same owners up there, obviously at different times, but we drove for the same people and there were a lot of the same race tracks. He called me the next week and said he wanted to help me. He didn't know how he was gonna do it, but he wanted to get me hooked up to Jack. I think he basically begged Jack to give me an opportunity. To do what, I don't know, but they signed me up real early. I've actually had a contract with Jack since 1997, since Mark and I met. I did a lot of testing with them. Even if I didn't drive a lot, I went to a lot of his tests and learned a lot from Mark and Jimmy Fennig. I just tagged along a lot and tried to absorb as much as I could and learn as much as I could." WHAT ABOUT THE LAST 10 LAPS? "There's no special satisfaction beating him (Newman). You want to beat everybody. We weren't real great on short runs. I was happy we restarted third and finished fourth. That was cool. It was also neat that Bill won today, too. That was my first Winston Cup ride. I drove Bill's car one race, so that was kind of neat too."
DO YOU THINK IT'S MORE SPECIAL TO WIN IN A FORD, WHICH A LOT OF PEOPLE FEEL IS AT A DISADVANTAGE RIGHT NOW? "I'm real proud to win it driving a Ford and driving it for Jack. I thought last year we were real competitive as a group and at the beginning of this year we were. As the year has gone on, it seems like we as a group on average have fallen off a little bit. I think Chevy designed a new car this year and Pontiac did and Dodge had a different nose and they've had a whole year to work with it. With our car, we've been working on it for three or four years or whatever it was and we're sort of tapped out. I think the nose and tail will help it a little bit. I don't know if that's enough or not, but it will make the cars better than what they are today. Hopefully, they'll be a little closer next year and we can keep up a little more. It seems like, as a group, we can't keep up quite as good. I don't know why that is, but it just doesn't seem like we can quite hang in there on new tires right away." WHAT WERE YOU THINKING EARLY IN THE RACE WHEN EVERYBODY WAS HITTING EACH OTHER? "It felt like I was stepping through a minefield. Every time we'd get a chance to get going, there would be an accident. A lot of them were in front of us. We got ran into the back one time and there was just a lot of stuff going on. It seemed like I was right in the middle of it and I saw a lot of stuff happen today. I was hoping I wasn't gonna be in it, but I don't know what I was thinking. I was thinking to get some laps in because these races the last two weeks have seen really, really long to me. I was just hoping we didn't get caught up in any trouble. There was just a lot of stuff going on and a lot of close calls today." WHAT HAS IT BEEN LIKE THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS? "I'm sure Mark could tell you, I think the pressure would be a lot more if it was close, but, yet, we've led it so long. In the middle of the year I got kind of spun out in August and September a little bit by reading a lot of people's columns and reading what they're saying about winning one race and reading that nobody has ever had this big of a points lead and blown it. Those things actually add pressure because I don't want to be the guy that goes in the record book that had that big of a lead and blew it. I think there's always pressure until it's over because anything can happen at any given time. I know one thing, I feel a lot lighter today. I feel like the world has lifted off my shoulders today somewhat."
JACK ROUSH CONTINUED - DOES THIS EASE THE ANGUISH FROM YOUR PREVIOUS TITLE LOSSES? "Things certainly don't look as dark to me today as they have the days preceding and the years preceding. As I said, we've come close with Mark four times and this would have been once for Matt, if we weren't able to close the deal. We have had a pretty good year, but we did break an engine at Talladega. I would have taken the responsibility for that on my own shoulders if we had come short by the points we lost at that event. I am not gonna go back and regurgitate and re-visit the frustrations we've had in the past. I'm very happy that whatever I had going against me, whether it was between my ears or it was a dark cloud that was hanging over me, I didn't pass that onto Matt this year and I'm just glad to be through that and hope we don't have to go back there again." WHEN DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD WIN THE TITLE? "When we came back after the engine problem and the crash that we had - we gave up 200 points or whatever it was in two weeks. Then we had another good race and stabilized, and the race after that we picked up a few points. That's when I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. If Matt stayed healthy and if we didn't have an epidemic of broken parts that would get on us early in the race, it was probably gonna be OK. But I wouldn't go further than probably."
MATT KENSETH CONTINUED - DID YOU EVER WISH YOU WEREN'T THE POINTS LEADER DURING THE SEASON SO YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO ANSWER SO MANY QUESTIONS? "I don't know. There's never a day you wish you weren't leading the points. I think if you're not leading it, you wish you were. There are certain days for sure where it's more of a burden than other days, and there are days where it felt better than others. When you left and gained points, it felt good. But when you're at the track and lost some and you're only 20 points ahead - there was a stretch where Dale, Jr. gained 130 points on me in four races or something like that. Then it didn't feel too good, so when you're out front you definitely want to stay there. The best way I can explain the last three months at least is there's a feeling you get in your stomach - at least I do - when you're leading a race and it's getting down towards the end and you're looking in your mirror and you see a car behind you. You kind of get this empty feeling in the pit of your stomach and I've had that for about three months, so that's kind of what it feels like. I feel like I've been leading the race with 20 laps to go for about three months."
JACK ROUSH CONTINUED - NOW THAT YOU HAVE ONE, DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE EASIER TO DO THIS IN THE FUTURE? "I've got my ears pointed to any suggestion that Mark would have on other things he thinks we could do to tune our program up. If he makes a list, that would be a big help. I'm not gonna air this again, but we are gonna get a fresh nose and a fresh tail. Every year since 1997, we've had more templates and that has made us have a diminished car from what we had the year previous, so we don't have much of a car in comparison to what we had in '97. The Taurus is gonna be improved markedly by the changes. Whether it's enough will be dependent on what we do with it and what everybody else does over the winter. We're working hard on our engines and hope to have some news about a program that we think will be better than what we have going forward. That's gonna be helpful. NASCAR has given us a cylinder head that is gonna allow us to have the same valve-train geometry - the valve size and the port alignment - as the Chevrolet. That's gonna be a big help. Whether that's enough will be dependent on what we do with it, but I certainly look forward to the challenges of next year and the opportunities we've got for next year. I'm glad to be there with Mark and with Matt and with Kurt and with Greg and with Jeff as we go forward. When we finish with Homestead we'll be leading in the points all winter, until we go to that first race and we have to give up some of them on some of our cars."
MARK MARTIN CONTINUED - THOUGHTS ON BEING LISTED AS THE CHAMPION CAR OWNER? "I'm embarrassed to some degree because the only reason I'm a partner in the 17 car is because it was a gift to me from Jack Roush. I don't really have a feeling because I don't feel like I deserved to be a part of this thing. Matt Kenseth and Robbie Reiser have earned this and even though I cared an awful lot and even though I tried to help as much as I could, my contribution to this doesn't add up to anything in my opinion. So I don't know how I feel. I feel a little uncomfortable with it. I'm really happy for Jack Roush. I'm really happy for Matt and Robbie and I'm real proud of them, and I'm real proud to say I was right about Matt Kenseth. I think this is a good thing for all of us - everyone involved with Roush Racing - and I think that's what we should be doing. I'm not bitter about the things I haven't accomplished in my life or in my career. I'm very proud of the things that I have. There's no bittersweet here. What I've done and what I've accomplished, I'm proud of. What Matt had done and what he's accomplished, I'm very proud of as well, but I'm not more proud of Matt today than I was a year ago because the actions make the man, the trophy doesn't. This trophy doesn't change Matt Kenseth, so that's another cool thing too."
JACK ROUSH CONTINUED - DID YOU RE-DOUBLE YOUR EFFORTS TO MAKE SURE THE THINGS THAT HAPPENED BEFORE DIDN'T HAPPEN AGAIN? "I'm 61 years old now. When I started in Winston Cup I was 44. I have probably less energy and certainly we have a much bigger operation. I had less to do with the day-to-day things, the preparation, the inspection and the outcome of what happened this year than I have in the past. That may be the reason that we had a better result. All the things that go into the car - the springs, the dimensions that are critical, the weight - the crew chief and the guys take care of all of that. All the engine dimensions, the compression ratio, the various other inspection dimensions - I haven't checked behind the guys. In strategy meetings and management meetings I've discussed with them the importance of it, but no more this year than we have in the past. The organization is maturing and is getting better at what it does and it's taking care of business."
MARK MARTIN CONTINUED - WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO WATCH THE END OF THE RACE FROM THE PIT BOX? "It feels real different. It doesn't feel the same from the seat - the excitement and everything. It's really a different feeling and a different look. It's much more exciting. When you're standing watching, you don't realize it because you're so wrapped up in the things that are going on on the race track and driving the car. It's a really different situation. I hated to be out of the race. I'm glad that once my bad luck started rolling this year, I'm just glad it kept coming here and didn't slide over to the 17 because we've had to endure enormous amount of disappointment and heartbreak this year - along with from time to time not having the performance that we were looking for. A lot of days that we were getting decent performance, I've been standing watching. But usually when I'm out of the race, I'm out of here. Today, I was around for 150 laps and I understand why the fans get so wrapped up in this. It's very exciting. It's really exciting to see this happen for Matt and Robbie and the whole DEWALT team and Jack Roush."
MATT KENSETH CONTINUED - IS IT KIND OF SAD TO ONLY COME HERE ONCE A YEAR NOW? "Yeah, for me it will. All of these race tracks are kind of opinions you have as drivers. As drivers there are certain tracks we really like and there are certain tracks we probably dislike to a certain degree. There are always places you like to go to or like to race at more than other places, so I always really like racing here. I think this is real racing. The tires drop way off. You've got to have a car that runs fast on new tires and you've got to be able to manage your tires with the gas pedal and not burn your tires up.
To me, it's a lot more fun and more challenging to race here than maybe some of the real new tracks, where you're just running the bottom all day and there's a lot of aero. You just run real fast and have a lot of grip. I think that this is more of a challenge. It's a fun track and it's the history and heritage of Winston Cup racing. This is where it came from and whenever something like this goes away, it makes me a little bit sad. Although change is good for everything, I'm the type of person that doesn't like to see a lot of change and I hate to see some of the places that have been around for so long and held such great events and had such great people win races at these places go away and lose dates." IS THIS GOING TO CHANGE YOU? "I'm just gonna pay Katie's credit card bill (laughing). It's not gonna change me one iota. I don't think there's any award or trophy or anything I could win - yeah, it would make me feel different and, yeah, I may have more of a certain sense of accomplishment for something - but it's not gonna change at all the way I live day to day or what I do or don't do." DID ALAN KULWICKI SERVE AS A ROLE MODEL FOR YOU? "It's kind of a weird thing. I never knew Alan at all. I don't think I've ever even met him. I never raced against him because he was gone from Wisconsin when I started and he was gone from here when I started down here. I certainly have respect for what I've heard about him - for running a team by himself and doing it independently and being able to win a championship. I have a lot of respect for what he's done there and I think it's really cool that he's from Wisconsin. I don't know if I could really say he's a role model because I never got to know him."
JACK ROUSH CONTINUED - HAVE YOU REFLECTED ON THE FACT YOU ALMOST WEREN'T HERE FOR THIS? "I sure have. You know, I laid in bed last night and thought about if things did break the way it looked like they would and if Mark doesn't accept my offer to go to do the acceptance speech at the banquet, I will certainly pay tribute to the set of circumstances that allowed me to survive my accident and to be here. I just about missed my first championship, that's for sure."
MATT KENSETH CONTINUED - DOES IT MATTER THAT YOU'VE WON ONLY ONE RACE? "To some people it does. To me, it doesn't." YOU WILL BE THE LAST DRIVER TO HAVE THE WINSTON CUP TROPHY. YOUR THOUGHTS? "My thoughts on it are something that I guess I've missed here today. I certainly haven't overlooked, but haven't talked about yet, and that's R.J. Reynolds and everything they've done for this sport. Obviously, I wasn't around here to see it 33 years ago when they got here, but from everything I hear and everything I've seen in the four years that I've been here, they've done tremendous amounts to expose the sport, expose the drivers, expose the sponsors and they've made it so we can race in front of 150,000 people and in front of all the people watching at home. I just have a lot of gratitude for everything that Winston has done and R.J. Reynolds and their Winston brand has done for this sport. It's sad to see them go, too. I know we've got to move on and go to the next step, but they've done a lot and, to me, it's always gonna seem like the Winston Cup Series." WHAT ABOUT THE NAMES YOU FOLLOW ON THE TROPHY? "It's a little overwhelming, too. When you sit and think about it, there are only 43 of us that get to do this every week. It's the top division of stock car racing you can race at anywhere in the world and when you can win races there and you can have everything go right over a 36-race schedule and win a championship, that's a really special thing. Obviously, I think every name I get to join is a really great race car driver and people I've looked up to - people who have been sports idols of mine. It's a little overwhelming to think about, yet it's really an honor to even be a part of this sport much less to be able to be the champion."
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