Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion, has one Coca-Cola 600 championship on his resume with that coming in his rookie season. Kenseth spoke about this weekend’s race, which figures to have more pit stops with a smaller fuel cell.

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion – WITH WHAT WE SAW ON SATURDAY IS THERE ANYTHING GOING ON BETWEEN YOU AND TONY? “No, it was just a racing accident. I didn’t leave him enough room to get in there. I didn’t know he was in there until it was too late, so that was my fault and he didn’t get out of the gas. If it had been a normal race he probably would have got out of the gas and gave it to me, which I still think he could have, but yet I probably should have gave him room at the start-finish line, so it was as much my fault as it was his or more so. I probably didn’t give him enough room to get down through there and honestly didn’t know he was inside of me until I got down in the corner, but then just moved up and just was going too fast and there wasn’t enough room to get through there.”

HAVE YOU TOLD HIM THIS? “No, I haven’t talked to him.”

WHAT DID YOU LEARN SATURDAY FOR THIS WEEKEND? “I didn’t think we ran that good last weekend. We ran OK and ran as good as we normally do at this track, so it’s a real hard tire. There are a few guys that really have it figured out and then there are some of us that struggled, so you really have to stay on top of your car and not have it too tight, but yet when it’s real loose it’s hard to run very fast, too. It’s just hard right now for us to find the balance.”

YOUR THOUGHTS ON JIMMIE JOHNSON’S SUCCESS HERE? “I don’t know, nobody’s beat him in three years or something so he’s been unbelievably good here, but you know, really, Jimmie and Chad and that whole group is really good everywhere. They’ve just had a phenomenal record here, though, and that’s pretty cool. The most impressive thing, I think, that a lot of people probably haven’t thought about is they’ve won three 600s in a row and its three different surfaces, or I guess it’s three different surfaces with the all-star race last week. So that’s pretty impressive to change the track twice and still be the guy to beat is pretty amazing.”

DEI WAS THE TEAM TO BEAT AT DAYTONA AND TALLADEGA FOR A LONG TIME. IS IT THE SAME FEELING WITH JIMMIE AT THIS TRACK? “Well, sort of but that’s kind of different. The restrictor plate races is almost all car. Yeah, you’ve got to be good at drafting and other things, but I’ve also seen guys win races in good cars and then get in a bad car and they’re in the back. Restrictor plate stuff is a lot more about the car, where this is more of a team effort. It takes a lot from the driver and takes a lot from the crew and the team getting everything set up right and doing a pit stop – the whole deal.”

HOW MUCH PRIDE WILL THERE BE IF YOU CAN BEAT JIMMIE HERE? “I don’t know if you think about it that much, unless you’re racing him for the win, but if somebody else wins and he runs sixth or seventh, I don’t think anybody is really gonna necessarily think about beating him as much. You usually think, if you do win, about the guy you beat to get the win.”

WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO BEAT HIM? “I’m not the guy to ask. You probably need to ask somebody that was a little closer to him Saturday. I don’t think we’ve really got a handle on the place yet. The Busch car was real good in the test, but our Cup car wasn’t real good in the test. It was better last weekend, but it wasn’t nearly good enough to challenge for a win, so I might not be the guy to ask about that yet.”

DO YOU NEED TO TRY A DIFFERENT LINE OUT THERE WITH THIS TIRE? “I think the fastest way is around the bottom because it’s new pavement and that’s the shortest way around the race track, so I really think that’s the fastest way. But it was pretty impressive last week how Jimmie was able to make the second groove work outside of Kevin. That was a great race they had for the lead there for those two laps. The groove is definitely on the bottom, but there is a little bit of an outside – better than what there usually is when you first pave a track and I think it’ll be a lot better if we get a little softer tire or something for the fall.”

SO YOU THINK THERE WILL BE TWO GROOVES ABOUT HALFWAY THROUGH THE 600? “I think so. I thought in the all-star race there was two grooves. The second groove is slower than the bottom groove, but there was two grooves. With this tire being particularly hard, sometimes it was hard to be on the bottom because the car would get real close to you from the outside and make your car real loose on the bottom, so that kind of made it two wide. The guy on the outside had to really get on the guy and then try to make him loose and try to hurt his handling like that, but there was closer to two grooves than most tracks after they pave it.”

DO YOU THINK THE GUY ON THE OUTSIDE IN THE 600 WILL DO THE SAME THING AND TRY TO SQUEEZE THE GUY DOWN LOW? “I don’t think it’ll be as bad as what it was in the all-star race because whenever you squeeze a guy down low you know they have a chance of wrecking and if they have a chance of wrecking, they’re probably gonna take you with them so I don’t think you’ll see quite as much of that.”

YOU GUYS MIGHT BE PITTING EVERY 18 MINUTES. WHAT’S IT LIKE FROM A DRIVER’S STANDPOINT? “I don’t know. I think we’re overkilling the small fuel cell. I know there is gonna be a lot of pit stops for a 600-mile race with these cars and big carburetors and all that stuff. Pit road is gonna be busy. You have to be real careful on pit road. I think you have as much chance of getting yourself in trouble getting on and off pit road, especially under green flag, as you do actually on the race track so it’s definitely something you’re gonna have to pay attention to.”

JIMMIE TOOK FOUR TIRES AND HARVICK TOOK TWO AT THE END. WHAT DO YOU FORESEE WITH ALL THE PIT STOPS SATURDAY? “I was a little surprised and maybe a little confused during the all-star race. Everybody pitted and got tires there at the end. I thought a lot of people would have just got fuel and took off. I thought old tires would have been just as fast, but I think every car got tires for the last segment and that really surprised me, so I’m not sure. They obviously have it figured out and we don’t.”

ARE YOU PARTICIPATING IN THE CAR OF TOMORROW TEST NEXT WEEK? “I honestly don’t think we have one together, so I guess that’s a no. We had one or two and all the rules changed. I’m not sure we have a current version, so that’s a good question I really don’t know the answer to, but if I am, nobody has told me about it.”

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE? “Do I want to test them, not really. If that’s for sure the package we’re gonna race, eventually you’re gonna have to test it and try to work on it and get used to it, but I don’t know enough about it to know if the rules are set in stone and this is how we’re gonna race, it’s for sure, that’s it and that’s the end of it or what. I don’t think they’re going to any big tracks next year anyway, so I’m sure they’re gonna do a lot more tests. I would be more interested in being on the back end of the test than the front end.”

WITH TIRES AND THE PROBLEMS YOU GUYS HAVE HAD HERE THE LAST COUPLE DAYS I DON’T KNOW WHAT ANYBODY IS GOING TO LEARN FROM A CAR OF THE FUTURE TEST? “Yeah, that’s a really good point. That’s why I really would rather not do it (laughing).” DO YOU WANT TO DO THE TIRE TEST HERE BEFORE THE OCTOBER RACE? “I don’t know how all of that works with this new testing policy. That tire test, I think, is a big advantage and for some reason or another the Roush teams haven’t been invited to any tire tests yet, so I don’t know if that’s all resolved or what. I think they’re holding something over your head about not testing with other kind of tires or something. I’m not really sure what the deal is, so, as far as I know, no Roush cars have been invited to any tire tests, which seems a little unfair for gathering data, so I don’t really know the answer to that.”

THERE MIGHT BE 16-20 PIT STOPS. WILL IT CHANGE HOW YOU DRIVE THIS RACE? “Not really. The only thing I think it might maybe change a little bit is that the engine tuners might work a little harder to get fuel mileage than they would if you had a 22-gallon cell, but I don’t think driving you’re really gonna approach it any different. Pit road is gonna be busy. You don’t want to run out of gas and everybody is gonna have to be on pit road pretty close to the same time, so it’s gonna be interesting to see how it works out.”

DO YOU WANT TO BE IN SYNC WITH EVERYBODY ON STOPS OR RUN YOUR OWN RACE? “I think with a 600-mile race and with these fuel cells, I think if you run more than five laps, everybody is gonna pit and at least fill up with gas because you can only run 30 laps or 35 laps – whatever it is – so I think if you run very long at all, you’re gonna come and get fuel. I don’t think you can take a chance not to – be five gallons less than everybody and pit under green sooner and have a chance of being a lap down. I think when the yellows come out everybody is gonna be on pit road everytime basically and your green flag stops you’re just gonna have to do when you’re out of gas.”

THIS SOUNDS LIKE IT COULD BE A FLUKY RACE? “It might be, but it might not be. It might just be normal, except we’re on pit road twice as much. I don’t know. There might not be any problem from it. You just never know.”

HAVE YOU OR ROBBIE TALKED TO YOUR PIT CREW ABOUT THE IMPACT THEY COULD HAVE ON THIS RACE? “I haven’t, but Robbie always takes care of that. They have a big impact on every race. Every race we’ve ever had and any good run they’ve had a huge impact on it – all the pit crews do. You can’t come into a race leading the run or being second or third and go out 15th and still win the race. It’s almost impossible these days, so they have a big impact every race but they’ll be a little busier Sunday night than most.”

IS SHORT-PITTING AN OPTION? “I don’t know the answer to that when the tires are all the same speed. I see an advantage to that at Darlington, but I don’t see any advantage to that here that I can think of.”

WILL IT STILL BE LIKE TWO DIFFERENT RACES STARTING IN DAYLIGHT AND ENDING AT NIGHT? “It usually is. This place is still real slippery during the day and it gets a lot of grip at night, so I think it’ll still be like that, especially with the pavement being new. When it’s real dark like that, it absorbs a lot more of the sunlight and changes the asphalt a little more, so I think it’ll be a lot different at night than it will during the day.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT JIMMIE WINNING ON THREE DIFFERENT SURFACES HERE? “Yeah, I sort of touched on it before. I think that’s the most amazing thing about all the races they’ve won here in the last three or four years is that the last three years the surface has been different every year and they’ve been able to win under every configuration and that’s a pretty amazing feat.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE KEY TO THEIR SUCCESS HAS BEEN? “I don’t really know, honestly. If I had some idea how they were figuring it out and what they were doing, I’d try to do it. They’ve just got a really strong team. They really run good everywhere. They have their time here or there where they maybe miss it, but they’ve really been the guy to beat for the championship the last three years in a row, in my opinion. Even though they haven’t won one, they’ve been there. Overall, if you were to take an average of the year, they’re probably the strongest team the last three years. They run good all the time no matter what the rules are and no matter what track we’re at.”

WHAT CHALLENGE DOES THE DRIVER HAVE WITH SO MANY PIT STOPS SUNDAY? “Under green it’s a big deal. You saw in the all-star race when we pitted under green they had a couple of cars spin out and wreck, and that was the first pit stop we did under green here so it’s a big deal. It’s hard to get on the pit road. The speed line is so far back that you have to get slowed up really early and that almost makes it worse on the track. You can’t carry any speed onto pit road, so that means you’re going that much slower in a groove that everybody else is in going that much faster. So it can get mixed up and there can be some accidents getting onto pit road for sure, so that’s something to pay attention to and try to find a time to pit when maybe it’s not quite as busy.”

HOW CHALLENGING IS IT? CAN YOU TELL WHEN PEOPLE ARE SIGNALING? “It’s harder and harder these days with the setups you run and big rear springs, even though the spoilers are shorter it’s harder and harder to see them. Everybody is pretty good about that and you have a general idea. When you’re getting down there on gas you know they’re getting down there, too.”

JIMMIE GOT A SPEEDING TICKET SATURDAY, BUT HE WAS ABOUT TO GET HIT FROM BEHIND. WAS THAT A BAD CALL OR NOT? “It’s black and white. It’s all computerized timing. If you’re speeding, you’re speeding. If you’re not, you’re not. That’s a pretty good one, saying you’re about to get hit from behind, but I don’t think that’s gonna cut it. It’s black and white.”

DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING SATURDAY? “I don’t think I learned a lot. We were better than what we tested, but we weren’t near good enough to win, so we probably did learn some. We maybe got a little better and maybe eliminated a few things we tried that didn’t work – a few things like that – but overall it wasn’t as productive as I hoped it would be. But we really struggled here in the test and, for some reason, our car has been struggling with this tire and the combination of asphalt and all that stuff. The paving job is awesome, but I’ve just been struggling with the combination a little bit. Our Busch car has been running really good, but we’ve struggled with our Cup car. We have gotten it a little bit better, but we’ve still got a long ways to go.”

A LOT OF LONG TERM CONTRACTS HAVE BEEN SIGNED RECENTLY, INCLUDING YOU. WHAT CHALLENGES GO WITH SIGNING A LONG TERM DEAL? “I think it can go either way. The owner is taking a risk by taking the driver, too, because anything can happen. I think everybody in their own situation has to analyze the situation they’re in and what they’re comfortable with or not comfortable with and make their own decisions. I think the thing has worked. It kind of works in cycles it seems like a lot of times by us. We started off and had really good stuff and ran good, and then we didn’t run good for a year and a half, and then we ran pretty good again. It kind of works in cycles and I think it’s wherever somebody is comfortable and wherever they think that the guys will give them what they need to win.”

ARE GUYS SIGNING LONGER CONTRACTS THAN A FEW YEARS AGO? “I don’t really notice a difference. Maybe I don’t pay that much attention, I don’t know. I know Jimmie just signed that kind of long term deal, but if you think about it they had that big thing where Jeff signed his lifetime contract three or four years ago, so I think Hendrick has kind of been known for that when he gets a marquee driver like Jeff and Jimmie and he knows he wants them to stay there until they retire because they’ve done so much. What Jimmie has done in a few years is just incredible, so I don’t blame either one of them for that.”

THERE SEEMS TO BE A SHORTAGE OF DRIVERS FOR GOOD SEATS NOW. ARE THERE GUYS IN THE BUSCH SERIES THAT ARE READY AND JUST NOT GETTING A CHANCE OR IS THERE A SHORTAGE IN TALENT? “I think there are drivers all over the place that could do it and do a great job at it, I think it’s just hard to figure out who that’s gonna be. It might not be the obvious choice. It might be somebody that you don’t even think of, and then there might be an obvious choice that might not do as good as they were expected. A couple of years ago you never heard of Denny Hamlin and he’s doing great. I didn’t know who Carl (Edwards) was a few years ago, so it’s hard to say. There are tons of drivers out there, it’s just trying to figure out who they are and where they’ll fit in.”

ANYBODY YOU CAN THINK OF THAT COMES TO MIND WHO IS READY? “I haven’t really thought about it. I’ve been worried about myself and trying to run good. I’m not looking for a replacement (laughing). That’s the last thing I want to do is find more good drivers (laughing). There are a lot of talented guys. I don’t have a good example for you, but there is a lot of them.”

Elliott Sadler, driver of the No. 38 M&M’s Ford Fusion in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series and the No. 90 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion in the NASCAR Busch Series, spoke about the recent changes at Robert Yates Racing and his future with the company.

ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 38 M&M’s Ford Fusion – WE DIDN’T THINK YOU WERE GOING TO BE BACK IN THE BUSCH CAR? “We sat down as a company this week, Robert and I and Doug, and figured out what’s the best way or the best possibility of getting the 38 in contention in the Nextel Cup Series – back into trying to run in the top 10 and back into trying to make the chase. One way of doing that is to get practice in the Busch car. What we’ve tried to do this week is set our Busch cars up just like our Cup cars and now we’ve got Raymond Fox going back and forth between the two teams keeping good notes – something we were not doing before – and if that takes putting me back in the Busch car and running more races and kind of putting our development program, not on hold but just slowing it down a little bit, then that’s what we need to do because the bread and butter right now at Robert Yates Racing is getting those two Cup teams competitive. As a driver, I want to get more top 10s. As an owner, Robert Yates wants to get more top 10s, so that’s why we decided this week and had some major changes in the shop. We just want to be more competitive. We want to be more competitive when we show up at the race track, and I think we’re looking at this as maybe a way to make that happen is getting back in the Busch car and running more laps, but using it more as a sister car to my 38 cars than just a Busch car that we’re not using any notes off of.”

WILL RAYMOND BE ON THE PIT BOX FOR CUP RACES? “Raymond will be on the pit box for the Cup races and helping Tommy some. Raymond has been a part of my crew now for three or three-and-a-half years, so he understands my language a lot and what I’m asking for, and he’s gonna really try to go back and forth and help both teams a lot. Raymond has been a part of this company a long time and knows it better than anyone, so we’re kind of putting him in a bigger role to try to help our Cup program.”

THERE WAS TALK LAST WEEK THAT TOMMY WAS OUT. WHAT’S UP WITH THAT? “I did not hear that. Somebody came and asked me that when I walked in the garage last week and I have no idea where that came from. That hasn’t even been an issue. There hasn’t been any talk, so I’m not sure where that came from.”

FROM THE OUTSIDE IT APPEARS THINGS ARE CHAOTIC AT RYR. WHAT’S IT LIKE ON THE INSIDE? “I don’t think it’s chaotic, we’re all working really, really hard and trying to make progress. We’ve stumbled a couple times here in the last few weeks and haven’t run as good as we’d like, so we’re making changes and race teams do that. I love driving for Robert Yates because he’s not afraid to make changes. I don’t think there’s a lot of chaos going on from the inside, I think we’re just switching some people around and putting them in different positions and trying to make the organization a little bit better, so we’re kind of putting everybody in their strong points. Being that I’ve worked with Raymond for three-and-a-half years and putting him back on the box to help Tommy and kind of work back and forth to maybe give us some better communication than what we’ve been having.”

WHAT IS YOUR FEELING ON THE LOSS OF EDDIE D’HONDT? “I think that’s tough. I think Eddie was a great general manager and I think he did a great job for Robert Yates Racing, and I think he’s a great spotter for Dale, and he was really spearheading this development program for the Busch Series. I just think when things are going tough and you’re not running as well as you would like, the owners of the company probably want to put it more back in their hands and make some decisions on their own. You’ve got to understand that. It’s Robert Yates Racing on the side of the building and he wants to run good. He’s a very competitive man, so I think he just kind of wants to get back and get back in the middle of everything and get back to making decisions and being part of a great day-to-day program, so I just think that’s where that shake up came from. I enjoyed working with Eddie when he was here and would give him a great recommendation to anybody who would like to hire him.”

YOUR NAME KEEPS COMING UP IN THE RUMOR MILL AND THAT YOU’RE UNHAPPY. WHERE DOES THAT STAND? “I’m not unhappy, I’m just frustrated with the way we’ve been running. That is two different scenarios. There’s a difference in being unhappy and being frustrated. I’m frustrated just because I want to run good. I’m a very competitive person. I feel like we’ve got a top 10 team. I feel like our sponsors deserve to run in the top 10, so I’m frustrated with not giving it to them. As far as working with Tommy and working with the guys, I’ve got a great bunch of guys around me. I love them a lot. I love working with them and want to continue to do so. I’ve been reading stuff about ‘contract this and contract that’ and I haven’t even looked at my contract. I don’t think that’s important. Yes, I do have an out if I want an out, but who cares? I want to get this team running. My responsibility is to put that 38 car up front each and every week and I understand, I’m a grown man, I understand that if I don’t run good right now, we’re gonna have a hard time getting a good driver to come over to Robert Yates Racing. I’ve got to pretty much put this company on my shoulders, go out and run good each and every week, and make us look very competitive. We’re gonna do more testing. I’m gonna run more Busch races. I’m gonna be in a race car as much as I can in the next couple of months until we get this stuff figured out.”

ARE OTHER PEOPLE TALKING TO YOU? “I have not gotten any offers from anybody. You all make sure you write this down and give it to everybody. No team has offered me any contract, any money, any situation at all. I can look at every one of you with a straight face and tell you that.”

WHEN DO YOU HAVE TO DECIDE IF YOU’VE GOT AN OUT? “I don’t know. Like I said, I haven’t really looked at it. It’s not important to me. Robert gave me a job a couple of years ago when I needed one and I have given him my promise that we’re gonna work our butts off the next couple months to try to get this race team back to where it needs to be.”

HOW MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE ARE YOU WITH THE TRACK AND THE TIRE HERE? “The track is tough. I’m sure you all have cameras and can pick up all the wrecks that are in here. This tire is so, so hard and when there’s no rubber down on the track it makes it very, very slick, so a lot of guys are probably just trying to go too fast and caused some wrecks. I think once some rubber gets down it will be better. I hope we don’t get any rain the rest of the weekend and we should be OK.”

WILL RACING AT NIGHT AND COOLER TEMPS HELP? “I think it will. We need more rubber down. Track position is gonna be very important. It has nothing to do with Lowe’s Motor Speedway. We’ve seen this the last five years. Every time we go to a new race track or a place that has a new surface, it’s more of a one-groove race track than a two-groove race track. There’s more of a track position importance than not a track position importance. It has nothing to do with this race track, I just think it’s the element of having new asphalt.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS OF DALE JARRETT AS A DRIVER? “I think the world of Dale Jarrett. One, he’s a great, great friend of mine. I wish him well. I think he’s a great driver. He understands the race car very well. He doesn’t tear up a lot of equipment. He’s very consistent and I think he’s a good driver. I can still see the fire in eyes. I still see it when he’s happy and when he’s unhappy. No matter what his age or whatever is going on he’s a great competitor. I’m happy for him in the decision he made as a friend. I’m disappointed that I’ve lost a great teammate like that. It’s gonna be very hard to replace him, but I wish him well.”

SO YOUR PLAN IS TO COME BACK NEXT YEAR? “I do. I plan to come back. I think it’s my duty. I love my sponsor. They take care of me very well. I’ve loved working with Robert and Doug and they have pretty much taken the company back in their arms and in their control and they want to make things happen. They don’t like running the way we’ve been running. We’ve got a bunch of great guys over there and they are working their butts off. We’ve just had a frustrating couple of months, but it’s not from a lack of effort and not from a lack of hard work. We’ve got a lot of testing to do. We’ve got a lot of stuff we’ve got to find out. We’ve been in Nashville all week. We’ve got to go back to Nashville next week. We’re gonna continue to test each and every week until we get this stuff figured out and that’s pretty much the promise we’ve all made each other.”

SO DO YOU FEEL YOU’RE THE LEAD DOG IN THIS ORGANIZATION NOW? “I know that I’m the man at Robert Yates Racing and I have a lot of mouths to feed. That’s what I’m looking at each and every time I get in the race car. I’ve got to run good each and every weekend because I know my guys back in the shop are working their butts off and trying as hard as they can to make things happen. I’ve got to be a good race car driver. I’ve got to be a smart race car driver and I’ve got to put it on my shoulders. I’m looking forward to the challenge. I think it’s gonna be fun. Tommy and I, it’s on his shoulders too. We know we’ve got to go out and run good each and every weekend and we think we can.”

WILL YOU GET MORE OF WHAT YOU WANT? “It’s never been an issue of getting what we want, now we just feel our backs are to the wall. We need to run good. If it takes where we’ve got to cut a car up and work on it all night long and burn the midnight oil, then that’s something we’ve got to do. That’s what we did to get my Cup car ready for here today. The guys worked on it for the last 36 hours straight because it’s not the same car we thought we were bringing. This is a lot more competitive car than what we thought we had, so that’s the effort my guys are putting into it and we’ll see what the results show this weekend.”

HOW MUCH URGENCY DO YOU FEEL TO GET IN THE CHASE? “I feel urgent now because I think the guys in front of me racing for the chase are not gonna slip. Those guys are gonna get top 15 finishes. We need to get top 10 finishes, top 12 finishes. If we could average a top 12 finish the next 15 races, we will make the chase. We know that as a team and that’s what we’re gonna try to do, but we need to start here now. We run very well at Charlotte and have in the past, so this is a place we can get our company and our situation turned around in a hurry, and it only takes one race to change things. Greg Biffle is a perfect example. He’s been running great all year long with terrible luck. He goes to Richmond and pretty much has a great race and the next thing you know he wins the next week out. It doesn’t take but one race in this sport to get things turned around going in the right direction and right now the next-best opportunity to do that is the next race on the schedule and that’s here in the Coca-Cola 600.”

ARE YOU PUTTING TOO MUCH PRESSURE ON YOURSELF? “I don’t think so. I want to run good, too. I came over here to run good and finish in the top 10 in points. That’s the reason I made the move from where I was to come here and I want to make that happen the best way I can and put all my effort into it and go from there.”