Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Power Tools Fusion, will start a season-best fourth in tomorrow night’s race. Kenseth, one of three Roush racing drivers to qualify in the top five, has a victory and two second-place finishes through the first seven races of the season, and is in second place in the standings.

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Power Tools Fusion – (IN REFERENCE TO THE RECENT CHANGES AT ROUSH RACING, WHICH DID NOT INVOLVE THE 17 TEAM), DO YOU FEEL MORE PRESSURE THIS EARLY IN THE SEASON BECAUSE OF THE CHASE FORMAT? “I don’t know. Last year at this time I don’t know where I was in the points, 26th or 21st or something like that, and we didn’t change a thing. We had the same group together. Jimmy [Fennig] just won a championship two years ago, so it’s not like Jimmy forgot how to work on race cars. I don’t know why they decided to do it or what they’re thinking was or why all that stuff got moved. I really honestly don’t. I know in our situation we weren’t doing anything different than the year before or the year before that, we just had to keep working through it and figure out how we could get things turned around.”

WHY HAVE THINGS WORKED SO WELL BETWEEN YOU AND CREW CHIEF ROBBIE REISER? “Probably the same reasons it’s worked from the beginning. We work hard at it. We get along well. We trust each other. We both try to keep a fairly open mind and we work together on things. When things go bad we don’t both stand in separate corners and point at each other and blame each other, we just work together on it and try to keep everybody involved and work hard at it and try figure out what the problem is and address it.”

YOU’VE WON HERE IN THE PAST (2002) BUT HAVE STRUGGLED IN THE PAST THREE TRIPS, FINISHING OUTSIDE THE TOP 30… “We ran really well here. This is a really, really fun track. I really enjoy coming here. If you go all the way back to three races ago, we blew an engine and couldn’t really do anything about that. Last year we were running third or fourth and had a part break and ended up blowing the right-front tire, and last fall we were running in the top five and had a brake-caliper seal go bad, so it’s been dumb things that have happened to us, but we’ve performed really well, so I feel confident coming here. So far, my car, I’m really happy with it. It’s a, hopefully, at least a top-10 car and we can figure out the right things to do with it to be a contender. We’ve just had problems finishing. He haven’t really had problems running competitively, we’ve just had problems finishing.”

IS THERE A ROUSH WAY OF DOING THINGS TO WHICH A NEW DRIVER WOULD HAVE TO ADAPT? “I don’t think so. It’s a little different whenever you switch teams because of personnel and stuff like that, but I think each team is kind of its own individual team and you can work it however you want to work it.”

YOU GOT OFF TO A FAST START THIS SEASON. CAN THAT SET THE TONE FOR THE SEASON? “I hope so. You always hope that. It’s important to have a strong start – although last year we had a real slow start and still came back from it and finished the year off pretty strong. But I think it’s important to get a strong start. It has everybody fired up. It makes the year, in a way, shorter. It makes everybody stay enthused and kind of gives you a lot of incentive, you know, you’re up there in the points and you’re contending for race wins every week, you just want to do that little extra to get over the top there and be able to win a race or maybe get the point leader or get up in there. So I definitely think that it helps everybody’s enthusiasm and keeps our energy level high.”

ABOUT A QUARTER OF THE WAY THROUGH THE SEASON, HOW IS THE MOOD ON THIS TEAM? “I don’t think that it can be much better. Yeah, there’s a couple of them that we’ve been in contention to win that we let slip away from us, but the main thing is we’ve been in contention to win. I don’t think it can much better. Everybody’s pretty fired up right now.”

WILL YOU SPEND ANY EXTRA ATTENTION TO THE BUSCH BROTHERS, WHO HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL AT THIS TRACK, OR DO YOU TREAT THEM LIKE THE OTHER 40 COMPETITORS? “You always try to size up the competition and try to make your car better than the competition. I think they’ll be two of the guys to beat. Kurt runs really well here; he always has. I think he qualified pretty good. And Kyle won the last race here and is on the pole, so those guys both run really well here. I’m sure they have some experience here in Southwest Series Tour cars and stuff like that. Both those guys run really good year, but they run pretty good everywhere. Both of those guys are really talented and they figure out how to run out front at most tracks.”

Wally Brown makes his No. 99 Office Depot Fusion crew chief debut in tomorrow night’s Subway Fresh 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. Brown, who was the chief engineer for the No. 6 AAA Fusion, was named crew chief last week, replacing Bob Osborne, who moved over to the No. 26 Crown Royal Fusion.

WALLY BROWN – crew chief, No 99 Office Depot Fusion – WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND? “I was with Roush since 2002. I came aboard as a design engineer, actually, and then moved on to take Bob Osborne’s job as Mark Martin’s race engineer, and then when Bob became crew chief (of the 99) I took Bob’s job as the head engineer.”

DID YOU KNOW WHEN YOU TOOK THE OTHER JOB THAT IT COULD LEAD TO BECOMING A CREW CHIEF? “It was always a possibility down the road, but this was total surprise at this time.”

WAS THIS A BIG SURPRISE? “Yes, it was a real big surprise at this time, especially at this part of the season.”

WHAT WERE YOUR DUTIES BEFORE THIS? WERE YOU WITH THE TEAM ON THE ROAD? ON THE PIT BOX? “No, my primary job was to make sure all the engineers had the tools they needed each weekend – you know, simulation tools, tire date, the right aero data, always working on new parts and new projects. So, it was kind of more global over all the teams, not so much hands-on on a day-to-day basis like this.”

IS IT HARD TO LEAVE THAT, AND NOT LOOK AT WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE THROUGH THAT JOB? “Yeah. Jim Ryder is taking my place, who was the engineering manager in Mooresville, so there’s going to be a transitional period where we’re all going to have to work together. But, of course, that’s in the back of my mind.”

DID JACK ROUSH ASK YOU WHETHER YOU WANTED TO BE A CREW CHIEF, OR DID HE SAY, “YOU’RE THE CREW CHIEF OF THE 99”? “We had a meeting and he pretty much laid out a plan to everyone and said, ‘This is what we’re going to do, guys. Break!’ So, that’s how it happened.”

SO, DID YOU FIND OUT WITH THE GROUP, OR DID HE PULL YOU ASIDE AND TELL YOU BEFOREHAND? “It was in a group-type deal.”

WHAT WERE YOUR FIRST THOUGHTS? “I thought it was crazy. He’s done changes before and they’ve been real successful. I guess he felt like he needed to move some people around, so I accept the challenge and we’ll see how it goes.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU WHEN JACK ROUSH SHOWS THAT MUCH BELIEF IN YOU? “It means a tremendous amount. I have the utmost respect for Jack and what he’s accomplished throughout his career, it’s amazing. So, it makes me feel real good.”

YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVEN’T SPENT MUCH TIME WITH CARL, BUT IN THE DAY AND A HALF SO FAR, HOW HAS THE COMMUNICATION BEEN BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU? “Pretty good. He’s an intense guy. I mean, he wants to win every lap, he wants to be the fastest guy every practice. If he’s not the fastest, he wants to know why, what are we doing wrong or what do we need to go better. He’s always pushing for the whole team.”

HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS THIS JOB? YOU HAVE A YOUNG, SMART DRIVER WHO HAS PROVEN TRACK RECORD… “If you were to pick out a chance to go crew chief a team -- which would it be? -- this would be in the top three or four, for sure. That’s a real comforting feeling for me, but at the same time, it means I’m the weakest link at this point.”

WHAT ABOUT THE “UNCOMFORTABLE” PARTS OF THE JOB? IT’S MUCH HIGHER IN PROFILE… “Obviously, it’s a new experience and you’re not used to it, but it’s just like anything else, you just got to do it, and after a couple of times you do it you get more comfortable and more confidence. No problem.”

ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING TOMORROW NIGHT’S RACE TO BE OVER AND GET A RACE UNDER YOUR BELT? “Yeah. I’m looking forward to it. I figure it’s going to a couple of weeks to get used to it. There’s just so much piled on to you all at once, but we’ve got a good support group here and everyone’s been real helpful – all the crew chiefs, the engineers. It’s been manageable. Plus, Jack says he’s going on the pit box tomorrow, so that’ll be exciting.”

OBVIOUSLY, THERE ARE THINGS YOU HAVEN’T DONE BEFORE. WHO’S LEADING YOU AND TELLING YOU WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE WHEN? “It’s pretty well laid out and organized. It’s not that bad. Just from being around all these years, you just pay attention and a lot of it just comes natural from just being around.”

ARE YOU SLEEPING WELL? “Oh, yeah. I sleep good. Just working a lot more hours, that’s for sure.”