Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Fusion, heads into tomorrow’s Pocono 500 in second place in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup standings, 74 points off the pace. Kenseth, who has eight top-five finishes in the first 13 races, has been no lower than third in the standings since the second week of the season. Kenseth, with a late pass, won at Dover last week for his second victory of the season and 12th of his career.

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Fusion – WHY HAVE SO MANY GOOD TEAMS AND DRIVERS GONE THIS FAR INTO THE SEASON WITHOUT A VICTORY? IS IT THAT DIFFICULT? “Yeah, it is really difficult to win. There’s only one guy that can win the race on Sunday, and there’s 42 of them that can’t. It’s gotten more competitive, the rules are tighter than they’ve ever been, it’s harder for a team to get an advantage. It’s always been hard to win and it’s not getting any easier.”

POCONO IS A UNIQUE TRACK. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO QUALIFY NEAR THE FRONT? “Five hundred miles here is like forever and there’s quite a few pit stops because you use a lot of gas here, and I think you’re on pit road here every 30-something laps. You always like to qualify upfront every week, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t. It is a long race, there’s a big pit road and a lot of pit stops.”

WHAT ABOUT PIT SELECTION HERE? “It’s important here for probably different reasons than other tracks. A lot of pit stalls here are real not flat – there’s big potholes, and there’s asphalt broken up and there’s big humps in some of the pit stalls. They’re all interesting, so this is one of the pit roads that we try to survey probably more closely than others.”

AS FAR AS THE CORNERS AT POCONO ARE CONCERNED, A NUMBER OF DRIVERS SAY THEY TRY TO GET TWO OF THEM WORKING PRETTY GOOD AND SACRIFICE THE THIRD. HOW DOES THE 17 TEAM APPROACH THE CORNERS HERE? “Maybe that’s been my problem; I’ve always tried to get all three of them working good. I don’t know. They’re all unique, but I think you’ve got to get your car the best you can in all of them.”

HORSEPOWER – DO YOU FEEL GOOD FROM THAT STANDPOINT? “Oh, yeah. Yates, since Doug’s been involved in the engines, the engines have been awesome, so the Roush-Yates engines have been really good. But a lot of it, what makes the engines look better is when you get through the corners better, too, or vice-versa, you can have a good engine and not be getting through, not getting off turn three good or something like that, and it won’t look as good, either.”

WHAT DID LAST WEEK’S WIN DO FOR THE TEAM? “It felt good because there were a few races this year that we came really close to winning and we lost right at the end, so it felt good to win one right at the end, for sure.”

THIS TRACK IS DIFFERENT FROM WHAT THE SERIES HAS BEEN ON. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT RACING ON THIS TRACK AT THIS POINT IN THE SEASON? “It’s okay. There was more going on when you used to shift, so there’s not as much going on. I think it’s a fun track, it’s been around forever. I think it could be a little smaller and the racing might be just as good or better – here’s a lot of times sitting on the straightaways here, that’s for sure. But it’s a unique track and you got to have everything working right here. There’s new asphalt through the tunnel now, and turn one is real, real bumpy and the tunnel turn is real smooth. Everything is a little different here, so it’s always kind of a compromise and your always working on your car.”

WITHOUT SHIFTING HERE NOW, IS THIS A RACE WHERE SOME DRIVERS COULD “DRIFT OFF” A LITTLE BIT BECAUSE THERE’S LESS TO DO? “It depends on how you’re running. I’ve had problems here before – broke a transmission, stuff like that – and been 20 laps down, and that was a pretty boring two or three hours. But when you’re racing people, and you’re racing side-by-side, and you’re trying to catch people, and you’re getting everything you can get out of it, you still have to pay a lot of attention. You’re going real fast here and you’ve got to hit all your marks just right.”

ON HIS START TO THE SEASON. “I think we’ve had a strong start, and I think we’ve been able to keep up that momentum, so that’s good. We can only be one spot better, so I’m very happy with where we’re at.”

HOW DID SHIFTING HERE HELP? “I don’t know if it really helped you, but you had a little bit of a option on gear ratios and you could do some different things. Right now you’re kind of locked into the same things. So, it’s just kind of evened everybody out a little bit. It made everything that much more important, getting through the middle of the corner, because you can’t get an advantage on somebody with gear ratios or anything like that so it’s just kind of evened everybody up a little bit more.”

FOR YEARS, EVERYONE SAID THE TUNNEL TURN WAS THE TOUGHEST TURN. IS IT STILL? “I don’t know. They’re all tough. To me, the tunnel’s always kind of been my favorite turn. It’s a little faster, and you carry momentum through there and it’s always been fun. They’re all tough for me. The way we’re running these days, turn one’s probably one of the tougher ones. It’s pretty bumpy and the car travels, it bounces around a lot more than the rest of the track.”

IF YOU GET A BAD RUN THROUGH TURN THREE, WHAT DOES THAT DO TO YOU HEADING INTO THE LONG STRAIGHTAWAY? “You usually get passed by a bunch of cars. You’ve got to carry your momentum off of there; if you don’t, you’re going to be slow all the way down the frontstretch.”

DO YOU RUN OUT OF STEAM GOING DOWN THE FRONTSTRETCH? “You never run out, but you’ll never get caught back up if you don’t get off of three. It’s real important to get off that corner, but it’s important to get off all the corners, all the straightaways, even the short stretch, they’re all pretty long, really, relative to other race tracks.”

HEADING INTO THE SUMMER PORTION OF THE SEASON, THERE WILL BE ONLY TWO NIGHT RACES. WITH THE HEAT IN THE SUMMER, WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE MORE NIGHT RACES? “I like Saturday night races. As long as they’re Saturday night and not Sunday night, I think it’s great for the fans. A lot of them don’t have to miss as much work, they can travel back home on Sundays, our crews can get home late Saturday night and be home with their families on Sundays a little bit. I think Saturday night races are kind of a winning situation for everybody. It’s a little cooler, I think it’s a more fun atmosphere for the fans being at the track, so I like Saturday night races.”

SONOMA IS AROUND THE CORNER. PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SAYING THERE SHOULD BE ROAD-COURSE RACE IN THE CHASE. SHOULD THERE BE MORE ROAD-COURSE RACING? “I’d like to see less. I think Sonoma – I love going out there, it’s a great area of the country, but I think it would be a great place to put a really nice three-quarter-mile or mile oval. I think it would be awesome. Road-coursing is okay, but it’s not really what we do, it’s a very small percentage of what we do. So I don’t think there needs to be one in the Chase or really needs to be more. If there was, I guess it would be okay, but it’s not really a huge part of what we do.”

YOU’VE WON 12 RACES NOW IN THE SERIES, AND ONE COULD IMAGINE THAT THE NEWNESS MAY HAVE WORN OFF. HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU GET TO REALLY ENJOY A VICTORY DURING THE SEASON BEFORE YOU START THINKING ABOUT THE NEXT RACE? “It depends. You’re always a ways ahead of time, you’ve got your stuff built up ahead of time, you’re always thinking about the next week. But, it certainly never gets old. We race so much and to be able to win one of those races is just really hard to do and it’s just an awesome feeling to win one every time you can win one, that’s for sure. So, I think as I get older, as I see how hard it is, and as you look at the younger guys coming up and realize you’re kind of in the middle of the pack as far as age, I think every one is almost more exciting.”

HOW DID THE LAST FEW LAPS OF LAST WEEK’S RACE THAT YOU WON LOOK FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT? DID IT LOOK LIKE IT WAS GOING TO UNFOLD FOR YOU THE WAY IT DID? “I was hoping, but you never really know. It would’ve been a little harder to catch those guys, but Kevin [Harvick] and Jamie [McMurray] got running side-by-side and that’s when I was able to catch up. Everything just kind of worked out right, we were in the right place at the right time and our car was working real good in the long run and we got the 50-lap run that we needed, so it was pretty cool to come from behind and pass a couple guys right there at the end. That was pretty exciting.”