Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Fusion, heads into this weekend’s race in second place in the standings, 51 points behind the leader. He has two victories and leads the series with 10 top-five finishes through the season’s first 18 races. Last week at Chicagoland Speedway, he was in the lead in the closing laps only to be bumped out of the way. He subsequently ran out of fuel and ended up in 22nd place. Kenseth met with reporters this morning in the infield media center at New Hampshire International Speedway.

HAVE YOU AND JEFF GORDON TALKED ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK?

“Yeah, he came and talked to me after the test on Tuesday, so I talked to him a little bit.”

HAVE YOU GONE BACK AND LOOKED AT IT AND STILL FEEL THAT IT’S INTENTIONAL?

“Oh, yeah.”

DRIVERS SOMETIMES SAY THAT WHAT HAPPENS ON THE TRACK IS FORGOTTEN AND THE FOCUS IS THEN ON THE NEXT RACE…

“Yeah, obviously it didn’t work like that. I talked to him. He basically told me in so many words that he didn’t mean to spin me out, but did he mean to hit me? Yeah. Did he mean to hit me that hard? No. So, I guess he was upset on that re-start. I kind of blocked him, which, he was hanging back more than a car length, which is actually technically a rule – they tell us every driver’s meeting, if you hang back more than a car length you’re going to be black-flagged, and to my knowledge nobody has ever been even told about it or black-flagged or anything, so I had to block my re-start because I felt like he hung way back and I knew I could get away in a couple of laps and I thought that was kind of a cheap way to pass somebody, by holding back, which a lot of people do because they never enforce it. And he was mad because he got taken out at Bristol, which I thought was a little different – he moved me out of the way to start with and it was the last lap and he blocked me on the frontstretch and I was right on him trying to get underneath him and barely touched his car and he spun out at a half-mile track. So he told me he wasn’t going to cut me a break and he was going to get up on me and try to move me up the track and move me out of the way, which I guess that’s what happened. I don’t know that he meant to spin me out, but yet I’ve never been ran into or ran into somebody at a mile-and-a-half race track somewhere that fast, 180 miles an hour, and not spun out. I’ve never seen somebody knock somebody out of the way at a mile-an-a-half track and not wreck, so I guess that’s about the summary.”

THIS IS A PART OF THE SCHEDULE WHERE SOME DRIVERS, LIKE YOU, ARE IN THE CHASE, BUT OTHER DRIVERS MIGHT BE MORE DESPERATE AND MIGHT MAKE MORE DESPERATE MOVES…

“I don’t think so. If I was him and I was 10th and on the bubble, I wouldn’t want to make somebody mad, you know what I mean? Finishing second to finishing first, which, he would’ve passed me anyway, he was three-tenths at the end of the run. He would’ve driven right around me the next corner. If I was in the position I would do just the opposite. I’d make sure I got the best finish I could get that day, and didn’t wreck somebody and take a chance of getting it back and not being in the top 10. I guess I would think of it the other way around.”

IN GENERAL, THOUGH, ARE THERE TIMES WHEN DESPERATE DRIVERS ARE MAKING DESPERATE MOVES?

“I don’t think so. I haven’t really though about it like that. I think to get the most points you try to win and leads laps and finish the best you can. It’s easier not to get in than to get in is what I’m trying to say. You do a desperate move and take yourself from fourth or third to last, you’re not going to make it. I would look at it the other way around. I would try to keep my stuff clean and get the best finishes the best that I could if I was trying to get in like we were last year. We ran hard the last 10 races to get in, but yet we made sure we got the best finish we could get every week.”

SHOULD NASCAR COME DOWN ON THAT ACTIVITY HARDER, AND, IRONICALLY, DO YOU THINK THAT THINGS LIKE THAT IS GOOD FOR THE SPORT BECAUSE EVERYBODY IS TALKING ABOUT THE RIVALRY NOW?

“I think it’s really exciting to watch. For me, it’s very hard to understand, and figure out, how NASCAR works – what’s okay, what’s not okay, what’s going to be a penalty, what’s not. I don’t know. After our Bristol thing they put him on probation, they got us both in the trailer and say, ‘You guys stay away from each other, I know that there’s probably a little bad blood,’ and I talked to Jeff about it, what happened from my perspective at Bristol, and they say that everything is okay but yet as soon as you get done with that the first word you hear is, oh, he got the bad end at Bristol, he got the bad end here. And there’s nothing done about it and it’s a mile-and-a-half race track at 180 miles an hour. I don’t really quite understand that always works, but I think any time there’s any kind of conflict – in which I don’t like being in any of it – but any other conflict when other people are in it, I think it’s interesting to watch. I look up on the internet and see what they’re saying about each other. I think it’s great for ratings and putting people in the stands. But the penalty thing and NASCAR’s stance and all that is very difficult for me to understand where the consistency is or what’s okay and what’s not okay. I don’t understand.”

IT IS A GRAY AREA, ISN’T IT?

“Yeah. I read Mr. Helton’s comments afterwards and he said it was a case of a slower being in front of a faster car and the fast car moved him out of the way, and acted like that was okay, so is that okay? Is that okay if somebody gets spun out at Michigan and gets hurt? Is that alright? And, it’s the closing laps – is that okay or not okay? Is not okay halfway through the race? I don’t really understand that so I probably need clarification.”

WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOU AND JEFF STAND RIGHT NOW?

“I don’t know. I thought after we talked about it at Bristol and we talked several times and I feel like I’ve tried to be pretty fair about it and give him a lot of room to race and all that stuff – I thought we were okay, but obviously we weren’t. So, I don’t know. I don’t think we’ll be going to dinner tonight. We talked about after Indy, but honestly when we talked about it it was kind of one of them things where he came over and apologized but wasn’t very apologetic, if you know what I mean. He almost acted like he was mad at me. I don’t know. I’m not going to go out here and really keep it on my mind and race different than I’ve ever raced, and take away from our goal. My team is doing a great job this year and to get caught up in something else and take away from your performance or to take away from goal of trying to get in the Chase and trying to win a championship would be silly, it wouldn’t help our team at all. I’m certainly going to let it go and just race as hard as we can. Are we buddies and is everything totally cool? Not really.”

MORE ON THE SITUATION.

“It’s something that you’re not going to forget, totally. It’s going to be on your mind a little bit, but you certainly have to try and you certainly have to let it go enough where it doesn’t affect your performance. You can’t be on the track, thinking about one car and looking at one car, you just have to go out there and race the competition and try to finish the best you can. When you start doing that it’s not productive and things are going to end up worse instead of better. Somebody’s got to be the man about it and forget about it and try to remember what’s most important, why we come to the track. We come to the track to try and win races and try to win championships. We don’t come to the track to try to hold a grudge on somebody or get even with somebody or do whatever. You’ve got to remember what it’s all about. It’s all about winning, it’s all about trying to win a championship, it’s all about being competitive and if you’re focused on something else I don’t think you’re going to do the best job you can at what you’re supposed to be doing.”

YOU AND JEFF ARE BOTH CHAMPIONS. DO YOU FEEL THAT PERHAPS YOU SHOULD BE SETTING AN EXAMPLE FOR THE OTHER DRIVERS IN THE FIELD?

“I think that everybody in the garage area is an equal. I think that everybody who has gotten here is a great driver. I think you could put – on days when my cars have been good and been winning, I think you could put pretty much anybody in there and probably have that result. I think everybody is a great race-car driver. I don’t think that we’re people to set examples and I don’t feel like people look at – I don’t even feel like I’m in the same group as Jeff anyway. Jeff’s kind of by himself and Tony and them guys are just awesome race-car drivers. We’ve had good stuff and I think we’ve done okay, but them guys are super-exceptional, so I don’t really put myself in that group. But I don’t think you really look up and say, Well, he does that so I should do it, or, He doesn’t do that so I shouldn’t do it. Everybody has their own driving style, and I’ve tried to base my driving style and some of my decisions off of what Mark Martin’s done over the years and some other drivers like that. Everybody’s got their own etiquette and their own style and they’ve got their own rules on what’s okay and what’s not okay. I think you have to be yourself, you have to do what you think is right at the end of the day and go from there.”

IN BASKETBALL, THERE WAS TALK OF THE JORDAN RULES. DOES THAT COME INTO PLAY HERE? WOULD THIS HAVE BEEN VIEWED DIFFERENTLY HAS IT BEEN, SAY, ROBBY GORDON INSTEAD OF JEFF GORDON?

“You’re putting me in a bad spot here. I think it’s very difficult – I feel like all the time everybody’s probably not judged all the same. I think NASCAR has a hard job and I think they do the best they can to be fair. But I certainly feel like sometimes being competitor it’s maybe not exactly the same for everybody, but I think they do a pretty good job at keeping it all level. Everybody needs to know their spot, and I certainly know where I am and where my spot is in the sport, and everybody’s got to understand that and live with that. It’s a great, great sport to be part of and I think it’s judged pretty darn fairly, really, if you look over the top of everything, so that’s about it.”

WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOUR SPOT IS?

“It’s hard to say. It’s hard for me to explain to you totally what I mean by that. But everybody knows their spot, no matter where you’re working. Everybody knows what they are and where they fit in to the group, and I definitely know where mine is.”

DO YOU PLAN ON RACING WITH JEFF GORDON ANY DIFFERENTLY FROM NOW ON? AND SOME WILD THINGS HAPPENED AT THIS TRACK LAST SEPTEMBER? DO YOU SEE SIMILAR THINGS HAPPENING THIS TIME?

“I don’t know. I just hope whatever happens this weekend I’m not involved in it. I’d much rather being sitting here talking about a win or talking about getting a lot points or something like that than to be talking about this kind of stuff, so I hope I’m not involved in that if it is a crazy race. This race track, I remember the race here in July, it was awesome, with Tony and Ryan, that was a great race, watching it. The track’s been putting out a lot better race. As far as racing Jeff, I’m not going to race any different. I’m going to race the way I’ve always raced and I think the way my driving style is, I don’t think I should change that. I think I should race everybody the same as I always have and try to get the best finish we can. I think when you get caught up in that, again, it’s not productive. I think saying, Oh, Jeff’s catching me so I’m going to race him 10 times as hard, you run side-by-side and you lose three-tenths to the leader instead of letting him get out of your way and losing one-tenth to the leader. That’s not productive for either. I don’t think you can really get into that. I think you. I think you need to just move on and focus on what’s important.”

HOW DIFFICULT A JOB DOES NASCAR HAVE IN DETERMINING WHAT WAS ON PURPOSE AND WHAT WAS AN ACCIDENT?

“I think it’s all fine as long as it’s the same for everybody. I think that’s fine. And a lot of times you say things and don’t mean exactly what your quote was and what comes out. I’ve read some of the quotes and I haven’t talked to anybody yet, but I’ve read Mr. Helton’s quotes and basically, I weeded through that, but that’s okay in the final few laps. If the car behind you is faster than the car in front of him, that’s okay. Well, I don’t know so much about that. But if that’s okay and that’s the way works, then, to race with everybody, that’s fine if that’s what the rule is. I think they do a pretty good job of judging the thing as objectively as they can. It’s a hard job. There’s a lot of things that are judgment calls. From the tower, how do they know whether it was on purpose or whether it was an accident. They have to judge that, look at that quickly, you know what I mean? It’s not like they get an hour to look over it and judge it, so they got to judge that pretty quickly, say, Hey, that was racing, that was the end of the race and they were going for it or the guy will say, No, it was intentional and somebody needs to get parked for it. That’s a hard job.”

MORE ON THE SITUATION.

“You’ve seen a lot of races end like that. Now, at a big track, I haven’t seen a lot of races end like that, but at short tracks you certainly have. I think it’s a whole new ballgame doing it at Chicago or places like that, that’s that fast, and maybe putting people maybe in more danger than you would at a shorter race track like this. But, it’s a tough call to make.”

CAN YOU CONRAST WHAT HAPPENED AT CHICAGO TO WHAT HAPPENED AT BRISTOL?

“It doesn’t matter because it was so long ago and it’s over, but I didn’t even mean to do that. First, I got knocked all the way from the lead, and second, he knocked me out of the way for third. Right then I got back in line and he drilled me getting into three and knocked me up the track and passed me, and I got back on him and I was going to try to pass him the last lap, but I certainly wasn’t going to hit him. And I probably hit him half as hard as he hit me at Bristol and he spun out. It was just bad timing, barely touched him, and I was trying to get by him on the last lap, so I think that’s quite a bit different. But everybody’s going to have their opinions about it.”

ON THE REPLAY, HE SEEMED TO CATCH YOU AWFULLY QUICKLY.

“Yeah, because I wasn’t in the gas yet, he was wide-open.”

WAS FUEL AN ISSUE FOR YOU AT THAT MOMENT?

“No. It was alright.”

THOUGHTS ON JUAN MONTOYA JOINING THE SERIES.

“It’s hard to say. Everybody adapts different and gets in different equipment and all that stuff. I’ve never watched a whole bunch of Formula racing that much, but obviously you’ve heard his name and he’s very talented and it’s a big name, not in the U.S. necessarily, but worldwide, so I think that’s really awesome for this sport. I think it’s a big compliment that somebody like that comes over and wants to do it.”

ON GORDON BEING ONE VICTORY BEHIND DALE EARNHARDT ON THE ALL-TIME LIST.

“I think it’s a big deal. I think anybody that can win that many races is a big deal. That’s a huge accomplishment. He’s done it with some different crew chiefs, he’s been at the same place a long time, but obviously Jeff Gordon is the face of NASCAR. He’s the guy. Tony and Dale, Jr., are, too, but Jeff is really the guy who has been here the longest and accomplished the most and probably does the best job all around for the sport as far running up front and winning and having a good, normal, clean sponsor. He looks good, he talks good. Jeff’s really the guy. I think he probably represents our sport better than anybody and I think when you think of NASCAR Nextel Cup racing, you think of Jeff Gordon. So I think him winning all of those races just legitimizes that even more. When Jeff’s not running as good or not having as good a year, you can kind of feel it. When he is and he’s winning, you can kind of tell. Everything’s normal.”

[Ford Racing]

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