Conversation: Matt Kenseth

NEW YORK -- Matt Kenseth is sitting on a comfy bench in the rear section of a respected Washington D.C. restaurant, sipping water and quipping one-liners as he awaits the arrival of a mammoth plate of turkey pot pie.

AUDIO CLIPS Listen to the Conversation! 360 KB / 5:31 Listen

In the midst of a whirlwind tour of the nation's capital, he's just 10 minutes removed from a VIP tour of the Capitol Building and is soon to be a central figure in an unprecedented White House visit with President George W. Bush.

In the meantime, he'll grab a highly-anticipated bite to eat and chew the proverbial cud with NASCAR.com's Marty Smith, about everything from the champion's speech he'll share Friday night to the sweet taste of victory and the sour taste left by a season-ending blown engine.

And, oh yeah, his take on the effectiveness of the points system.

Well, Matt, you've said it yourself - New York's not exactly your speed. But you've got a full day under your belt now. How'd yesterday go with Regis & Kelly and the Today Show?

Kenseth: Did I say that?

That's what you told me.

Kenseth: You got that on tape?

Yes, I do. Right on this very tape recorder. Somewhere.

	Robbie Reiser (left) and Kenseth in New York on Monday Credit: Ken Rowe, Special to TSI

Kenseth: (Laughing) Yeah, it's been really fun. I've looked forward to coming up here this week. I think it's different to come up here when you're the champion, and you can celebrate with Robbie (Reiser) and your guys and all that.

So I've been looking forward to coming up here. Yesterday was a lot of fun. I did a lot of cool things and today's been really fun so far, too. It's going to be really cool to see a lot of stuff I've never been able to see before and meet the President (Bush), and do things like that you'd never be able to do (if you didn't win the championship).

We just went by the Capitol and it was really pretty, uh, really nice, and obviously many people don't get to do that. But being the champion you get access to these things. Growing up in Wisconsin racing short tracks, it had to be the furthest thing in your mind that racing would ever afford you these opportunities.

Kenseth: Yeah. I never dreamed I'd be racing in the Winston Cup Series or the Busch Series or anything like that. You know, growing up in Wisconsin, it seems like another world down there racing, and I never thought I'd get a chance to see these cool things and do this stuff.

You know, a lot of what we've heard regarding analysis of the season dealt with your one win. You've talked about it, we've all talked about it, and now NASCAR's looking at changing the point system. Do you think that should be done? Should winning be rewarded more?

Kenseth: It doesn't matter that much to me, because I've been on both ends of it. You know, last year we won five races, which was the most in the series last year and finished eighth in points.

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This year we won one race, but we were really, really consistent, and I think we had, statistically, a really great season. We had more points than the champion had last year by least a couple hundred, even though we were the first car out at Homestead.

I feel like we've done a good job of being consistent and running up front. There's a lot of different ways of looking at it. In football, if you look at wins, there's two teams ? one winner and one loser.

In racing, there's one guy who's the winner on Sunday and there's 42 guys who didn't win. So, we ran up at the front of our class, I feel like, all year long.

You guys (Ford teams) are getting a new nose and new tail end next year. How far behind, starting at ground zero, compared to the other cars was the Ford Taurus?

Kenseth: Well, Chevy and Pontiac, when they designed a new car, and maybe Dodge somewhat, but for sure Chevy and Pontiac, took a Dodge, which is basically a Ford, and put a new nose and tail on it and made it better.

So they should have been better. And we've been a little behind all year, this year, I think. So that's going to help get us back, hopefully, to even on the aero stuff to be the same as other manufacturers.

	Credit: Ken Rowe, Special to TSI

And with some of the new engine stuff that's going to be allowed this year, some of the improvement we're making there, hopefully we'll be a stronger team next year than what we were this year.

Obviously an awesome year for you guys, but it ended on a sour note. Did that blown motor at Homestead leave a sour taste in your mouth, at all?

Kenseth: Well, yeah, it always does any time something breaks and you're out of a race or you crash out of a race or whatever. It always does.

Last two years in a row we've dropped out with a blown engine at Homestead, but overall it's been a great year. I'm really looking forward to next year. I think with the rules changes, with the smaller spoiler and some of the additions we're having, I think we're going to have a great year. I think we'll be much stronger than we were this year.

You and I were just discussing Homestead, and what a great job you think those guys did with the track.

Kenseth: I think it's awesome. I mean, for a driver and even for a fan, to go down there and see side-by-side racing on a new racetrack, I thought it was just awesome.

I think it's the first time anybody's tried to fix a track or build a new track that's done a really, really good job. It was really, really awesome. Some of the new tracks they've built, like Kansas and Chicago, them people should look at Homestead and what they did for newer tracks.

Or like what Richmond is like and Pikes Peak, and the like. I think it makes for better racing for stock cars.

Riding around Washington, here, we've gotten to see some really cool stuff. Word is Mike Helton is quite the historian and is enlightening you with his knowledge of our country's history.

	A Matt Kenseth diecast makes a great sandwich. Credit: Ken Rowe, Special to TSI

Kenseth: Yeah, he has. It's been really fun today. I've been looking forward to this day for a long time, because I can hang out with Mr. Helton a lot and instead of just being an 'at the racetrack' kind of relationship, get to know him a little more and he can get to know me a little more.

So that's been a lot of fun. He's been the White House several times and Arlington Cemetery several times, so when you go to them place he can kind of tell you what's going on at places I've never been.

What are you going to give the President?

Kenseth: It's a secret.

I got a Secret Service guy sitting down here beside me. Maybe he'll get me the info.

The (champion) speech is something you've told me in the past is something you're really not looking forward to. You gonna crack us up at all, show us the lighter side of Matt Kenseth?

Kenseth: You never know. Sunday night before we left for New York, I worked on the speech a little bit, got it 90 percent wrote. I've pretty much got it wrote. There's a few things I want to change, but I'm not even nervous about it, to tell you the truth.

	Katie Kenseth slides down the fire pole at Ladder 17 Credit: Ken Rowe, Special to TSI

I'm not even going to read over it or worry about it until we get to Thursday. Then I'll probably read over it a few times and practice a little bit. But it's cool to be able to give the championship speech, because you get the last word and it's kind of your stage for them three minutes or whatever it is.

I'm not too worked up about it. I thought I was going to be nervous about it, but I just came to New York looking forward to doing all this stuff that we wouldn't be able to do if we weren't the championship team.

You and Katie going home for the holidays?

Kenseth: Yeah, we'll go back up to Wisconsin. We've got a lot of stuff going on in December, actually, with photo shoots and Christmas parties and stuff around Charlotte.

So we'll spend most of our time around Charlotte, but at Christmas time we'll go up there and spend some time with both of our families. And hopefully we'll get some snow.