Conversation: Matt Kenseth

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- By now you all know the story.

Matt Kenseth ran away with the 2003 NASCAR championship despite only winning once, so the boys in Daytona went and changed the way the hardware is awarded.

AUDIO CLIPS Listen to the Conversation / 10:04 Listen

No biggie. Three races into the 2004 campaign, he'd already doubled the previous season's win total, reclaimed his reign atop the championship point standings and, without saying a word, told thousands of detractors to simply shut up.

Between hospitality appearances and the Nextel Cup driver's meeting Sunday morning at Darlington Raceway, Kenseth hung out with NASCAR.COM Senior Writer Marty Smith to discuss the points change and other random topics, including bartering helmets with fellow champions, his new fan club home base and a new addition to the family.

They went and changed the point system on you, so you go out and win two of the first three races. Is this team on a mission to prove its detractors wrong?

Kenseth: Well, I think the guys this year are fired up moreso even than last year to try to go out and win a championship and back up what we did last year, and be able to run better than we did last year.

	Kenseth has won the Las Vegas race in 2003 and 2004. Credit: Autostock

They're fired up to do it, but, really, we do as good as we can with the stuff we have. We have really good stuff this year. We have great engines, better cars, better bodies on our cars and Robbie and them guys have done a good job over the winter figuring out what we need to go fast.

Do you think the point system was changed because of the way you won it last year?

Kenseth: Not sure. I'm not 100 percent sure. I think it was changed because we won one race, and won (the championship). Now, maybe if there were some other people that won it the same way, I don't know if it'd be changed.

Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. But if we'd have won six or seven races it probably would've never been change, in my opinion. But I don't know. Only the people who changed it made those decisions know that for sure.

My opinion was that the race at Vegas was boring, and you sent me an email to tell how I stupid I am for that. Explain to me, and to the fans, why this racing is good from a driver's point of view.

Kenseth: It depends what you're after. What I thought everybody was after last year, when they wanted to put shorter spoilers and softer tires on the cars, was to have the fastest car win the race, not have somebody go out and pit early, ride around in the back for five or six laps until the caution comes out, then when everybody pits, they stay out and get in front on older tires and hold off everybody even though they didn't have the fastest car, which happened several times last year.

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I think that with the shorter spoiler and the new tire -- at Vegas we started 25th or something like that, passed everybody and got the lead, had a little miscue on a pit stop, came out eighth and were still able to get all the way back to the front and win the race.

I'm not sure, with the rules last year, that you would have been able to do that. The cars would have been more aero tight. It would have been harder to pass, harder to get to the front. And the better chassis setup shows on the softer tire, and if you get tires you get back to the front.

So I think the purpose of the rule, moreso than anything, was to try to get the fastest car to win the race. I think it's doing that. At Atlanta the fastest car won the race. At Vegas the fastest car won the race. And you could get through and pass there.

In the past, you could be two or three tenths faster than the leader and not pass him because you get an aerodynamic push and the tires didn't drop off and everybody's car would handle just about the same. Now, if you have the fastest car you can win. That's been the object of racing since I started racing, was that the fastest car wins. I think that's what everybody wanted.

So last winter you traded helmets with Brett Favre. You put his on, run around the house or play some pickup ball yet?

Kenseth: No, not yet. It's actually not, I don't think, one of his, but it's one he autographed and gave to us. So Katie got a really cool case and put it in the case and it's sitting in our TV room. That was pretty cool.

He always has a helluva lot of stubble. He wouldn't be a very good Gillette Young Gun, would he? That contract wouldn't last very long.

Kenseth: No (laughing). He has more stubble than even Junior usually does. So, no, he probably wouldn't fit in to that too good.

I saw recently where you broke ground on a new fan club building. Tell me a little about that, and I understand it's family run. Does your Dad stand at the door bouncing Junior fans out?

Kenseth: (Laughing) No, not at all. I'm really excited about it, actually. We bought some land in our hometown of Cambridge (Wisc.) and broke ground on it about a month ago. They started working on it here a while ago.

It's going to be a building to house our fan club, which my sister runs, and we have an online store, at mattkensethstore.com, where we sell merchandise and have a retail shop. But mainly the building is going to be a place to put some of the racing stuff I've collected over the years, and a way to see where my racing career started and where it's at today.

I got my first racecar ever that I'm going to put in there. I got some cool stuff for that. I got the car I won my first Busch Series race (in), and Jack (Roush) got me the car I won my first Cup race (in) at Charlotte. So I've got a lot of really cool stuff in there.

We're mainly going to make it -- I don't want to use the word 'museum' -- but it's kind of like that. To have a way to show where my career started and the stuff I was driving, and where I was racing in the area. Then what we're doing today.

In that area, there's not many places you can go and see a real Nextel Cup car. Most everybody that builds that stuff builds it around the Charlotte area, and I think it'll be cool to have around there, where the people that used to watch us race but maybe can't go to a NASCAR races, or can't go to Charlotte and see our shops and our cars, can go in there and see what we're doing now.

Speaking of that first car you had, do you look back at those cars now and wonder how the heck did I ever race this thing?

	Kenseth: "We have great engines, better cars, better bodies on our cars and Robbie and them guys have done a good job over the winter figuring out what we need to go fast." Credit: Autostock

Kenseth: It's cool to go back and look at. I sold that car. You know, we didn't have enough money to keep our first car and build another one. So I sold it, and a guy kept it in basically the same condition and raced it for 10 years, and it's almost the same it was, just had to re-paint it and do a couple things to make it how it was.

It's pretty neat to see it. It wasn't much, but it was fun and sure brings back a lot of memories about working on it and what it felt like to do all that, and how it felt to get started.

Well, I was checking up on Lars and I saw that you now have Charlotte. How's Lars taking this?

Kenseth: He likes it. At first he didn't like her at all and he'd kick the crap out of her. And now he's gotten to really like her. They're home alone a lot together, so now he's got somebody to play with and hang out with. So it's pretty funny.

We took them both to the vet the other day. She's little. She's like eight months old and weights 5.3 pounds on the scale. Lars weights 15.6. So we left her with front claws, and Lars doesn't have any front claws to kind of even out things a little bit. So they wrestle, and they're up all the time and play and have fun. So I think he's not as lonely when we're gone now.

Now, you know you stole from me. You copied me. My girl cat's name is Charlotte, and my boy is Oliver. At least we have something in common. Anyway, would you still have raced IROC if there wasn't a cool million up for grabs this year?

Kenseth: Oh, for sure, because I never had the chance to do it before. I thought it would be really fun. It was a blast at Daytona. It was really fun to do. I've seen Mark do really great in that (series) in the past, and I've seen some great races there.

It was something I wanted to experience and try. So I'm really looking forward to the Texas, our next race, and see what that's like. I mean, it'd be cool to win the money, but it's not really about that for me.

It's about being invited to it and have the chance to get to do that. A lot of drivers have been able to do that, and this is the first year I've been invited and had the chance to do it, so I wanted to try it and at least see what it's like.

That Richmond show is going to be out of control.

Kenseth: I think it'll be fun. Texas I'm not sure about, because I think we'll have a setup where we run pretty much wide open, so I don't really know how the racing will be. Atlanta I think will be really fun. I think that'll be a blast, even though we'll run wide open there, too, it'll still be fun.

Richmond should be a lot of fun. I think it'll be neat to watch. That's the kind of races we should go to. I think to even it all out we should go to an oval somewhere, and a dirt track somewhere, and a road course somewhere and maybe a little short track somewhere. That'd be kind of cool.

When you won Rockingham -- take me back to that last lap -- did you expect to get turned around in that fourth corner?

Kenseth: No. No, I knew Kasey was close and he was catching me pretty quick, but when I went off into (Turn) 3 and he was still straight behind me, I didn't figure he be able to get enough run mustered up in a half-corner to be able to pass me.

So being right up against the wall ... first of all, Kasey's a really great driver. He's not the kind of guy to take advantage of somebody or wreck somebody to get his first win. I don't think he's like that.

If you're right up against the wall, it's hard to do that somebody anyway. If you get in the back of somebody, get them loose and try to pass them, you're both up in the wall, so it's kind of difficult to do that running that line.

I didn't think he was going to get that good a run off Turn 4 because he'd been behind me for two or three laps. He never really got alongside me. So it definitely took me by surprise.

I think I remember you saying on the radio during your cool down lap that that was about the hardest you've ever had to drive to get a win.

Kenseth: My car kept getting looser off the corner and spinning the tires. I saw him catching me, and with about 15 to go I knew he was going to catch me. And usually at Rockingham and Darlington, the tires are so slick that if somebody catches you they're going to get by you.

It's just really hard to stay in front of them and hold them off. If they're faster than you, it's a difficult place to do that. There are other tracks it's easier to do it, but Rockingham and Darlington it's tough to do that.

So I thought we were in trouble with that many laps to go. I thought we were going to slip up and he was going to get by us, so I had to drive pretty hard to make sure we stayed in front.

Is that kid living in a dream world right now?

Kenseth: Yeah, it's pretty cool. Kasey's a really good guy. He's got a really level head. As much as I know him, anyway. I think he really respects where he's at. But this sport is really funny. You never stay there forever. It's never forever.

There's guys that will run great, then you'll have your turn where you don't run so good. After my humbling year in 2001, I really learned to enjoy it when we had success, because I knew how quickly it can turn around on you and how hard it is to stay running that good.

I'm sure he's really enjoying it right now. And Evernham, they have their stuff figured out. They've run really good since Kansas last year and have had great cars. They've been the team to beat every week, I think. So they're setting the bar right now.

Last question. So much has come up about language, and NASCAR has warned you guys with this whole FCC crackdown and everything. What are your thoughts on that? You have a young son who's watching TV.

Kenseth: I think it's good that the FCC is starting to crack down on certain things. I think we're the least of their worries. I think it's good that we're getting warned, and you try not to curse when you get mad on TV. But I think we're the least of the problems.

I can't believe some of the stuff that's on the radio and that's on TV, that you can watch on normal TV. It blows me away when you turn on the radio and hear some of them syndicated talk shows. So I don't think we're a big problem, but yet it's good to stay on top of it and try to keep it as clean and family-oriented as possible, so everybody can watch it.