Kenseth: Our equipment is better this year

HAMPTON, Ga. -- When Matt Kenseth takes the green flag for Sunday's Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he'll be 325 laps away from becoming the first driver to win three consecutive Nextel Cup series events since Jeff Gordon in 1998.

No big deal, said the defending NASCAR champion.

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"We're not really going for anything special this weekend," Kenseth said. "Yeah, it's a stat and it would be cool to do, but we approach every race trying to go out and run the best we can.

Kenseth will start Sunday's race in 30th position, his worst starting spot of the season.

Again, no big deal, said Kenseth, who started 24th in this race a year ago and finished fourth.

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"I think a lot to do with running good is how much you like the track," Kenseth said. "This is one of the places I love going to.

"We haven't always qualified great, but racing here is usually pretty good for us."

Despite Kenseth's red-hot run, he said a third consecutive victory is far from a lock.

"Everything has to go right to be able to do that," he said. It's competitive. Every year they make the rules a little closer, the templates a little tighter and all the cars closer to the same.

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"It's hard to get to the days where Jeff Gordon used to win 13 races in a year," he said. "It's hard to get an advantage in the garage. Everybody's got big, multi-car teams and a lot of people sharing information, so it's hard to get an edge on your competition."

Kenseth enters the weekend with an 88-point advantage in the Nextel Cup standings over second-place Tony Stewart. While Kenseth has already doubled his win total from last season and led more laps than he did a year ago, he says things really haven't changed all that much.

"My driving style isn't any different right now than it was six weeks ago or last year. We just have better stuff to work with. When you have the equipment, you can go out and do that if you have the car set up right."