FORT WORTH, Texas -- Matt Kenseth and Drew Blickensderfer might be just six races into their pairing as driver and crew chief at Roush Fenway Racing; but in that limited time they've learned how to "big-picture race" very well.

They showed it Friday at Texas Motor Speedway when, after practicing only 34th fastest, Kenseth shook it off to qualify his No. 17 Ford in third for Sunday's Samsung 500, behind pole winner David Reutimann and Jeff Gordon.

"It was kind of a surprise to me, to say the least," Kenseth said of his lap. "We couldn't find any speed in practice and could never run faster than a [28.] 90 no matter what we did. They changed just a few little things, really and these cars are really sensitive. I think we picked up about six-tenths of a second, which is great."

The finicky nature of NASCAR's new car is nothing compared to what Kenseth and Blickensderfer have experienced. They won the Daytona 500 in their first race together and followed it up with a second victory; but then blew up after just six laps of the season's third race. Three more heartaches in quick succession knocked the No. 17 team from first to 12th in the drivers' standings, 255 points behind.

That makes focusing on the big picture critical, and it's why, when Kenseth was mired in 34th after pre-qualifying practice; neither Kenseth nor Blickensderfer were worried.

"We don't put too much emphasis on practice and qualifying," Blickensderfer said. "Matt says he's better if he just goes out there and runs a lap [in qualifying] than if we spend the whole time practicing it. We unloaded fairly good, which was good for us and we haven't done lately, and we got to change four or five things that we wanted to try for tomorrow, so we had a good game plan."

"In practice, our big thing was the car ran pretty good in longer runs -- we just didn't have any speed," Kenseth said. "I don't know why, but we just couldn't get any speed out of it. But the changes we made seemed to make the car quite a bit better."

After winning at Daytona and California, blowing up after only six laps at Las Vegas, which relegated them to a last-place finish, was the worst blow; but finishes of 12th, 33rd and 23rd at Atlanta, Bristol and Martinsville were much less than expected.

It's why coming to Texas, where Kenseth has 13 career starts in both the Cup and Nationwide series, with eight top-10 finishes in Cup, including a win; and 11 top-10s in the junior series, including two victories, should be a cause for relief. But it's not a guarantee, Kenseth acknowledged.

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It's been disappointing, because we didn't even make a lap at Vegas and we broke, which is really something that doesn't happen very often. And then it's been problem after problem since then, really. So, definitely, we need to get back on track here pretty quick.

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-- MATT KENSETH

"In the past, [Texas] has been [a good track], but you know. Bristol used to be a good place for us in the past, and it wasn't, so you just never know," Kenseth said. "I guess I won't know until Monday. I hope that we can get some momentum back, get some good finishes and get back on the right track.

"When you go to your tracks that you perform better at, or have better numbers at you always feel a little bit better, but as I've learned before that doesn't always really mean a lot for what's going to happen this weekend. But certainly I feel more optimistic coming here than I do going to Martinsville."

Good performance, though not resulting in equal finishes, has made both Kenseth and Blickensderfer more comfortable.

"It's still early in the season," Kenseth said. "Drew is a smart individual. It's not like we built a team from scratch and went and won Daytona. He realizes that a lot of the pieces were there and he's been able to come in and be a real positive part of the team and bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm and he's helped improve morale.

"He's done a lot of good things already but yet it's real early and I don't think you can dwell on the great things that have happened and I don't think you can dwell on the really bad things that have happened. You need to just take it in stride and realize that it's early in this process and he's young.

"Winning the first two races was pretty unbelievable. Winning the 500 would be hard to top, but, yet, to go back it up at California was huge. But then every week since then has been a punch in the stomach. It's been disappointing, because we didn't even make a lap at Vegas and we broke, which is really something that doesn't happen very often. And then it's been problem after problem since then, really. So, definitely, we need to get back on track here pretty quick."

Kenseth's been doing this long enough he has it pretty much in perspective.

"Good or bad, you try to learn from it and become smarter next time," Kenseth said. "We always go back and talk about it, try to figure out our strong suits, improve on them, and try to figure out what we did wrong and obviously make that better, every week, no matter how you do. Every week seems like it's different circumstances, so we certainly try to learn from it and get smarter and get better."

Blickensderfer's packed a lot of success into a short period, but that's enabled him to keep a level head, as well, and that's a comfort for Kenseth.

"I think he's done a job about what I expected so far," Kenseth said. "I didn't expect to win the first two races, for sure. I expected there to be some growing pains and I expected some real positive things right away. You also know when you put somebody in here, even though you've done that job for a while; you bring more to this side with this car and the intensity level and everything.

"But it's different and there's going to be a little bit of learning and some growing pains -- but everything's gone better than I expected, honestly. Him and Chip [Bolin, team engineer] have been working great together and he's been working with the team really good. There really haven't been any problems. I mean, we've had problems the last four weeks but it hasn't been his problems -- we've just put him in that position."

And that's what's been the most eye-opening aspect for Blickensderfer.

"Everyone tells you that everything's magnified -- the wins are that much better and the losses that much worse," Blickensderfer said. "Starting the season with Matt and the 17 team [and winning twice] I said 'we'll keep chugging right along.' But then we hit a few road blocks, so I told my wife this week that we have to run good this weekend.

"I'm starting to feel pressure that we hadn't felt, previously, so that's the eye-opener about racing at this level, how everything is magnified. You have to work real hard to keep it in perspective; that it's just racing."