RELATED: Hear in-car audio of Kenseth and Ratcliff discussing pit road penalty
Two days after a pit-road penalty and a communication mix-up left him with a midpack finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Matt Kenseth said his Joe Gibbs Racing team won’t harp on its recent misfortune.
Kenseth’s remarks came Tuesday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “The Morning Drive.” The former NASCAR premier series champion said any lingering sour taste after Sunday’s 19th-place finish in the second race of the season wouldn’t carry over to team meetings ahead of this weekend’s event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
On Sunday, Kenseth drew a midrace penalty for a pit road infraction when his JGR crew’s fueler placed a tool on the rear deck of his No. 20 Toyota. While crew chief Jason Ratcliff argued the point with NASCAR officials, Kenseth continued to race without knowing that his car was being penalized. He was eventually shown the black flag with the white cross, signifying that his car was no longer being scored.
“I think when it comes to a miscue, we don’t really — I don’t, anyway — dwell on that,” Kenseth told SiriusXM. “I think everybody knows what happened, why it happened, maybe not so much the penalty. We don’t really agree with that, but once the penalty was there and we got black-flagged, we are smart enough to realize what happened there and what went wrong and what we should’ve done different and what we would do next time where it’s not something we’ve really got to sit down and talk about more or go through.”
The subpar finish also came on the heels of his Daytona 500 defeat, where he faded from the lead to a 14th-place finish on the last lap as JGR teammate Denny Hamlin marched on to victory.
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“I don’t know. Sometimes you make you own luck, sometimes things fall your way, sometimes they don’t,” said Kenseth, who ranks 12th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after two races. “I think you just go through periods like that, and obviously the last three or four months have been a little tough as far as results go and other things going on. I think you just keep your head down and keep working on it.”
Kenseth also gave SiriusXM his assessment of the new reduced downforce aerodynamic package, which made its debut at Atlanta. He said that the 1.54-mile circuit’s worn asphalt, combined with the track-specific Goodyear tire made it difficult to draw comparisons for how the 2016 aero setup will perform at other venues.
Though he said this Sunday’s Kobalt 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) would be “a good barometer” for the new aerodynamic rules, he also told hosts Mike Bagley and Pete Pistone the ideal handling characteristics he looks for each week, delivered in classic Kenseth deadpan.
“Perfect. You know, like when you had that slot car track when you were a kid. That thing just stuck to the track,” Kenseth said. “You think I’m joking. As long as it’s better than everybody else’s car, that’s what you always aim for. Just want it to be better than everybody else’s.”