NASCAR Diary: Matt Kenseth says "Drivability" a factor in qualifying

We showed up at the track today with a lot of enthusiasm. Since my move to Joe Gibbs Racing this has been one of our better tracks, especially when it comes to qualifying.  

Although the day didn’t tu out how we hoped it would, it could have been much worse. We have a couple hours of practice tomorrow to get it dialed in and it’s a long race Sunday.

With the tire limit we have for the weekend, and the way the track chews them up, we decided to limit our practice laps and just work on the qualifying setup today. From the first lap on the track we just did not have the feel or drivability in the car that I was looking for. We made a lot of changes and just never really got it where we could make any speed.

This track is incredibly rough and is very tricky to negotiate. With the coers being so long, you have to get out of the throttle a little more than the next guy or the car bottoms out and you just lose so much time. It’s always a hard balance here between aero and mechanical grip. You have to have a combination of both but it’s hard to get it fast and driving good at the same time.

Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and the team made some great changes for qualifying and the car drove much better than practice. We were still off a good bit on speed compared to the best cars, and we made it through round one but that was all we had today.

So, we’re starting mid-pack (20th). But, we’ve got a great pit crew and a great team. We’ll work hard on our race setup during the two practice sessions tomorrow and hopefully get it right for Sunday.

The good news is this is probably one of the best tracks to pass at on the circuit.

It’s incredibly wide, has really long sweeping coers, and a very unique surface.

If you’re faster than the guy in front of you, you typically have a fighting chance of getting around him and to continue to move forward.

This has always been one of my favorite race tracks and I can’t wait to get to work in the moing. And, like everyone that has a mediocre Friday says, “It’s just a starting position!”

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