Kenseth wants to fly out of the gates in 2006

Having spent the second half of 2005 flying around the track as he charged into the Chase for the Nextel Cup, Matt Kenseth wanted to take it easy during the offseason.

So, naturally, he went flying. Through the sky this time, as any racetracks were far beneath a man who earned his private pilot's license in May.

"This winter, I went to school for about five weeks and got my instrument rating, and I just got that," Kenseth said. "I've been pretty much spending all my spare time flying this winter and going to school and trying to learn more about that."

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With testing limited on Nextel Cup tracks this weekend, the Vegas test is considered crucial by most teams. Kenseth's hardly an exception in that regard.

"When you go to Vegas, or any track where you've got to let off the gas, it's different because you're working on all kinds of different stuff. You're working on aerodynamics, but you're working on your handling package," Kenseth said. "It's a lot of fun to go out there. Vegas is a fun place to go, especially in the wintertime when you haven't been in the car a lot and go there and test, and then you'll kind of have some kind of idea about your downforce program. You know, we run 32 downforce races and four speedway races -- both are important, the Daytona 500 holds a lot of importance -- but as far as how your year goes, your downforce cars are the most important because that's what we race the most."

As is the case for most teams, Kenseth's crew has a few new members this season. The turnover, though, hasn't been overwhelming, and the driver thinks some new blood could be a good thing.

"We've got some young guys get moved up and are fired up about it," said Kenseth, who adds that preseason testing helps get everyone working on the same page before the season gets under way at Daytona.

"It gets the whole group working together and getting in a routine and a system of changing things and everybody knows what their responsibilities are and that type of thing, so you kind of work the new guys in a little bit and work the rust off the others ones a little bit when you test at Daytona and when you go test at Las Vegas, so when you come down here for the real deal everybody's kind of ready to go," Kenseth said.

As for Kenseth, he just used the test as a way to get comfortable flying around racetracks now that he won't have nearly as much free time to spend in the wild blue yonder.

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