The Kenseth Diary

Roush Racing Driver Diary: Matt Kenseth
Thursday, May 11, 2006

Hey, (okay Matty, you could show some enthusiasm here. Switch it up a little instead of just Hey. Ok, I know that you've got your NASCAR mandated voice on right now. Let's see if we can read between the lines of your diary, shall we?)

I'm really looking forward to this weekend at Darlington. It's a lot of fun to race there because the track is so unique. We've had a lot of success there, especially in the Busch Series and we're going in as the defending race Champion in the Busch Series. (He likes Darlington because it's close enough for him to ride his motorcycle to the race.)

I know you hear it a lot, but you really have to race the race track at Darlington. (Yes, we will hear it every 5 minutes during the race, or about every commercial break) There's a reason you hear so much about the "Darlington Stripe," because if you aren't paying enough attention to the track and maybe paying too much attention to the cars your racing with, then suddenly you miss your mark, drift up a little too high and the next thing you know, you're in the wall. That wall coming off of turn four seems to get closer and closer the longer you get into a run because you're just sliding around the track on old tires. (Another thing we will hear every 5 minutes from one or all of the announcers during the race.)

It's kind of been all or nothing for us at Darlington lately. We've run really good in the Busch car then turn around the next day and run really slow in the Cup race. The funny thing is that Robbie was the crew chief for both the Busch race and the Cup race at Darlington last year. So, we went out Friday night, led a lot, had an awesome car and won the race. Then we go out Saturday night in the Cup race and are so slow we ended up a few laps down. We were both scratching our heads after that one, wondering how we can win one night and run so bad the next. (Head scratching was needed considering where you were in the points at this same time last year.)

But, that was kind of a turning point in our season last year. We were trying some things on the car that really wasn't helping. We thought they were going to help, but they just didn't work out. (Ah-ha!!! The truth. They were mucking around with the cars at the start of last year. Tsk, tsk. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.) So, we went back to the drawing board, got back to doing what we had been doing and things turned around for us. I'm going into Darlington this year with as much confidence as I've had in a while in both our Cup and Busch teams. Our Cup team has been running consistently as good as we ever have. Each week it seems we have a car capable of finishing in the top five and really, our Busch team isn’t far behind. If everything clicks, it could be a great weekend for us in South Carolina. (And I get to ride my motorcycle.)

- Matt