“We’re not going to approach this any different than any other week or really even think about that. If it happened, that would be pretty wild. That would be pretty crazy and something I’ve never really thought about, but we’re just going to concentrate on going out business as usual and trying to perform.”
That Kenseth has come out of virtually nowhere to dominate the road to victory lane in the first two races speaks volumes about how much his team has improved over last year.
“In a way, it doesn’t seem really seem real that we won the first two races,” Kenseth said.
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The main source of that improvement has been new crew chief Drew Blickensderfer. Until Kenseth fails to win a race, Blickensderfer has the best winning percentage of any crew chief out there, including veteran stars like Chad Knaus and Greg Zipadelli.
Blickensderfer is 2-0 as a Sprint Cup crew chief because he made outstanding calls in the first two races that put Kenseth into victory lane and also made some shifts that have strengthened the overall performance of the “killer bees” (the nickname of Kenseth’s pit crew).
“He’s made a big difference,” Kenseth said of Blickensderfer. “To bring Drew in as crew chief with his leadership abilities and experience, and to be able to work side-by-side with Chip (former crew chief Chip Bolin returned to his old position of chief engineer for the No. 17 team) to help each other make us perform has been a big deal.
“I really think he’s going to be the guy for a long time. I think he’s kind of the young version of Robbie (Kenseth’s longtime crew chief Robbie Reiser, who was promoted to general manager for parent company Roush Fenway Racing after 2007) when he got in to lead the team, so I think it’s pretty cool that he’s fit in that well. He fits in with all the guys really well and he’s been doing a great job so far, obviously.”
Blickensderfer is enjoying his time in the spotlight, especially playing up the fact that he remains the only unbeaten crew chief in NASCAR. But deep down inside, his reserved personality and laid-back ethic mirror that of his driver almost to a “T.”
“It’s kind of hard to explain, but bringing Drew in, as soon as I saw him after a week with how he and Chip got along and how he got along with the guys, even after he just started at the shop and we were preparing our cars you could tell that the morale was boosted already and it just had a better feeling,” Kenseth said. “It just felt like there was more energy there and there was more enthusiasm there. Everybody was happier when they were at work and it just felt good. It just felt like that was the right move ... the spark that was going to help us be more competitive and help us work better.”
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Winning the first two races has Kenseth doing something he rarely does: looking ahead. He’s already talking about using his first two wins as a springboard to not only qualifying for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, but also winning his second career Cup championship (his first was in 2003).
“It’s never too early to think about points,” Kenseth said. “You’re trying to get points all year long to get in there. ... We’ve got a lot of racing to do before we get in (the Chase), but if we can stay competitive and run as good as we did last week, if we keep running competitively in the top 10 and stuff, then I’ll feel better about that or think about it a little bit more.”
Excuse me while I fall over in shock. NASCAR’s Mr. Vanilla just might have some flavor in him after all.
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