Matt Kenseth – NNCS ADVANCE
Team: No. 17 USG Sheetrock/DEWALT Ford Fusion
Crew Chief: Robbie Reiser
Chassis: RK-457 Brand new, never tested
RK-458 Brand new, never tested
Kenseth on racing at Martinsville Speedway:
“Martinsville has never been too kind to us. It’s not that we’ve run terrible there we’ve just never been able to compete on a regular basis. I’m not a big fan of the track. To me, it’s just too narrow and too slow. It’s like racing around two light poles in the middle of a parking lot. There’s very little room to race and the turns are so tight and so flat that you have to go so slow through the turns, and try your best not to move out of the bottom groove. Now, imagine doing that 1,000 times in one afternoon.
“I’m not sure how the COT will be there. Obviously, when we get on the track on Friday it will be the first time all of us have been there with that car, so it will be a learning experience for all of us. At Bristol, the car stayed pretty tight through the center of the turn, which is something you definitely don’t want at Martinsville. If you come off the bottom of the track, you’ll find yourself moving backwards in a hurry. It’s going to be a learning experience all weekend, but hopefully we’re up to the challenge. ”
Crew Chief Robbie Reiser on racing at Martinsville Speedway:
“It was good to get back to the track last week although we struggled a little bit. We had some problems about midway through the race that affected the handling of the car, but up to that point I thought we were getting the car pretty close to where it needed to be to compete.
“We’re bringing a brand new car to Martinsville and we’ll be learning a lot on the fly this weekend. It was interesting getting the Bristol car back to the shop on Monday and tearing it down to see how everything looked after the race. Now, we know a little more about what to expect this weekend, but the track is obviously different. We have to handle better this week and we all know that going into it. Martinsville, for us, has always been about survival, so that’s what we’ll be looking to do this week. We’ll find out where we stand when we get on the track on Friday and then work like crazy to get the car better throughout the weekend. ”
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