The Big Interview: Matt Kenseth on automatic transmissions, reaching the top and Dan Wheldon

OTB was lucky enough to talk to NASCAR star Matt Kenseth over the weekend, who has taken up a new hobby of tattooing his signature onto willing fans in his spare time. More information can be found on Jeremiah Weed’s Facebook page.

Hey Matt, good to talk to you again. How’ve you been?

Good, how about you?

I’ve been alright. You guys have a pretty big finish to your season coming up, are you and the crew excited?

Oh yeah. We feel good about the position we’re in right now. There’s a lot of racing to do but we feel good about being right up there in the mix, and how we’ve ran so far. We realize there’s a lot to do yet.

I’ve noticed that you’re one of the drivers who rarely ever crashes. How do you tone down your aggression on the race course?

Probably just lucky.

Nothing else?

Haha, well you try not to wreck. If you don’t make it through a race you can’t win. A lot of the times finishing has a lot to do with equipment. Engines that don’t break, parts that don’t break. If everybody does the job and you prepare well, that has as much to do with finishing as the driver.

My roommates had a big discussion as to how much the pit crew in NASCAR has to do with winning and I said it was about 40%, would you agree with that?

The pit crew is very important. You aren’t going to win races with a slow car and slow pit times, I’ll tell you that. It’s hard to put a percentage on it but they’re extremely important. It really is a team sport, a team effort. Everybody has to do their part to have success.

How does it feel to know that NASCAR changed their whole scoring system in 2003 because of your championship in that year?

Well, I guess everybody seems to enjoy the Chase so if they want to give me credit for changing it then I will take it.

I like the Chase because if you have a bad start to the year you still have a good shot at competing for the championship. Before it was really tough to recover and have a chance at the Cup. It gets everybody excited about the kind of playoff system where we’re racing for a championship in the past 10 games. With football going on and all of the other sports that happen during the fall season, it gets everybody fired up about NASCAR again. The Chase has been fun. It’s added another element to the sport.

If you had a choice, would you keep the Chase or revert to the old format?

I’ve always been a bit of a traditionalist who doesn’t embrace change as much as other people but I think the Chase is fine. 10 races is still a lot of racing and the best car and driver is still going to win the championship. There’s a lot of good things about the chase but I don’t know what I’d do if I was in charge, because I’m not in charge. NASCAR’s done a good job of keeping it exciting.

I was looking at your biography earlier, and you had a very tough road to get into the top tier of NASCAR drivers, like a lot of guys. What do you think gave you the power to not give up amidst adversity and make it all the way to the top, instead of a lot of people who could possibly be in your shoes but didn’t have the perseverance that you display.

When I started racing up in Wisconsin, I honestly never dreamed that I would be able to race at this level. One of my dreams was to be able to race full time for a living so I guess I didn’t start racing with the aspirations to be a NASCAR driver. It felt way out of reach. I just got really fortunate with short track cars when I was younger, and I had some people give me chances to drive their cars. Just got fortunate. I got the right opportunities at the right time and here I am.

When was your first early NASCAR memory when you realized, “Woah, I’m probably going to be doing this for the rest of my life.”

I had a lot of neat moments. Probably when I won my first NASCAR race at Rockingham. It was the last lap and I was racing against Mark Martin and Jeff Burton and all of those guys and I was able to pull off that victory. That was my favorite racing moments.

The racing community had a very sobering moment recently with the passing of Dan Wheldon. Something like this hasn’t happened since Dale passed about ten years ago. How’d the NASCAR community react to the news?

I haven’t really talked to a lot of people about it but obviously it’s a tragedy and you never want to see anything like that happen to anyone. When you see something like that happen you have to think about your home. Hopefully we’ll learn from this and make the cars even safer, but watching those little cars going that fast, you have to remember the danger is always there.

Do you have any thoughts about switching to open wheel racing, or is NASCAR your home?

Nah, I’ve never had any interest in open wheel cars. I’ve always raced stock cars on asphalt. It’s all I’ve ever done.

Why do you guys use manual transmissions when automatic cars are so much easier?

Haha, now that’s a really good question. We have about a 500 page rule book it seems like. THey have rules on everything, including how we shift our gears.

So there are no NASCARs with automatic transmissions?

Haha, nope.

Do you someday see a day where you won’t have to have your hands in a gear shift the entire race? It’s much safer to drive with two hands, my mother’s always nagged me.

It’s second nature at this point, that would feel weird.

You have a son who’s racing too. How proud are you that he’s following in his footsteps?

He’s a good kid. We have a lot of fun racing with him, and it’s something I can actually help them with because i know a little bit about it. I can probably help him with that more than other things in his life. It’s fun.

I was at the Virginia Crown Royal race and I saw you guys have a lot of pre game stuff you have to do, with the riding around in the Corvettes and the long driver announcements. Would you guys rather concentrate on racing and take that time to prepare, or do you like the pageantry?

Haha, well it’s alright. That’s always been part of it. I’m thankful for all the fans that show up and it’s a big event when we get to race. We do all the stuff for the fans, and that’s fun for me.

How do you get yourself in the mindset to drive a race car for four hours?

I don’t have much of a ritual. We have a drivers meeting before the race, and you talk to your teammates, then we head to driver introductions and go race. So the two hours before the race is about the same usually, and I guess that’s my ritual.

If you were in a Ford Taurus and I had a NASCAR and we both had to race head to head for one lap, who would win? Keep in mind, I don’t know how to shift manual transmission.

Haha, you might want to learn how to shift before you get in one of these cars.

I’ll take that into account. Thanks Matt, it’s been a pleasure.

Alright, thanks man.