WRAL Sports Fan

NASCAR

Kenseth hoping to rebound in 2009 after 11th place finish

By SceneDaily.com

Jan 30, 2009

Matt Kenseth is hoping that new crew chief Drew Blickensderfer will help him and his Roush Fenway Racing team rebound from what the driver considers a “trying” 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

The 36-year-old Wisconsin native collected 20 top-10 finishes, nine of them top-fives, last year but was 11th in the final standings, his first finish outside the top 10 since 2001 and his first winless Cup campaign since then.

“You look at the numbers, and it was probably our worst season since 2001,” the 2003 Cup champion says. “To me, it was a disappointing season. I think we know we can do better than that. We’ve got a better group than that. We’ve got better equipment than that. I think we really underachieved most of the season last year. “

Kenseth hopes Blickensderfer, who worked as Carl Edwards’ Nationwide pit boss in 2008 at Roush Fenway, will be a big part of a turnaround. After eight full Cup seasons with crew chief Robbie Reiser, the driver is now with his third crew chief in three seasons.

Last season was one of transition. Reiser moved up to become general manager at Roush Fenway, and long-time Kenseth team engineer Chip Bolin took over the crew chief role.

Now, Kenseth is looking for a complete season run, extending his traditional regular-season success into the Chase For The Sprint Cup. Kenseth and Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson are the only two drivers to make the Chase field every year since the championship format was introduced in 2004.

Unlike Johnson, winner of three consecutive Sprint Cup championships, Kenseth has had difficulties in the final 10 Chase races each year. The three races Kenseth did not finish in 2008 were all during the Chase (New Hampshire, Talladega and Charlotte).

Despite the offseason changes, Kenseth says he still plans to take the same approach to the season that has served him well in the past.

“If you run good every week and you finish good and you can win some races, you’re going to make the Chase,” he says. “So it’s really about taking it one week at a time. … We’ve got Drew in there as the new crew chief and we’ve changed some things around on the team, so, really, we’re looking forward to the Daytona 500 and going there and trying to win.”

The team has made other minor changes that Kenseth hopes will increase the level of performance and push them back to victory lane – and to the top tier of competition.

Bolin has returned to the role of engineer with the team, a role that was unfilled for much of last year, and will keep working on the car and with the group. With all of that together, Kenseth believes that the team can bridge the performance gap this season.

“We made some changes on the team – roster-wise – obviously this year looking for some chemistry within the team – not just me and the crew chief, but really within the whole team to try and give it a spark and try to improve it, so hopefully we did that,” he says.