Q. What do you think about NASCAR's rule that, during the race, the drivers are not allowed to communicate and talk to other drivers?
MATT KENSETH: I really like that rule. I mean, for years I've had all my teammates on my frequency. That's kind of fun sometimes if you're under caution. Greg Biffle is a good friend of mine. I'll call him up, shoot the bull with him, talk to him a little bit on a red flag or caution or something like that. You might want to get a hold of one of your teammates if you think you have a tire rub. That was kind of nice.
I kind of like it, because it gets away from any kind of team coordination. I think racing has always been about one car, driver, trying to beat the other 42. The two-car draft, all that stuff, I just wasn't really a fan of that. You were working with somebody else the whole time to try to help him, he's trying to help you. I think it should be you against everybody else, trying to beat all them guys.
Q. What problems does Phoenix present for you after such a short week, a week with so many activities that you have to do away from the track?
MATT KENSETH: A couple things that pop into my head right away when I think of Phoenix is last year it was repaved. We all came to test. The surface was slick, to say the least. It took a long time to burn it in. When we came back to race, it didn't take quite as long, but it still took some time.
Now with it sitting all winter, I'm not sure what kind of track activity there is. I think there's a little wondering when you get out there of what the surface is going to be like, how long we're going to have to run to get it burned in, if it's going to be ready, all that kind of stuff. That's one thing you think of right away.
Then the different weekend schedule, having all the practice on Friday, all you do is qualify on Saturday, so that gives you a little less time to think about things overnight, try things on Saturday. You have to be ready to get it done in two practices, get it all done. So I think that presents a little challenge for the team and the driver, as well.
Q. You mentioned earlier on that you always look at Daytona as a separate race. It seems to me that so many things can happen at these superspeedways. Would you be in favor at all of looking at the superspeedways and counting them differently in the points championship?
MATT KENSETH: I think for the points championship, they should only count the tracks I'm best at. I think that would be the best idea, if they just let me pick the places (laughter).
I don't know. Plate racing is a little unpredictable. I thought this week, I felt like the driver had more control than what he's had before about making your own moves, putting your car in position, doing all that stuff.
The faster cars, once they got in front, it was harder to get back around them. I thought it was more about how restrictor plate used to be, closer anyway to what I would call a normal race.
I think the great thing about whoever wins the championship every year, they have to be good at all kinds of racetracks, from Martinsville to somewhere like Talladega where maybe there's a lot of crazy things that can happen, to road courses. You have to be pretty good everywhere to be able to win that championship. I think that's the way it should be.
Q. Once your media obligations were over after the race, what did you do to celebrate? Have you been home yet?
MATT KENSETH: No, I haven't been home. I walked back to the motor home. I was going to go back, spend some time with [wife] Katie, talk a little bit, get a couple hours' sleep before the kids got up so I could tell them goodbye for the week.
I think all my over-the-wall guys were back at my motor home. They were all looking for beer. Katie walked down and found Harvick's motor home driver – because that's a good place to look for beer – got a couple 12-packs and some ice. I sat there and talked to my team guys for an hour and a half, something like that, before they took off.
That was nice. Got to hang out with them a little bit. Other guys were still working on the car. When they got done, they wandered over, had some fun spending time with them. Got to do that Saturday night racing-type thing. Don't get to do that anymore. Usually, everyone is hurrying to the airplane to get home.