SCR: You lost some key pit crew members this year, but your team seems to be as strong, if not stronger than that crew in 2002. How did that happen?Kenseth: We had a couple of guys who were looking for something different, maybe a better deal, and they left. We got good guys to fill in, and if you ask me, we're not as good as we were last year, but we're getting better all the time. Everyone is working as hard as anyone could and we're making progress every week.
SCR: You came into NASCAR at the same time as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and your career paths have crossed to the point where you're always getting compared to him. Does that bug you at all?Kenseth: No, not at all. I like Dale Jr. I like racing him, but out on the track, he's just another car I have to beat. I don't worry about him getting attention and me not getting any. That's fine with me. I really don't go looking for attention anyway. We used to hang out together more when we were in the Busch series, but then I met Katie and got married. It's not that I don't want to hang out with him, but he's got different things he likes to do and maybe he thinks it's not as cool to hang out with married guys. We just do different things now.
SCR: What's your idea of a good time away from the racetrack? Is there anything you really like to do to relax?Kenseth: Katie and I like to ride motorcycles. I like to hang out at home or go back to Wisconsin to relax. We don't really have a favorite vacation spot or a big boat somewhere. We just try to be normal.
SCR: We know everyone in Winston Cup is hard to beat, but is there anyone in particular that's the toughest for you?Kenseth: The way NASCAR has all the rules, the competition is so even that you can't pick out one guy. It's not like it was four or five years ago when Jeff Gordon won 12 races and Mark Martin won 7. It's not like that anymore. You can probably pick out four or five guys that you need to beat every week to win the championship, but there are probably 25 guys that you can say you have to beat for a race win every week.
SCR: Tell us about fame. What do you like the most and least about it?Kenseth: Obviously, there are a lot of benefits to fame, but personally, I don't feel any different. The thing I like the most about it is all the support. I ran a race back home in Wisconsin and there were 10,000 people in the stands and 7,000 had one of my shirts or hats on. The thing I like the least about fame is I can be standing around having a normal conversation with someone and when they find out who I am, they treat me different. I don't want to be treated different, I just wanted to be treated like a normal guy.