SCR: After you dominated the Busch race at Charlotte earlier this year, Randy LaJoie compared you to David Pearson. How do you feel about the comparisons to the sport's great drivers that seem to be coming your way more and more these days?Kenseth: That stuff is very flattering, but I don't see myself as being anything extra special. I'm fortunate enough to be with a great team with some really great guys behind me. Every driver will tell you that when you are in good cars that are capable of winning, it's easy to drive. Look at how we ran in 2001. We were awful. We had a lot of 25th-place cars that finished 18th or so because of attrition or good pit stops. That's all I could do with them and nobody was saying what a great driver I was then. It's not just the driver and I am lucky enough to realize just how good a team I am with and what great teammates I have.
SCR: It hasn't always been that way. At one point in your career, you came south only to have to return to Wisconsin after the racing opportunities didn't work out. Did you feel like you failed at that point?Kenseth: I thought that was going to be my big break. We were running good everywhere and winning a lot of Hooters Cup races. The grand plan was to also do some Busch and Truck races, but it just didn't work out. When I came back to Wisconsin to do the ASA deal in 1997, I definitely felt my time had passed and that I wasn't going to get another opportunity. I would have begged for a last-place Busch car back then.
SCR: Back when your career was just getting started, a Wisconsin track announcer, Todd Behling, gave you the "Matt the Brat" tag. How did you react to that?Kenseth: It didn't bother me. I didn't take it as a dig at all. They weren't calling me that because I was a brat or a jerk. Todd was doing it because I was young and we were doing well against a lot of veteran racers. We were winning and I took it as a compliment.
SCR: How competitive is it between the Cup teams at Roush Racing?Kenseth: We have five really good race teams here. I think we work as good together as five race teams possibly can. That's a lot of people to try to get to work together. Everybody shares and is open and honest. Sundays are competitive, but you're still going to try to help them.
SCR: We haven't talked about Robbie Reiser yet. You guys were pretty much huge rivals back in your Wisconsin short track days. How did that all come about?Kenseth: Robbie was the bully, kind of like a senior and a freshman in high school. Robbie was winning all the races when I was starting out, and we started butting heads a little bit. He was protecting his turf. We really didn't know each other and didn't necessarily like each other. We raced each other hard.