SCR: New drivers are seemingly being plucked right out of high school these days. Is the traditional path(s) to Cup gone?Kenseth: The path has definitely changed a lot. Being young is part of the reason I got the break I got coming here to Roush Racing. At the time, I was a young driver-not as young as they are now, but still pretty young. Today, it just keeps getting younger and younger. Last year, they took Jamie McMurray out of the Busch Series and he won his second Cup race. When that happens, team owners look even harder for the next hot, young driver. The younger a driver is, the better chance owners have of selling him to a sponsor and keeping that sponsor long-term. We've got to be close to the limit now because you have to be 18 years old to race. The days of racing for years and not getting to Cup until you are 35 appear to be over. I think you will also see the retirement age get younger. I can't see guys who start their career at 18 or 20 racing until they are in their 50s anymore.
SCR: Are you as involved in chassis setup as say, Rusty Wallace, or do you let your crewchief, Robbie Reiser, and the team engineers control that? Kenseth: A lot of what we still do is "seat of the pants" and how the car drives for me. We do a lot of changes off of what I feel. Fortunately, what I tell the team is what we are seeing at the wind tunnel and on the stopwatch. We've gotten to the point where the team knows what I like in a car and they can match that up in the wind tunnel.
SCR: Shifting gears here, if you could change one item of your life today, what would it be?Kenseth: Man, that's a hard question because things are pretty good for me right now. I guess I'd say I'd like to hang out with my son, Ross, more than I do now. We don't get to spend as much time together as I would like to.
SCR: Let's talk about Ross. A lot of drivers are putting their kids in the spotlight these days. You, on the other hand, have kept your relationship with Ross pretty private. Why is that?Kenseth: I don't think everything needs to be in a magazine or on TV. I don't think your kids need to have corporate sponsors at 10 years old. Kids need to be kids and a lot of people take that away from them. There are just parts of your personal life that need to stay that way. We just try to stay normal.
SCR: Let's lighten up here a second-who's your favorite musical group?Kenseth: Metallica. I'm a louder, faster kind of guy.
SCR: We hear your wife, Katie, is pretty good at video games. Who is better at them, you or Katie? Kenseth: Katie really likes Tetris and she kicks my butt at it. I play John Madden football a lot, and I don't lose much at that.
SCR: We know your dad, Roy, had a lot to do with getting your career started. Your mom, Nikki, however, has stayed in the background a lot over the years. Why is that? Does she come to races very often these days?Kenseth: She hasn't been to a race in a couple of years. If I didn't race, I don't think she would watch races very much or be interested in it. I told her a long time ago not to do something she didn't want to do just because she thought I wanted her to be there. She still supports everything I do and watches the races on TV. I love my mom for being my mom, not because she comes to the racetrack to support me every week.