Canadian Motorsports Expo: 2010 Show Video

The 4th Annual Canadian Motorsports Expo, held Jan. 22-24, 2010 at the International Centre, was a great success. Stars like Matt Kenseth, Paul Tracy, Ron Fellows, Derek Daly, the Duhamels, Jessica Zemken, NASCAR Canadian Tire Series champ Andrew Ranger and several NCATS racers were on hand to make the show the biggest yet.

The 5th CME is slated for Jan. 21-23, 2011 at the International Centre. Show sponsor packages are available and prime booth space is already being scooped up by exhibitors who did fantastic business at the 2010 show. Visit www.canadianmotorsportsexpo.com for more info or email expo@insidetracknews.com (or call 416 962-7223) to inquire about being part of next year's CME.

Thanks to Joel Robinson of JRA for putting the video together.

Canadian Motorsports Expo Photo Gallery - January 23, 2010

This photo gallery is from Friday and Saturday at the Canadian Motorsports Expo, at the International Centre (Toronto). NASCAR Sprint Cup star Matt Kenseth packed the house for a fan Q&A and autograph session. Canadian racing star Ron Fellows was another star of the show.

Canada's top racers were honoured on stage with the Inside Track Readers' Choice Awards, including Overall Canadian Racer of the Year Andrew Ranger, who also scooped the Stock Car Racer of the Year award.

The show continues Sunday when Paul Tracy participates in a fan Q&A and autograph session, prior to participating in celebrations launching Mosport's 50th Anniversary Season.

Canadian Motorsports Expo: Official Show Program

The free, online version of the Official Program of the 2010 Canadian Motorsports Expo is located here. The show takes place this coming weekend (Jan. 22-24, 2010) at The International Centre, adjacent to Toronto's Pearson Airport.

The piece includes schedules for the Canadian Tire Stage, the many racing seminars, bios for star attractions like Daytona 500 winner / NASCAR champ Matt Kenseth, IndyCar star Paul Tracy, Canadian racing legend Ron Fellows, former F1 / Indy Car racer Derek Daly, and the Duhamels; Canada's first family of motorcycle racing.

The Official CME Program also has a feature on Mosport International Raceway - which is set to kick off its 50th Anniversary Season of racing - with a celebration on Sunday at the CME.

Also included is a profile on the what you can see at the Canadian Motor Speedway booth - including a chance to meet with its project managers. You'll also find an exhibitor list and show map inside the program.

Check out the program and we'll see you at the show!

Canadian Tire Stage to be the focus of the Canadian Motorsports Expo

The Canadian Tire Stage will be the Centre of Attention at the Canadian Motorsports Expo

Forums featuring star racers, the motorsports media, the kick-off of celebrations heralding the start of Mosport’s 50th anniversary season, an alternative fuels forum and much more at the CME

Click Here to see the full Canadian Tire Stage and CME Racing Seminars schedule

(TORONTO, ON // JANUARY 19, 2010) While there will be many tracks, series, racing vehicles, suppliers and vendor displays all throughout Toronto’s International Centre this coming weekend at the Canadian Motorsports Expo, it will be tempting for showgoers to stick close to The Canadian Tire Stage. From Friday through Sunday (Jan. 22-24), it will be the CME’s focal point, offering race fans non-stop opportunities to interact with Canadian and international racing stars and motorsports personalities, like Matt Kenseth, Paul Tracy, Ron Fellows and the Duhamels.

“Canadian Tire is proud to present The Canadian Tire Stage at the Canadian Motorsports Expo,” said Susan Lute, Strategic Marketing Manager | Automotive, Canadian Tire Corporation. “The Canadian Tire Stage will be the centre of activity at the CME, playing host to the many forums, presentations and driver autograph sessions that will take place during the three-day show. Canadian race fans are Canadian Tire customers and we look forward to connecting with them at this year’s CME.”

“We’re honoured to welcome Canadian Tire as the presenting sponsor of The Canadian Tire Stage at the CME,” said David Weber, of the CME and Inside Track Communications. “From their support of grassroots racers across Canada to their title sponsorship of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, Canadian Tire has a great history of supporting Canadian motorsports. Their sponsorship of The Canadian Tire Stage is contributing to an incredible show for the fans.”

FRIDAY

Starting Friday evening (at 7 p.m.), The Canadian Tire Stage will – for the second year in a row – play host to Spencer Lewis’ Ontario Asphalt Short Track Power Rankings presentations. Lewis, an Inside Track Motorsport News contributor, will present awards to the province’s top asphalt oval racing stars. Last year, drivers like Steve Robblee, Jeff Hanley, Ron Sheridan, Stompin’ Tom Walters and others were honoured. Show up Friday to see who makes the list this year!

SATURDAY

Action on The Canadian Tire Stage heats up Saturday with several major events. The schedule kicks off at 10:45 a.m. when Canadian racing legend Ron Fellows hosts ‘Ron & Friends,’ a bench-racing forum featuring Bill Brack, Robin Buck, Daniel Morad, Bryan Muir, Robert Wickens and Ken Wilden. Join Ron and his panel of speedy friends in a wide-ranging motorsports discussion.

At noon, several industry experts will take part in the Alternative Fuels Forum. American Le Mans Series CEO Scott Atherton and Canadian MP Dan McTeague will be joined by others in a discussion about the current and future trends in racing fuels as they relate to ‘green’ initiatives.

The fourth-annual ‘Meet the Media’ forum kicks off at 1:15 p.m. on The Canadian Tire Stage. Featuring many of Canada’s top motorsports journalists, this interactive fan forum is a great opportunity to get a ‘behind the scenes’ perspective from experts like Norris McDonald (Toronto Star / Wheels), Dean McNulty (Sun Media), Erik Tomas (Raceline Radio), Jeff Pappone (Globe & Mail), Tim Miller (Hamilton Spectator), Hugh Burrill (City TV) and Russ Bond (Inside Track / CanadianRacers.com).

Once the ‘press’ forum wraps up, reigning Daytona 500 winner and former NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Matt Kenseth will take to The Canadian Tire Stage to participate in a Q&A session with the fans, before signing as many autographs as possible. The NASCAR veteran is scheduled to be on stage from 2:30 to 4 p.m.

A NASCAR Canadian Tire Series driver autograph session, featuring many of the top stars from Canada’s national stock car championship, takes place from 4:45 to 5:30 p.m. That will be followed by a Q&A / Autograph session starring Yvon, Miguel and Mario Duhamel; Canada’s First Family of Motorcycle Racing. Saturday’s action on The Canadian Tire Stage wraps up with the Inside Track Readers’ Choice Awards presentations. Many of Canada’s top and future racers – as voted by the readers of Inside Track Motorsport News – will be on hand (starting at 7 p.m.) to receive their awards, for excelling in stock cars, road racing, motorcycles, rallying, karting and drag racing.

SUNDAY

Sunday’s Canadian Tire Stage program opens, at 11 a.m., with another on-stage Q&A / Autograph session with the Duhamels. Next up, Canadian road racing star Paul Tracy will participate in a Fan Q&A and autograph session with CME showgoers. The former IndyCar champ, who is popular for his wide-open driving style and candid comments, will be on The Canadian Tire Stage from 1:30 to 2:45.

And then at 3 p.m., Tracy, Ron Fellows and several others, including Horst Kroll, Norris McDonald and Doctor Hugh Scully will take part in ceremonies and celebrations kicking off the upcoming 50th anniversary season of racing at the legendary Mosport International Raceway. Almost every famous Canadian racer and industry member has a personal story about how Mosport helped shape their careers. Be sure not to miss the many interesting tributes and tales about Canada’s Home of Motorsports.

ABOUT THE CME: The Canadian Motorsports Expo is a three-day celebration of Canadian racing that runs January 22 to 24 at the International Centre (6900 Airport Road in Mississauga). The show is powered by Inside Track Motorsport News and supported by companies like Lucas Oil Canada, NASCAR Canada, Mosport International Raceway and Canadian Tire. In addition to booths and racing vehicles representing the entire spectrum of Canadian motorsports, the show is loaded with seminars and forums to entertain and inform racers and fans alike. Star drivers Matt Kenseth, Paul Tracy, Ron Fellows, Derek Daly and Jessica Zemken will be at the CME to sign autographs and meet the fans. Please check the show’s website for updates and changes.

For more information about the Canadian Motorsports Expo, visit www.canadianmotorsportsexpo.com, call Glenn Butt at (905) 721-1762 or email him at glenn@canadianmotorsportsexpo.com. You can reach co-promoters Inside Track at (416) 962-7223 or email expo@insidetracknews.com.

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Canadian Motorsports Expo profiled in today's Toronto Star / Wheels section

In his motorsports column in today's Toronto Star / Wheels Section, Norris McDonald wrote about next weekend's Canadian Motorsports Expo. Thanks to Norris for all his support of the show and Canadian racing. Click here to see the story.

NASCAR:Matt Kenseth California Winner's Press Conference

KENSETH WINS AUTO CLUB 500 TO OPEN SEASON WITH CONSECUTIVE WINS

· Matt Kenseth took the checkered flag for the 18th time in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career with today’s win at Auto Club Speedway.

· It is Kenseth’s third career Cup win at Fontana. He also won at the two-mile track in 2007 and ’06.

· Kenseth is the first driver to start a season with back-to-back victories since 1997.

· Ford has now won 594 all-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.

· Ford now has 10 victories at Auto Club Speedway, more than any other manufacturer.

· Ford has won at least one race at Auto Club Speedway every year from 2003-2009.

· Jack Roush now has seven victories at Auto Club Speedway, tied for most among team owners.

· Jack Roush has won at least one race at Auto Club Speedway from 2005-2009.

MATT KENSETH WINNER’S PRESS CONFERENCE

JACK ROUSH – owner, No. 17 Carhartt Ford Fusion – “It was awesome. The whole team, really, we had run well here, didn’t win the fall race, but we run well here many times and look forward to coming to Fontana. We were really taken aback by how well the Hendrick cars were running throughout practice, particularly the 48 was just awesome. He certainly put a real high mark up there that we had to look at it. As we started the race, I knew that Matt was pretty good because – one of the things about Matt Kenseth, he doesn’t practice as well as a lot of people do, as seen by me. He goes looking for the feel he likes in the car and tries to save the car so he doesn’t put extra wear and tear on it. So, he reminds me of what I heard, and, of course, David Pearson was before my time, but when I first got involved I was around the Wood Brothers, Leonard and Glen, and they would talk about how David, they could never tell how much car they had until it was time for it to count in the race, and Matt’s a little like that. I had a feeling he was going to be a little bit of a surprise to some folks tonight because he had not been up there on the leaderboard in practice, but had said that he wasn’t worried that his car had not gone faster in practice, that he felt that he had what he needed, and it felt like it had before when he was able to win. But the 48 had been really fast, and, of course, as it turned out, the 24 was a really good car as well. Greg Biffle and his 3M Fusion was, in the closing stages, from the indication I saw, it looked like he had the best car. He overshot his pit box there, not really going outside the box, but stopped squarely on the air line, and Greg Erwin made a good call by having him back up; he would’ve been last on the lead lap if they hadn’t backed him up when they did. I’m sure they would’ve had trouble with that air line, getting the right wheel off, with the left-front wheel parked on the air line. So, Greg nissed an opportunity tonight. I know that Carl Edwards was a little disappointed, and David Ragan and Jimmy Fennig will be a little disappointed. Donnie Wingo and Jamie McMurray had a brake problem, that was unfortunate. All of our Fords ran well. As I look at the no-testing program that we’re on and not being able to come to this race track and test, it’s clearly played to the strength to the people that have had success, it’s played to Hendrick’s program, it’s played to Gibbs’ program, with the way that Kyle Busch had run and it played to ours as well.” T

HAT’S FIVE STRAIGHT WINS HERE IN THE EARLY RACE AS WELL. “I don’t expect that to continue. We’re hard-pressed to figure out what to do to be more ready. But, my experience is that these things tend to even themselves out, and I just hope that when we have to give back all this success, I’m not here, I’m someplace else.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Carhartt Ford Fusion – “Just great team, great crew, great, great engines. Just you need everything to go right, really, to win these races. Our car handled really good all day, and we had excellent pit stops. Our fourth one from the end we were a little bit off and I started complaining and then all of sudden they got me three or four spots every stop, so the pit stops were really important to our outcome. Their adjustments were really important. We were a little off, even though we got out in front we run down and passed. I don’t even know what they changed.. Drew and Chip came up with changing a couple of things and got it just good enough at the end. It wasn’t easy, but it was just good enough to hold them off.”

DREW BLICKENSDERFER – crew chief, No. 17 Carhartt Ford Fusion – YOU ARE NOW TWO FOR TWO AS A CUP CREW CHIEF, PLUS YOU WON YOUR FINAL TWO RACES AS A NATIONWIDE CREW CHIEF. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE STRATEGY HERE TODAY? “I think our car was pretty close from the beginning. He seemed to like it better than he did yesterday. We made our way through the field, but obviously five or six cars, when you’re running in the top 10 are the hardest to pass. Thankfully, if not the, one of the best pit crews on pit road, which catapulted us to the front every single time. Because the track was getting dark, it was getting a lot faster. It wasn’t great for our set-up, we knew we had to start in the middle of the pack, so we kind of changed some things around to make sure we could get to the front, and when our pit crew got us out front, we ran extremely fast, a second and a half faster than we had run all weekend. So, that was a good thing. We had to adjust our car a little bit when we were in clean air to make sure we could run out front. Matt can drive it on the free side and can do the things we need to do to get the win, so I just kept him free and let him go after it.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – WHAT HAS THE 17 TEAM, AND MATT, DONE TO WIN THE FIRST TWO RACES? “Well, Drew has brought magic to the team. His dad was a coach and he played real competitive sports in high school, so he know how to build a team, he knows how to capitalize on the energy within a team and we needed that. We had all the right people with the right skill sets on the team, but we just need somebody to create the magic and Drew has done that. We had the same cars last year, and Matt was the same guy that he was last year – he sure didn’t learn anything over the winter because he didn’t have the chance to drive these cars as much as normal. I’m celebrating with Drew the fact that – he needed a little help with the champagne. I took a little hit in the Victory Circle because I gave him my champagne bottle, which I had all primed. That’s what happened. Drew got me. We’ll credit what we’ve got going for us early here as the Drew factor, and look forward to carrying it forward. But with way that Carl had won and with the way Jamie has been running and the way Greg has won, and way David has been coming, certainly there is an expectation on my part we were going to be fastor in these races until we get to Martinsville, and the guys snuck off to the Little Rock there at Rockingham race track, and that is one of the places where you can go and test a little bit, and we think we even got something for Martinsville that we haven’t had before. So, I’m real optimistic about what’s going to happen in the first handful of races. The idea of winning Daytona under rain circumstance was a surprise. It caught me totally off-guard. Of course, I was afraid it was going to finish under rain and I was hoping it would win, but I certainly didn’t want to read the press and have two rainouts and having one of our guys be the benefactor.”

MATT KENSETH CONTINUED – THE LAST 20 LAPS WERE VERY ENTERTAINING. DID YOU THINK JEFF GORDON HAD WHAT HE HAD FOR THOSE LAST 20 LAPS? “I thought he was going to pass. I kind of have a bad habit, I guess, people call me a pessimist, I think I’m more of a realist, but when we took off the run before that we got in the lead and we ran some real fast laps and we left Jeff by 15, 20 car lengths or something like that and in the middle of that run he just ran right by me and took off. Greg would go by me, took off. I couldn’t do any better than that.

MATT KENSETH CONTINUED – “I was doing the best I can. So I don’t even know if they adjusted, but that got us in the front again, which obviously was a big key to it, and we took off. Right away I could feel it was better, but I didn’t think it that much better and I was getting looser as I ran and with as many laps that were left I honestly thought we were going to be too loose at the end and he was going to catch us. I couldn’t get away from him that time and then he got right on my bumper and I thought, ‘I’m about over,’ but I guess they tightened his up a bit and got too tight, and I was able to hang there. These things are real sensitive and they just made the perfect adjustment, and had the perfect pit stop.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – WHY HAVE YOUR TEAMS BEEN SO SUCCESSFUL HERE, NO MATTER WHO’S DRIVING OR ON THE CREWS? “It does matter who drives the cars. I’m blessed with having real fast company that let me hang around with them. Looking at Matt Kenseth, it is a fact that Matt Kenseth would not be part of our program I wouldn’t have the honor to be involved with Matt, I’m sure, if it hadn’t been for Mark Martin. And Mark looked at Matt and Mark has had template set on the driver temperament and really what the nature of our strategies have been at mile-and-a-half and the two-mile race tracks. Those were his needs, and I certainly learned what his interests were and figured out what to give him to be successful, and that’s helped us. It takes three things to make these cars win: It takes technology that the manufacturer brings to the table, and in our case that’s Ford Motor Company; it takes NASCAR giving you a template set for the body shape and the engine parameters that is competitive; and it takes a driver that can close the deal. And I’ve been fortunate to have those things. The affiliation with Ford Motor Company has been a big factoring it over the years, and the crew chiefs, like Drew, have prepared the cars ideally and the cars have been driven with great enthusiasm and with great effect.”

MATT KENSETH CONTINUED – YOU TALKED EARLIER ABOUT GETTING OFF TO A GOOD START AND THAT YOU FELT CONFIDENT COMING INTO THIS RACE. CAN THIS CARRY OVER TO NEXT WEEK’S RACE AT LAS VEGAS? “Yeah, I’ve thought ahead. I feel real good about Vegas. I felt good about coming here. In a way, I don’t think a win will ever be as big in my career as winning the Daytona 500, but in a way this almost feels better. You come here and it’s not restrictor-plate racing. You don’t need other people’s help. Luck’s not involved quite as much. And we had to come here and figure out how to beat the 43 teams on speed and strategy and adjustments and all that stuff, and obviously these are the kinds of races that make up the bulk of the schedule and whether you run good or bad at these tracks has more of a determining factor on making the Chase or running for a championship. It feels pretty unbelievable to win the first two races – especially Daytona, to be able to come out of the box and run competitively here. As soon as we got Drew in that spot, about a week later and we talked about it and I had a super-long talk with Chip, everything was cool and we worked everything out, I just had a really good feeling about it. I don’t know why, I was more confident coming into this year than I have been in a lot of, lot of seasons. I just feel great about the group we have assembled. Everybody’s having fun, everybody’s loose and everybody’s performing at thye same time. And I think Drew has given the leadership and the start that they kind of need, and Chip has all the extra time to work on the cars and keep up with the engineering and the date and sift through all that stuff, and they’ve been able to work great together so far.”

DREW BLICKENSDERFER CONTINUED – HOW MUCH OF AN INFLUENCE HAS ROBBIE REISER HAD? “Robbie’s a huge part. He’s ultimately the guy three years ago when I took over the 17 team Nationwide car, I tried to model myself after. When you’re across the shop from the 17, you look at him as the ultimate team. I think that even when they didn’t win the championship, after 2003 everybody looked at them as that’s the team you want to be like – they were the best on pit road, it seemed like they could change a spring faster then everybody else. You wanted be like the 17. And then when I was able to work with Matt on the Busch side, I went and talked to Robbie a lot. I kind of hung around and looked at the way he looked at people and the way he did things, and tried to model myself – a lot of things that Robbie did, the organizational skills, a lot of leadership skills that Robbie did, I tried to mold myself around. So Robbie’s an extremely large part. He’s pulled me aside probably three times this week when I was at the shop and talked to me about a lot of different things: ‘Okay, this is a long season. This is what you need to look for.’ So, it’s huge to have Robbie Reiser 60 feet away from your office every day that you can go ask questions to.”

MATT KENSETH CONTINUED – WHY DON’T YOUR TEAM MAKE MISTAKES ON PIT ROAD LIKE SOME OF YOUR COMPETITORS DO. “I don’t know. We’re just able to make the right adjustments. I think as far as the 24, they said they got too tight. I don’t think that you could ever fault a team for staying on top of the car, even when you’re leading. You’ve got to keep up with the track conditions and your changing car. I know earlier in our car we lost a few races from leading and not adjusting enough; man, we’re so good we’re afraid to touch it and get beat. You never know. You always do what you think is right, and try to get a little bit better and the pit stop was part of it. Their adjustmets, like I said, they didn’t tell me what they were, and I’ll do a little espionage a little later and find out. But, I didn’t even care what they were, but to figure out what I needed my car. As far as pit road goes, there’s a lot that goes into it and we work real hard at it and we have a group that has the timing just right, and, like I said, there’s a lot that goes into that from the car gets to pit road to the time it gets on the race track, and it’s just something that we’ve always worked hard on.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – WHAT KIND OF PSYCHOLOGICAL BOOST HAVE YOU POTENTIALLY GIVEN DEARBORN (HOME OF FORD MOTOR COMPANY) BY WINNING THE FIRST TWO RACES? “One of the things that’s been an historical benefit of winning stock-car races, NASCAR is stock-car races, you got the manufacturers involved in the ’60s and the ’70s, for sure, was they were able to quantify if they won on Sunday, the sold on Monday, and I was on Eli Gold’s show Tuesday night and Eli told me that he talked to a friend of his in Bessemer, Alabama, that had a dealership, Town and Country Ford, and they had sold two cars that were Roush Performance cars, niche market cars, that we had modified for them, on Monday. People came right in and said, ‘We’ve got to have this Roush modified car.’ So, the Ford people are really excited about the success we’re having on the race track. I heard from Bill Ford. I heard from a number of vice presidents throughout the company that reached out to contact me. I heard from Edsel Ford. I heard from twoof the heirs from Henry that are active in the company. The glass is definitely more than half full with Ford Motor Company right now. They’ve got a couple of great products coming in from Europe that’ll be here in 18 months. They’re not out of cash. They’re not out of line in regard to the number of dealers. It’s a tough economy for anybody who sells any manufactured product or does the service in our economy. But, the glass is more than half full at Ford right now and we’re just adding some more good news for them.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (finished 4th) – “This was a pretty fast car. I just screwed it up. Trying to get greedy. You know, it was so hard to pass out here, and I was hoping to beat the 24 out and I was trying to give my guys every advantage I could. I stopped in the box, I wasn’t out of the box, but the guy pulled the hose around, and we had this problem before. It’s just me stopping too deep in the box and caught them off-guard and ran over the hose. And this box is super-long anyway. But they didn’t do anything wrong, it was my fault.”

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM SAYS THAT THIS RACE IS THE BEST INDICATOR EARLY IN THE SEASON TO GIVE TEAMS AN IDEA OF WHAT THEY COULD HAVE FOR THE YEAR. THAT’S GOT TO BE A GOOD FEELING FOR YOU. “Yeah, they’re [in trouble] if this is the kind of car I’m going to have all year. This thing was fast. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I don’t know how I’m going to sleep tonight. I’m just sick to my stomach, man, it almost brings tears to my eyes to know that I let the guys down like I did. When you you’ve got a car like that, it sucks to not win, and it sucks that it’s your fault. If they’d have dropped a lugnut or something, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. But, when it’s your fault, it’s really hard.” BUT YOUR TEAMMATES WERE QUICK TO TELL YOU HOW WELL YOU DROVE. “They were. The guys know I’m feeling bad, but they’re trying to keep me cheered up for next week. They know we can win at Las Vegas. I’ll keep working on it. I’m just mad because it always seems like I make a mistake, a little mistake here or there. I got in a little hot during qualifying and probably could’ve been on the pole – maybe. Just little stuff. I’m too hard on myself, probably, I guess.”

From Jim Brumfield / Ford

NASCAR Sprint Cup: Ford Fontana Friday Advance - Matt Kenseth transcript

Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Carhartt Ford Fusion, heads into this weekend’s race atop the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings following last Sunday’s victory in the Daytona 500. Kenseth won Auto Club Speedway in 2006 and ’07.

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Carhartt Ford Fusion –

YOU’VE BEEN FROM THE EAST COAST TO THE WEST COAST THIS WEEK. HOW DID IT GO? “The week was really fun, actually. It was probably more fun than I expected it to be. I had a really good time, and it was a long week and kind of a tiring week. It was a lot of fun, got to see a lot of people, lot of places, and I probably enjoyed it more than I expected to and probably saw more people than I expected to in different areas as well. The whole week was fun. I’m glad to be back at the race track.”

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE STORIES FROM THIS WEEK THAT WILL PROBABLY STAY WITH YOU FOR A LONG TIME? “There’s a lot of them. Letterman was probably one of the coolest things. Once we started racing and running better, for some reason, I’ve always been like, ‘If I could go on one show, it would be to go on David Letterman and actually be on the couch and talk to him.’ I’ve been able to do the top 10 list a couple of times, the top 12 last year, and that was fun and everything, but you don’t even really even meet him, really. They kind of lock the doors and lock you in there; when he runs through he doesn’t want to see anybody. So, it’s kind of different than I expected. But, to be on there and actually be a guest on Letterman was probably a highlight for me, second to going to Victory Lane and seeing the guys and all of the looks on all of the faces and all of that, was the best part. But that was one of the cool things. The whole week was really good, mostly. Going to San Francisco – that’s one place you go that you never expect, at least I don’t, to see very many race fans. You don’t really think of it as a racing city and all that, and we actually saw fans all over the place. It really, really surprised me and that was really fun. Got to do a lot of cool things there and take a little time and see some stuff.”

NOW THAT YOU’RE THE DAYTONA 500 CHAMPION HOW MUCH BUSIER DO YOU EXPECT TO BE THIS YEAR? “I don’t know the answer to that question, to be honest with you. It’s been a crazy week, really; a fun week. I’ve probably enjoyed it and appreciated a lot more since it’s been a year since we’ve won a race, and to win the biggest race was pretty cool. So, I probably enjoyed it a little more because of that. It’s easy when things start going well to maybe not let it sink in or not appreciate it when you win or do good as much as if there’s a little space in between there. I did enjoy it all a lot. I do look forward to getting on the track here and concentrating on racing again. Have got to be a little bit careful not to enjoy it too much longer; you have to start thinking about the rest of the season and focus on this week, and the tracks are going to be really important to having a successful season. Just winning that race doesn’t make you have successful season, so we really need to move on from that. It’s a lot different from winning the championship. You had two months to enjoy it and celebrate do all of this crazy stuff, and here you’ve got a week and you better be pretty tuned in to what you’ve got going this week and the next 34 after that.”

ON LETTERMAN, YOU JOKED ABOUT HIM BEING TOUGH ON DALE EARNHARDT, JR. ARE DRIVERS GOING TO BE HESITANT TO BE CRITICAL OF HIM? AND, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT GETTING THROUGH THAT ACCIDENT AT THE DAYTONA 500? “I don’t know. I was joking, trying to be funny. I don’t have anything to gain by pointing out who I think is wrong or who made a mistake or who caused a wreck or what you have, so if you don’t really have anything to gain by it to criticize somebody else for their driving or something is not really something that I need to do. I know that I’ve made my share of mistakes and my share of controversial stuff, and, you know, your peers are ripping on you because they think you did something wrong. It’s not a good feeling, so I don’t want to be on that side of that, either. Everybody’s going to create their own opinion. I’m glad we made it through the wreck. You always hope there’s no wrecks, but just like last year at Talladega, things are going to happen every now and then, and when you’re all racing hard, everybody knew that rain was coming, everybody was racing hard to get position in the lead, and those two were racing to get position for the Lucky Dog so they could get back in that thing because they were running out of time.”

YOU WON THE DAYTONA 500, BUT WERE NOT PART OF THE POST-RACE CONTROVERSY. IN THIS SPORT, THE WINNER IS OFTEN PART OF THE CONTROVERSY. SO, THAT WORKED OUT WELL FOR YOU. “Yeah. Obviously, if you could script it, you’d probably want to take the white and pass the leader on the last lap and take the checkered and do all of those things. I’ve been asked a lot about the rain all week, like I said a million times, everybody knew it was going, it wasn’t a surprise. It’s not like they just stopped the race. Everybody foresaw the rain. In a way, it actually made our job harder, I think. We took the green flag in 43rd and had to get by all of those guys. The race fan part of me likes controversy, but I don’t like to be a part of it. Controversy, if I’m not involved, then it’s fun to watch, fun to listen you guys talk about it, but when you’re one of the people in it, it’s not as much fun.”

THIS HAS BEEN A VERY HECTIC WEEK FOR YOU. HAS THERE BEEN ANYTHING YOU’VE BEEN ABLE TO DO TO GET PREPARED FOR THIS WEEKEND’S RACE? “Just sleep. Just try to eat good and sleep. Actually, I didn’t get that great of sleep last night, but I’ve been getting caught up a little bit. I was fairly tired on Monday and I got a lot of sleep, actually Monday night, and was more tired Tuesday, and then got not that much sleep Tuesday night, a lot Wednesday night, a lot Thursday night and feel like I’m almost back to normal. Probably getting in the car today and getting back to the normal weekend schedule like we do every weekend, besides Daytona, with normal three-day weekends, getting on the track and doing all of that will probably get me more prepared for it than anything else.”

WHAT WAS THE REACTION OF YOUR FATHER AND SON TO YOUR WIN? “They were pretty fired up. I talked to my dad a little bit – he actually talked to me more than I talked to him; he was pretty fired up. Ross was pretty excited, too, obviously. They both wished they would’ve been there; I wish they would’ve been there to celebrate and be part of the moment. But it’s been such a busy , crazy week I haven’t really gotten a chance to talk to them. I talked to my dad and I talked to Ross, they were the first two people I talked to, for a little while – a lot of emails and text back and forth. I’ve either been traveling the whole time or on shows the whole time or doing radio shows the whole time, and when I did have a little time to call somebody, I’m in a car full of people, and that’s not – it drives me crazy when people are on their cell phones and the car’s full of people, so I don’t want to be that guy. It’s honestly been pretty busy, and then with the time change out here, I haven’t gotten to talk to a whole bunch of people. They were very excited, along with a lot of other people I got messages from.”

DID YOU RECEIVE MORE TEXTS, EMAILS OR PHONE CALLS AFTER THE WIN? WHICH WAS THE COOLEST? “More texts and emails – I don’t know which one was the most – but a lot more of them than phone calls. I guess that’s the way it is today. My Sprint Blackberry was vibrating for about 20 minutes straight when I turned it on after the race, so that was pretty cool. I don’t have a coolest one. Every one was special in their own way. Whenever someone thinks of you, it’s pretty neat. I had lot of them that surprised me, I had a few of them that I kind of expected to hear from, which was cool, but every one, honestly, is special. Whenever anybody congratulates you or thinks about you long enough to send you a message, it always means a lot.”

YOUR SPOTTER, MIKE CALINOFF, IS IN THE GARAGE DISPLAYING HIS DAYTONA 500 CHAMPION TATTOO THAT IS ON HIS LEG. HE SAID YOU CHALLENGED HIM TO GET IT. AND, ARE THERE ANY THOUGHTS OF YOURSELF GETTING ONE? “No. I’m not a tattoo guy. I was kind of teasing Mike because I always tease him, but I was really teasing him because the week before we won the championship in ’03, which we were able to win a week early, actually, he went and got the championship tattoo put on his leg, and we were in Victory Lane celebrating the championship and he showed us he already had the tattoo, so I asked him Monday if he got the tattoo put on yet, before we won the race – if he really was a psychic. But, I was just giving him a hard time about it, but it didn’t surprise me that he did it.”

DOES THE FACT THAT YOU’VE HAD SUCH A GOOD RECORD HERE MAKE IT EASIER TO GO RACING THIS WEEKEND AFTER ALL YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH THIS WEEK? “For sure, it makes me a little more comfortable, and I feel a little better about it than if we were going to one of our more difficult ones, like Martinsville or something like that. You still never know what’s going to happen. You can’t take it for granted and not work as hard or do any of that and think you’re going to coast through it. But, I always have a lot of confidence coming out here. For some reason, our team, typically, maybe not last year, but most every year if you look at our numbers, it seems like we get started off fairly quick and that’s kind of been part of the reason that we’ve had some success. And we were able to do that, obviously, at Daytona, but hopefully we can keep that up. Usually the first part of the season is one of our stronger suits, it seems like. So, hopefully, we can keep that going and get a good finish here this weekend and keep some momentum up.”

From Jim Brumfield for Ford

Daytona 500: Matt Kenseth video clip from post-race press conference

PHOTO GALLERY: Daytona 500 (2/15/2009)... by Dave Franks

This is a 145-photo gallery from the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, February 15, 2009. Matt Kenseth led the final green flag lap before the race was ended by rain to win his first Daytona 500. Thanks to Dave Franks for all of his work this week! You can see Dave's website here.