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Ford aims to bounce back after lousy Daytona

Submitted by SHNS on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 16:32

After a dismal showing during Speedweeks at Daytona, it's time for a Ford driver to stand up and make something happen.Matt Kenseth might do that in California this weekend."I always feel pretty confident going to California, because it's been one of our better tracks," Kenseth said. "You look forward to trying to get some momentum back after our disappointing Daytona 500."Kenseth has a new crew chief this year, his long-time engineer Chip Bolin, who moved up to the spot Robbie Reiser held for so long.Reiser is now heading the shop work for car owner Jack Roush."It's just different for him," Kenseth said. "He's kind of a gamer, that's what he's always done, he's always been on the box calling the races, getting really involved."To stand on the sidelines, watch and listen, is probably a little tough for him at this point."Kenseth, like all the Ford drivers, wasn't really a factor at Daytona."Obviously, we had a disappointing finish," Kenseth said. "But Chip made some great adjustments on the car. We went from being good, to getting it off, to figuring out how to fix it, and being pretty competitive -- right before we got wrecked."I was fairly pleased with our California test (last month). We learned a lot, I was more pleased with that than I was with the Vegas test. But you just don't know really where everybody else is at, what they've learned since then, or what they were showing you or not showing you in the test."Toyota had much more horsepower than its rivals at Daytona, according to NASCAR's chassis-dyno tests.Will Toyota have a similar horsepower edge at midsize tracks such as California Speedway, this weekend's stop?Kenseth said he's relying on NASCAR to keep the teams even."One thing about NASCAR, they're going to make sure the playing field is level," he said. "If for some reason Toyota has a substantial advantage, they're going to figure out how to make it fair for everybody."Certainly as old as our engine design is -- compared to Toyota's or Chevy's new engine -- we should be down a little bit."California Speedway is Toyota's "home track," with its racing operations just a few miles away. So maybe this is where Toyota driver Kyle Busch makes his breakthough."I fell into place here at Joe Gibbs Racing like I've been here for years," Busch said. "Honestly, it's been easy."I hate to say it's been easy, but it has been. Steve Addington (his new crew chief) has made it that way on the Cup side. Joe Gibbs has its stuff together. Hendrick Motorsports does, too, but it's just seemed to come more easily here, for some reason."I'm going to give it until May until we can truly judge how things are going with our team and the switch to Toyota. After we can get more testing done and Mark Cronquist (the team's head engine builder) and his guys get more time to develop the motor, I think we're going to be really good."Right now we're good with what Toyota is giving us. But once we get building more stuff on our own, we're going to get even better."Busch has won at California Speedway before, during his rookie 2005 season, while with Hendrick."We ran top five all day but we really didn't think we had a winning car," Busch recalled. "When we got the lead a few times through the race, we just pulled away and led by quite a bit."It was really cool to have a really dominant race car. I remember having to drive the car really loose. That was the loosest I think I've ever driven a race car that was still moving forward. It was crazy because I came over the radio and told the guys I couldn't believe how loose I have to drive the car. But it was fast."And NASCAR's new car at a fast track such as California?"It hauls the mail down the straightaway, that's for sure," Busch said. "With the old car, we had the front ends pinned down and the rear ends jacked up, so there was a lot of drag down the straightaway."These cars sit more level, and they go 210 mph down the straightaway. So we are going to be carrying a lot of speed into the corners."Once you get into the corner, they feel somewhat like the old car."(Contact Mike Mulhern at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)