HENSLEY: Kansas Q & A
04-22-2009 3:43 pm

What is your impression of Kansas Speedway?

"Other than Texas, it is probably one of my favorite tracks. I've always been fortunate enough to go there and run good. It is smooth. As the day goes on, it gets to be a multi-groove track which I like with restrictor spacers on the truck. Its so hard to pass and if you can get your truck going good and keep your momentum up, you've got a lot of race track to work with. So, I like that part of it."

What is your track record at Kansas Speedway in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series?

"We have set on the pole there twice. Finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and wrecked. But every time I've been there and run well. We didn't qualify well last year but ran really good. We wound up finishing 5th, didn't qualify good at all but ran real well. We ran a top five all day and a I just love it, it's a good race track, I'm not going to say it is easy, none of them are easy, but its real smooth and you don't have to worry about your shock package as much as getting the attitude of your truck right and getting the nose down and back up and try to keep as much grip and down force in it as you can and go."

Does Kansas Speedway remind you of any other NASCAR Camping World Truck Series track both strategy wise and characteristic wise?

"Well, it's kind of like California strategy wise, you get a lot of green flag stretches, which with the new pit road rules that's pretty tough. Cause there's going to come a time when you have to decide on tires or gas. Well, that decision is pretty easy because you can't race without gas. So, it's tough. You know, it's a race that gets exciting there to start with and then it settles down thru the middle stages and then there at the end, a couple of times, we've had green white checkered shootouts. So strategy is important but you kind of have to wait and see and play the game and see how the cautions fall and I think when you do get into your fuel window, stop and get your fuel and get it out of the way and usually Goodyear brings a really good tire there that doesn't drop off a whole lot. So, its going to be tough, its different, this is a whole new pit road deal, in my opinion, is really put an extra strain on us that we probably don't need but the hair gets getting grayer quicker. I know it sounds crazy, but I'm comparing Kansas now, as smooth as it is, to a place like a Darlington that is really smooth now and got a lot of grip. Kansas has still got a fair amount of grip and we were fortunate to test before the 1st of the year and learn some things there that we hope to implement and wi ll work at Kansas. And it's a lot like California. California has a few bumps and humps here and there that Kansas doesn't but you still have to do the same thing at Kansas that you have to do to be good at California and we had a pretty decent truck at California. We didn't qualify well, but we had driven up into the top 5 in 20 laps and got wrecked but we were fortunate enough that we got that truck fixed back and we are bringing it. So a lot of confidence in that truck, a lot of confidence in Brian's ability at these places and a we will go out there and see what happens, but I'm looking forward to a good run."

Do you have reason to be optimistic heading into this event at Kansas?

"We have a very big reason to be optimistic. I mean, we've used this time off we've had to get our shop in order. I've always felt like you win your races in the shop and we got started late, and we played catch up there for the first two or three races, and getting trucks built and now we've pretty much got all our trucks built. Or at least we've got them to a point of completion to where if we find something in the wind tunnel in the next week or two and we've still got a lot of that stuff scheduled to test, that we can implement it. We are on a level playing field now with other teams as far as teams that have been in existence where I think when we started this season we were a little behind the 8 ball cause we started so late but now I think we're in a position where we can utilize our good fortune better and utilize the things we have to work with. We've got a lot of good trucks and the guys have done a really good job at preparing them and I'm just looking forward to this weekend's race at Kansas."