NSCS: MATT KENSETH WOULD LIKE TO REGAIN TEXAS MOJO

REID SPENCER/NASCAR WIRE SERVICE

Matt Kenseth has an excellent history at Texas Motor Speedway.

Unfortunately, it’s not recent history.

“Ironically, Texas is one of those places, that when I was at Roush, it was probably my best track,” Kenseth said on Tuesdayduring a question-and-answer session with reporters at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. “Even in years when we didn’t run good at other places, we always ran good there.

“I won a couple of times and was in position to win a couple other times and got beat late.”

In fact, before Kenseth left Roush Fenway Racing at the end of the 2012 season, he had two victories and four second-place finishes to his credit at the 1.5-mile speedway.

But his last two results in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota are 25th and 23rd.

“Since we’ve been over here (JGR), it’s been a struggle for me for some reason,” Kenseth said. “We haven’t really run very well the last three years there. So I’m looking forward to going back and seeing if we can make that better.

“We’ve qualified really well and have had really good speed, but the races haven’t turned out well there. I’m looking forward to getting there and getting to work to see if we can find something that’s good on long runs but still fires off pretty fast.”

True to his word, Kenseth rocketed to the top of the speed chart in qualifying trim during Thursday’s opening Cup practice, but he didn’t stay there. Drivers running later in the session leap-frogged Kenseth’s No. 20, which ended up 11th.