Matt Kenseth's Confidence Down at Chicago With Ford Still Struggling

JOLIET, Ill. -- There hasn't been a better Ford driver at Chicagoland Speedway than Matt Kenseth, but an underperforming race car had the former champion feeling pretty low Friday afternoon after practice.

"I don't know what is going on, to be honest," Kenseth said quietly inside the media center before qualifying. "I wish I had a better answer for you -- I really do. We have had a lot of things change of the last couple of years, but I just don't really know what the answer is right now."

Such was the attitude for Kenseth despite his No. 17 Roush-Fenway Ford sitting seventh in points. Practice, though, was another story as Kenseth was 40th fastest of 47 cars.

"If you ask me today, I don't feel like we are making gains," Kenseth said. "I feel like we are going backwards. I think the No. 9 (driven by Kasey Kahne) has run better, but the rest of us (Fords) haven't improved very much, to be honest. Everybody else says we are improving, but I don't see it."

Ford is the only manufacturer in the Sprint Cup Series that hasn't found victory lane in 2010 -- Chevrolet, Dodge and Toyota have -- though it has three drivers eligible for the Chase for the Sprint Cup at the moment.

"The last two or three races we have been able to improve our cars and get them better at the race track," said Kenseth. "There is hope we can make it better. I would just like to see some better results so that I can feel better about it. It is frustrating to go out to what I feel is one of my best tracks in the past and run 38th in the first practice and 40th in the second practice."

What, then, is the solution to returning Kenseth -- and the rest of the Roush-Fenway team for that matter -- to winning form again? Well, it's a little unclear -- and perhaps controversial.

"I don't think any of us have the answer right now," Kenseth said. "We all have our different ideas and theories. The people running the place (at Roush Racing) don't like mine, so we will just keep going the way we are going and hope it gets better."