TOYOTA NASCAR NOTES & QUOTES
Week of August 15 – 21, 2011
TOYOTA TIDBITS
ROAD COURSE REWIND: Kyle Busch (third) was the highest finishing Toyota driver in Monday’s rain-delayed NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at New York’s Watkins Glen International. Busch started from the pole and led a race-high 49 (of 92) laps and was leading on the green-white-checkered restart before getting loose on the 2.45-mile road course. He managed to recover and finish third. Camry drivers Martin Truex Jr. (fourth) and Joey Logano (fifth) also earned top-five results. In Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race, Logano (third) and Busch (fourth) earned top-five finishes.
MICHIGAN MOMENTS: Camry drivers have three wins at Michigan International Speedway (MIS). Brian Vickers earned a special win for Toyota in Aug. 2009 when he took home Red Bull Racing Team’s first NASCAR victory and the second win for a TRD, U.S.A. (Toyota Racing Development) built engine since Toyota entered the NSCS in 2007. (The first TRD-built engine triumph was with David Reutimann at Charlotte in May 2009.) Denny Hamlin has two NSCS victories in a Camry at the two-mile track — June 2010 and June 2011.
TOP-10 TOYOTA: Red Bull Racing Team driver Vickers has earned five top-10 finishes this year in the No. 83 Camry. In 13 starts at the two-mile Michigan oval, Vickers has experienced much success. He has earned one win (2009), eight top-10 finishes (including 10th-place in June) and three pole positions (Aug. 2008, June 2009 and Aug. 2009) at the Michigan track.
BEYOND THE BORDER: In four NNS races at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada, Toyota drivers have recorded nine top-10 finishes. Last year, Montreal-native and former Formula 1 champion Jacques Villeneuve finished third at Montreal with Logano (sixth) and Trevor Bayne (10th). In 2009, Marcos Ambrose (second), and Canadian natives Andrew Ranger (third) and Villeneuve (fourth) finished in the top-five driving Camrys.
LAST CHANCE FOR CARPENTIER: Canadian driver Patrick Carpentier will compete this weekend before retiring from racing after Saturday’s NNS race. This is his third straight year behind the wheel of the Pastrana-Waltrip Racing (PWR) No. 99 NAPA Camry. In past Montreal events, the Joliette, Quebec-native started from the pole and finished second in 2007, and also finished runner-up in 2008. The 40-year-old previously drove open-wheel cars and has five Indy car victories to his credit between 2001 and 2004.
THREE BY THREE: Tundra drivers have collected three victories and three pole positions at Michigan International Speedway since Toyota entered the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) in 2004. The first victory for Toyota in the series — and the inaugural win for Toyota in the upper levels of NASCAR — came at Michigan in only the 13th race of the 2004 season with a triumph by Travis Kvapil. Michigan-native Johnny Benson won in 2006 and Aric Almirola was the first driver to the checkered flag in his Tundra last year. Mike Skinner has two pole positions at Michigan (2006 and 2008), and Brian Ickler also has a pole in his Tundra (2009).
BACK STORY: Follow Toyota Racing on Twitter (@toyotaracing) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/toyotaracing). Background and images about the Toyota NASCAR program are available at www.toyotamotorsportsmedia.com.
NOTES, QUOTES & NUMBERS
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series(NSCS): Since the start of the 2011 season, Toyota drivers have combined for four victories, 27 top-five results, 50 top-10 finishes and have led 1,983 laps … After 22 races, Kyle Busch leads the series point standings with four races to go before the cutoff for the Chase championship playoff … Denny Hamlin (12th), Joey Logano (17th) and Kasey Kahne (19th) are also in the top-20 in the standings and hoping to make their way into the top-10 or capture one of the two wild card spots to earn a place in the Chase … In the last three races at MIS, Hamlin has two victories (June 2010 and June 2011) and one runner-up result (Aug. 2010) …
The next victory by a Toyota driver in the NSCS or NNS will be the 100th Camry triumph since Toyota entered the series in 2007 (37 NSCS and 62 NNS)… Rear tire carrier Jake Brzozowski for Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 56 Camry is from Sterling, Mich. … Engineer Dave Elenz from the No. 83 Red Bull Camry hails from Gaylord, Mich. … Joe Gibbs Racing mechanic Bill Byrne currently resides in Marne, Mich. … Ann Arbor, Mich., is home to the Toyota Technical Center (TTC) … TTC is the driving force behind Toyota’s North American Engineering and Research and Development activities, overseeing the design and development of vehicles …
The Toyota PitPass interactive exhibit will be on display at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base Air Show this weekend in Mount Clemens, Mich.
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing What do you think about the improvements to pit road at Michigan? “It won’t change that much for us. Unless it really changes the configuration and things like that, it won’t change really what we do. You have to run a certain speed. One thing it will let you do is get into the boxes a little bit more aggressive if there’s newer pavement than what there was in the past.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Do you think another win at Michigan is possible? “We do, and at this point if we would’ve won (at Pocono), then I’d be real optimistic but it’s so unpredictable. Some of our best race tracks we’ve had the biggest amount of issues at. So, it’s so tough to say what’s going to be our strong suit nowadays. Michigan has been a good track. I don’t think we’ve finished any worse than second over the last three races, so we need to go there and we need to perform well. The track changes quite a bit obviously in those few months — gets a little bit warmer and it loses a small amount of grip. The setups we’ve run over the last few years have been pretty similar from the first race to the second.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing How do you assess your team at this point in the season compared to 2008 when you won eight races? “Certainly 2008 was a special year. I feel like we’re a lot better than we’ve ever been. Dave Rogers (crew chief) and Chris Gayle (team engineer) and Ron Denton (team engineer) and all of the guys on my team have done a tremendous job at being able to put together great cars on and off the race track. From back at the shop, stemming from the guys that work on it, to the guys that do everything here at the race track — the ‘A Team’ we call them. We feel like we’ve been better prepared this year and certainly we don’t have the tally of eight wins, but we’re a lot more consistent I feel like. From race to race, we’re a lot more consistent where before we’d have a bad race and not be able to rebound from it.” Are you and your team ready for the Chase? “I’m looking forward to the Chase. I feel like we’re in a good position. Certainly we’d like to have a few more wins, but if we don’t get them before the Chase starts, hopefully we can get them throughout the Chase and get ourselves some of those extra three bonus points that come with winning throughout the final 10.”
NASCAR Nationwide Series(NNS): During the 2011 season, Toyota drivers have combined for eight wins, 24 top-five results, 61 top-10 finishes and have led 1,270 laps … Kenny Wallace (seventh) is the top Toyota driver in the NNS point standings … Steve Wallace (eighth), Brian Scott (ninth) and Michael Annett (10th) are also in the top-10 in the standings … Michael McDowell will race the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) No. 18 Camry at Montreal … The 26-year-old has four starts in the No. 18 this season — all top-15 results including a seventh-place (Iowa), 12th (Road America), 10th (Indy) and ninth (Iowa).
MICHAEL McDOWELL, No. 18 Sherwin Williams Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Do you feel like you have something to prove in the No. 18 at Montreal? “Road course racing is my background — it’s what I’ve done the most of. It’s kind of funny because I haven’t talked about a lot of it because I haven’t been in a really good road race car in NASCAR, so when I got to Road America, I kind of knew we were going to have a special weekend even though everyone else didn’t. We were one lap away from winning that race. Hopefully in Montreal we’ll be able to have that same kind of performance and hold on to a win.”
BRIAN SCOTT, No. 11 Shore Lodge Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing What challenges does having back-to-back road course races present? “It’s tough because you want to make it through a season, preferably only having one main road course car with a backup. When you run two back-to-back, you basically need to have two main primary road course cars and that’s just an extra car in the fleet that is more road course specific that you can’t really use for ovals. I think from my standpoint as a driver, it doesn’t matter, but for the teams, it would be nicer to have them more spread out where you only have to have one primary road course car and if it got wrecked or something happened, you had time in between the two to fix it and not have to worry about having two good road course cars.”
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series(NCWTS): Since the start of the 2011 NCWTS season, Tundra drivers have registered eight wins, 22 top-five results, 42 top-10 finishes and have led 784 laps … After 14 races, Timothy Peters (fourth) is the top Toyota driver in the NCWTS points standings … Gaughan won the 2003 NCWTS race at Michigan … Seven-year-old Brady Reuter of Hudson, Mich., is the winner of the ‘Riding Shotgun with Kyle Busch Motorsports’ and was chosen for his essay about a teacher who helped him improve his reading skills and qualify for a school reading program … The second grader can now read the names of race cars while watching NASCAR on TV.
BRENDAN GAUGHAN, No. 62 South Point Hotel & Casino Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing What makes Michigan a good place to race? “A lot of people don’t like the racing at Michigan because they say it puts on a boring race. I don’t get it — it’s a five-groove race track. Guys go under there and you see guys dive-bomb to the bottom of the white line and you see me all the way up the wall and I call it the Michigan merge — where the guy comes from the bottom and you’re at the top and you merge right back into the same line. To me, it’s one of the most exciting race tracks — it’s 200 mph — it’s fast. It has all those grooves of racing and everybody goes nose-to-tail in and then all of a sudden five wide through the corner. People are on the bottom, middle, top — you’re like, ‘Holy cow.’ I dig the racing at Michigan, racing through that whole pack — it’s a fun race track.”
TOYOTA 2011 NASCAR STATISTICS Series Races Starts (Drivers) Wins Top-5s Top-10s Poles Times Led Laps Led NSCS 22 263 (18) 4 27 50 4 171 1,983 NNS 23 178 (21) 8 24 61 3 77 1,270 NCWTS 14 163 (28) 8 22 42 2 39 784
TOYOTA DRIVER ROSTER – Michigan International Speedway & Circuit Gilles Villeneuve NASCAR Sprint Cup Series David Reutimann, No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Camry Kasey Kahne, No. 4 Red Bull Camry Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Freight Camry Casey Mears, No. 13 GEICO Camry Kyle Busch, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Camry Joey Logano, No. 20 Home Depot Camry Bobby Labonte, No. 47 Kingsford-Bush’s Camry Martin Truex Jr., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Camry Mike Skinner, No. 60 Big Red Camry Michael McDowell, No. 66 HP Racing Camry Brian Vickers, No. 83 Red Bull Camry Joe Nemechek, No. 87 NEMCO Motorsports Camry NASCAR Nationwide Series Kenny Wallace, No. 09 RAB Racing Camry Brian Scott, No. 11 Shore Lodge Camry Michael McDowell, No. 18 Sherwin WilliamsCamry Michael Annett, No. 62 Northland Motor Oils Camry Jason Bowles, No. 64 Rusty Wallace Racing Camry Steve Wallace, No. 66 5-Hour Energy Camry Kevin Conway, No. 87 NEMCO Camry Patrick Carpentier, No. 99 NAPA Camry NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Todd Bodine, No. 5 International Tundra Justin Lofton, No. 6 CollegeComplete.com Tundra Miguel Paludo, No. 7 Stemco Duroline Tundra Max Papis, No. 9 GEICO Tundra Timothy Peters, No. 17 Red Horse Racing Tundra Kyle Busch, No. 18 Traxxas Toyota Tundra Brendan Gaughan, No. 62 South Point Hotel & Casino Tundra David Starr, No. 81 ASI Limited Tundra
WEEKEND RACE SCHEDULE Sat., Aug. 20 — NCWTS @ Michigan International Speedway – 12:30 PM (ET), SPEED — Race 15 of 25 Sat., Aug. 20 — NNS @ Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – 2:30 PM (ET), ESPN – Race 24 of 34 Sun., Aug. 21 — NSCS @ Michigan International Speedway – 1:00 PM (ET), ESPN — Race 23 of 36
