Ryan Truex, No. 20 Martin Truex Jr. Foundation Toyota Kansas Speedway Post-Race Report
Kansas Speedway
Kansas Lottery 300
October 8, 2011
No. 20 Notes of Interest
-Ryan Truex qualified 3rd for Saturday’s race, only bested by Sprint Cup Series regulars Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski. Truex piloted the No. 20 Martin Truex Jr. Foundation Toyota Camry to a 10th place finish at Kansas. He was the 2nd highest finishing Toyota driver after his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano. Truex also received the Sunoco Rookie of the Race Award for the fifth consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series race.
-After back-to-back top-10 finishes at Kansas and Dover, a top-5 at Richmond and strong showings at Chicago and Atlanta, Truex is riding a wave of momentum. He has five consecutive top-15 finishes in just as many starts for Joe Gibbs Racing.
-In the first 65 laps of the race, Truex never fell out of the top-10 and hung in the top-5 consistently. After pitting during a caution brought out by debris, the handling on Truex’s car fell off to the point that he thought he may have a right rear tire going down. He dropped to 17th position and was battling a really loose race car, so the No. 20 team decided to pit under green to check the tires. That pit stop put him back in 29th position. Truex took the wave around during the caution on Lap 88 to get back on the lead lap. In the next 60 laps, he worked his way up to as high as 16th before he was forced to pit under green for fuel. With 60 laps to go, Ryan found himself in 24th but the No. 20 team had confidence in their car and their ability to battle back up to the front. Truex was the first car a lap down when the caution came out with 26 laps to go. After getting the “Lucky Dog,” he restarted 19th and was happy with how his car was handling after some good adjustments by his JGR team. Truex was able to pass a lead lap car almost every lap, and found himself back up in the 12th position with only 11 laps to go. After a strong final push, he broke into the top-10 during the closing laps of the race.
-Truex will be back on the track next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the No. 99 Pastrana-Waltrip Toyota Camry. He is competing against Kenny Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Elliott Sadler for a $100,000 bonus in the Nationwide Series Dash 4 Cash program. He will return to the No. 20 car for Joe Gibbs Racing at Phoenix International Raceway in November.
Truex on Achieving a Top-10 Finish After Early Issues
“It seems like every race I’ve had to work my way from the back at some point. After just taking fuel on one stop, we went back out and I was just wicked loose. I thought we had a flat because the car was just evil. It was out of control and we dropped like a rock. We had to pit under green to get new tires, and so that put us behind. We got the wave-arounds and eventually the ‘Lucky Dog.’ At the end there we were able to put tires on and run back up
through the field. A top-10 is good after running as far back as we were, but I felt like we had a top-5 car again.”
Race Notes
– Brad Keselowski won the Kansas Lottery 300 by 2.795 seconds over Carl Edwards. Elliott Sadler, Paul Menard and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top-5.
Time of race: 2:23:08
Cautions: 6 for 30 laps
Lead changes: 9 among 5 drivers
Attendance: 68,000
Race Results
1 Brad Keselowski(i)
2 Carl Edwards(i)
3 Elliott Sadler
4 Paul Menard
5 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
6 Kevin Harvick
7 Joey Logano
8 Brian Vickers
9 Trevor Bayne
10 Ryan Truex #
11 Justin Allgaier
12 Aric Almirola
13 Jason Leffler
14 David Stremme
15 Danica Patrick
16 Michael Annett
17 Brian Scott
18 James Buescher
19 Kenny Wallace
20 Steve Wallace
21 Joe Nemechek
22 Mike Bliss
23 Jerermy Clements
24 Mike Wallace
25 Blake Koch #
26 Reed Sorenson
27 Morgan Shepherd
28 Kevin Lepage
29 Joey Gase
30 Derrike Cope
31 Eric McClure
32 Angela Cope
33 Josh Wise
34 Timmy Hill #
35 Matt Carter
36 Scott Riggs
37 Carl Long
38 Johnny Chapman
39 Chase Miller
40 Charles Lewandoski #
41 Jeff Green
42 T.J. Bell
43 J.J. Yeley
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