TOYOTA NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Post-Race Notes & Quotes Bristol Motor Speedway — March 17, 2012
Joey Logano (fourth) was the highest finishing Toyota driver in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Logano started the pole and led 119 laps (of 300). The pole was the first NNS pole for Logano at the .533-mile bullring, 17th of his career and 58th for Toyota in NNS. Kyle Busch led 40 laps on the Tennessee short track and finished 17th. Other Toyota drivers in the field included Ryan Truex (10th), Mike Bliss (15th), Tayler Malsam (18th), Eric McClure (27th), Joe Nemechek (30th), Kenny Wallace (33rd), Brian Scott (35th) and Jeff Green (42nd).
JOEY LOGANO, No. 18 GameStop/Turtle Beach Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 4th How was your race today? “I felt like we kind of gave it away. We had a GameStop Toyota that could win this thing — especially the first half of the race. We came in for the second stop and the car just got really loose — like a bad set of tires. We lost all our track position. We had that caution with 30 (laps) to go and came in, put four tires on it, tightened it a little bit and then we were tight the last run. Just proved to us that something was wrong. We lost all our track position — we were the fastest car at the end again. I needed more time. I needed one more caution to restart on the high side and maybe get a couple cars there. Have to thank Turtle Beach for coming on the car this weekend. Kind of bummed that we didn’t get a win, but we have to keep our heads up for having a fast car.”
RYAN TRUEX, No. 20 Grime Boss Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 10th How was your race today? “Every time I drive a Gibbs (Joe Gibbs Racing) car, for some reason at some point during the race I end up at the back and I have to come to the front. It’s a good learning experience I guess. I sped on pit road — my fault. Just got out of the box a little too hard and didn’t see my speed — apologize for that. I had fun coming through. Got up to sixth or seventh and was racing Trevor (Bayne) there and just burnt my right-rear off racing. I think we had a top-five car here today. Just burnt the right-rear off and couldn’t get by him. I have to thank Grime Boss — they are the first personal sponsor I have ever had — to get them a top-10 in their first race with Gibbs is really cool. I’m just happy to be here, it was fun.”
Does this finish give you confidence? “For sure — to come out of Bristol with a car — I mean, it’s got some donuts on it and I hit the wall a few times. I was trying to get everything out of it. It drove good. My hats off to this team — they build great race cars. Matt Lucas (crew chief) has been great with me. This was our first time working together and I’m looking forward to working with him some more. I think we can win in this thing. We had a really good car today. I think we had a top-five car — just circumstances.”
MIKE BLISS, No. 44 BanditChippers.com Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position: 15th
KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Kyle Busch Motorsports Finishing Position: 17th
MIKE BEAM, crew chief, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Kyle Busch Motorsports What happened in today’s race? “Well, the first thing that happened was we left a wheel loose on the right front and so that got us behind, so we just made up some of it. Then we had some nose damage there and something got stuck on the nose, so it closed the brake duct up. Kyle (Busch) was driving his heart out and getting back up through there, but I guess we melted a bead on the right front.”
How good was the car prior to the issues? “Yeah, I felt like we had a good car. Then all the sudden whenever we had the loose wheel that put us down. Then we just had to dig our way back from that. Just felt like we probably would have been okay, but at this day in time the way the competition is you really can’t give anything up, so we’ve just got to really buckle down. Every week it’s something new and hopefully we can learn from it and fix it. That’s what we’ve got to do.”
MIKE BEAM, crew chief, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Kyle Busch Motorsports (continued) How will you regroup for next week? “We’ve just got to sit down Monday and talk about, one, the things that we did right and then, two, the things we did wrong and what we need to do about it. We can’t do things like that — leave wheels loose — because it’s just too costly. We’ve got the best driver there is and a great sponsor, so we’ve just got to quit beating ourselves.”
TAYLER MALSAM, No. 19 G-Oil Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position: 18th
ERIC MCCLURE, No. 14 Hefty/Reynolds Wrap Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position: 27th
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 D.A.B. Constructors Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position: 30th
KENNY WALLACE, No. 09 MAC Tools Toyota Camry, RAB Racing with Brack Maggard Finishing Position: 33rd What happened that took you out of the race? “Well we had a great day going — qualified 17th and running top-10 the whole race — and we had a catastrophic motor failure. Blew a big hole in the block. It just destroyed the motor, so there was no trying to fix it — big hole in the motor. Can’t come back out — it’s devastating. I had a big sponsor on the car, running real good, showed up on TV real good and the Toyota Camry was running real good. Just nothing we could do — out of our complete control.”
BRIAN SCOTT, No. 11 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 35th What happened to your car? “Our clutch went out. It’s just an unfortunate break. We had a good Dollar General Toyota and we were looking to have a strong run here today, but I can’t be hard on these guys — we hardly have any mechanical issues here on the No. 11 team and it’s just a minor setback. We have fast cars and we’ll come back.”
JEFF GREEN, No. 10 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position: 42nd
