TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Post-Race Notes & Quotes Daytona International Speedway – July 7, 2012
Camry driver Joey Logano (fourth) was the top-finishing Toyota driver in Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Daytona International Speedway.
Michael Waltrip (ninth) and Bobby Labonte (10th) also earned top-10 results for Toyota at the 2.5-mile Florida superspeedway.
Other Camry drivers in the field at Daytona included Travis Kvapil (16th), Martin Truex Jr. (17th), Kyle Busch (24th), Denny Hamlin (25th), Clint Bowyer (29th), Landon Cassill (32nd), David Stremme (39th), JJ Yeley (40th) and Joe Nemechek (41st).
Busch led twice for six laps (of 160) and Truex led once for two laps in the 400-mile event.
Five Camry drivers are in the top-15 in the unofficial NSCS driver point standings following Daytona — Hamlin (seventh), Truex (eighth), Bowyer (10th), Busch (12th) and Logano (14th).
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 4th Are you happy with your top-10 finish tonight? “Yeah. It didn’t go as planned, but ended up pretty good so we’ll take that for sure — a fourth-place finish in the Dollar General Camry. I got tagged coming on to pit road — I wasn’t even coming onto pit road. The cars in front of me were pitting and they just pulled off late and then the guy in front of me got checked up and then whoever was behind me, I don’t even know who it was, hit the back of me and sent us all sailing and spinning through the grass. From there we were overheating a lot and trying to fix it and then we came out and we were behind the field, and then I wasn’t able to catch the field in time coming off of pit road. So, we ran a little bit behind and they all wrecked and we missed that wreck. Then, on the final restart we started 11th and just driving up towards the front and they all started wrecking again in front of me and I just went low and came home with a fourth-place finish. That’s how we’ve got to keep fighting. Just keep fighting all day and coming home with the best finish possible. Very crazy — just lots of things happened today.”
How were you able to finish fourth in the race? “I’d rather be lucky than good. We had one up and down night for our Dollar General car. My guys did a great, great job to get us through all that — fix my car. We got lucky. We actually didn’t get off pit road in time and we were behind the first big crash and that put us 11th on the last restart and then going into (turn) three was just bumper cars — one guy got into the next guy. I got loose and saved it and I saw the 16 (Greg Biffle) go through in my mirror and I was like, ‘Wow, that was really close.’ There was a few moments throughout my Daytona weekend that my heart stopped. I’m lucky to get through Daytona with two top-five finishes.”
How did the team improve your Camry during the race? “At the beginning of the race we weren’t where we needed to be — we were too loose and I couldn’t get up there and fight and race guys real hard. We were getting the car close when we got in that first wreck, but all the guys on my team have done a really good job these last few weeks of giving me fast race cars. At Kentucky, we had a top-10 car and we just didn’t get the finish we deserved. Tonight, we made up for that. We got luckier than probably where we should have finished. I’ll take it for sure and it puts us in the wild card spot right now so that’s exciting to have a shot for that right now. We still have a few weeks to go so we have to keep this going and stay sharp.”
MICHAEL WALTRIP, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 9th How was your race? “We got into Joey (Logano) there when he was coming to pit road and messed up the front of the car earlier in the race. Then at the end of the race I was confident I could push and I just got ahold of the back of the 39 (Ryan Newman) and we were coming and then they started crashing and he squirted through in fifth and I squirted through in ninth. We just had a damaged car and probably pretty lucky to get a top-10. Earlier in the going I was trying my best to get up to the lead and making moves that got us close, but I think in general across the board we weren’t as strong as the front few cars. We got close, but that was all that we could do is get close.”
BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Kingsford Charcoal Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Finishing Position: 10th Were you happy to get a top-10 finish tonight? “Yeah, we were a tortoise out there tonight. We were a second-and-a-half off of the pole in qualifying. We brought this car and just tried something completely different and it wasn’t very good. We just ended up there and missing those wrecks and that’s all that saved us tonight.”
TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 93 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing Finishing Position: 16th
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Batteries Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 17th
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 24th
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 25th How is your back after the wreck? “I’m alright. None of the hits were too bad except for the last one in the right-side door. Proud of our FedEx Office team. It was one of those weekends where it’s tough to go into the race with not much practice, but we put ourselves in position to win and just got collected there at the end. We were all jumbled and jockeying for position. It looked like the 16 (Greg Biffle) — like he came down and got the right-front fender and I was already loose anyway. After that, you’re just a ping pong ball at that point. I have to thank the whole team for sticking by us this weekend. We’ll go to Loudon (N.H.) and try to win there.”
How was your back throughout the race? “I was fine — I could have done without it, that’s for sure. I’ll be 100 percent by next weekend for sure. I have made great strides every day in getting better and I know that once I get to Loudon next weekend, we will be good to go. Just looking forward to getting to some of these race tracks where you have control over your own destiny.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 29th
LANDON CASSILL, No. 83 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing Finishing Position: 32nd
DAVID STREMME, No. 30 Stock Car Steel and Aluminum Toyota Camry, Inception Motorsports Starting Position: 39th
JJ YELEY, No. 49 Robinson-Blakeney Racing Toyota Camry, Robinson-Blakeney Racing Finishing Position: 40th
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 AM/FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position: 41st
