TOYOTA NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS)
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Chicagoland Speedway – July 22, 2012
Camry driver Kenny Wallace (fourth) was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in Sunday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Chicagoland Speedway.
This was Wallace’s first top-five finish since a fifth-place result at Richmond in Sept. 2011.
Ryan Truex (10th) also earned a top-10 finish for Toyota at the 1.5-mile Illinois oval. This was his fourth top-10 in seven races this season.
Other Camry drivers in the field included Brian Scott (11th), Mike Bliss (12th), Joe Nemechek (13th), Travis Pastrana (17th), Jason Bowles (23rd), Eric McClure (24th), Tayler Malsam (25th), Tanner Berryhill (26th), Kyle Busch (27th) and Jeff Green (43rd).
KENNY WALLACE, No. 09 Family Farmers Toyota Camry, RAB Racing w/Brack Maggard Finishing Position: 4th How was your Camry during the race? “It was really loose, that’s what happened to me there late in the race when I gave up the spot to Michael Annett. This Toyota Camry, Family Farmers car was in the middle of the Corn Belt. All the farmers are starving here, they’ve lost their livelihood, all their money — their corn has burnt up. I’m a racer and without the Family Farmers of America Ethanol, this car wouldn’t be here. That’s just shades of the past — that’s the ‘Hermanator’, I’m used to that. It’s just been a while.”
How much did being part of the nine cars that didn’t pit under green when the caution came out help your finish? “Obviously we came from 11th and we had to pass those guys on the restarts. Really our Family Farmers Camry handled really good, it was really fast for 40 laps and then I would go Kyle Busch loose. Me and Kyle Busch were the same loose all day long, I just drove mine a little underneath me because we don’t have any backup cars. Kyle is a hell of a driver. I don’t know why, but after 20, 25 laps we would get wicked loose. Tires cooled down on that green-white-checkered finish and instead of getting fifth, we got fourth.”
How does it feel to get a top-five? “We had a fifth-place the last race at Richmond last year and then we had a third-place going at Richmond last year and messed it up. Really, it is all about believing in your talent. When you get older, the good rides tend to go away, but these Family Farmers kept supporting me.”
RYAN TRUEX, No. 18 Grime Boss Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 10th How was your race? “It seemed like the track never did the same thing every run. We were tight most of the day and then at the end there, when we restarted third I guess, we were just too loose. I don’t know if the car changed. We tightened it up for that round and it got loose or I think the track, when the sun came out, it just got slicker. We’ll take a 10th, I think we could have finished better than that. I couldn’t do any more at the end, we were just too free. This Grime Boss Toyota was good and these guys did a good job, now we’ll go to Watkins Glen.”
How much did not getting caught a lap down by the caution help your finish? “That helped us, I think because we were third for that restart. We were able to come in and take tires — had a really good stop and we came out third. Track position is huge everywhere, we were just a little bit too free to keep it.”
BRIAN SCOTT, No. 11 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 11th
MIKE BLISS, No. 44 TriStar Motorsports Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position: 12th
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 AM/FM Energy Wood Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position: 13th
TRAVIS PASTRANA, No. 99 Boost Mobile Toyota Camry, RAB Racing w/Brack Maggard Finishing Position: 17th
JASON BOWLES, No. 81 American Majority Toyota Camry, MacDonald Motorsports Finishing Position: 23rd
ERIC McCLURE, No. 14 Hefty/Reynolds Wrap Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position: 24th
TAYLER MALSAM, No. 19 G-Oil/Noah’s Light Foundation Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position: 25th
TANNER BERRYHILL, No. 17 New Gulf Resources Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position: 26th
KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Kyle Busch Motorsports Finishing Position: 27th
RICK REN, general manager, Kyle Busch Motorsports How frustrating was the Chicagoland race? “It was a really frustrating day. We thought we were pretty good in practice yesterday and trying to anticipate a hot, sunny race track today. We made some adjustments aimed at that direction and kind of went the wrong way. We just never could recover over what we had done. We’re still scratching our head a little bit as to what happened, because some of t he things Kyle (Busch) was complaining about with the chassis today, it’s very odd. Even Kyle said, ‘I’ve never quite felt this before.’ We’ll diagnose what we did today and try to correct that and go on and go forward. Mike Beam (crew chief) and I, we just had a meeting here about Indianapolis next week and changing our focus a little bit around from where we’re at. We have to go to Indianapolis and just put this behind us and go on. We have if not the best driver that there is — I don’t know who else is up there and when we run this bad, it’s not him.”
What was the pit road penalty earlier in the race? “It was just a speeding penalty on one of the segments from pit road. That happens when we push the limits and everybody tries to get every inch of real estate they can. It was just one of those things. Thank goodness it happened early in the race and we recovered. We had good track position at the end of the race, we were up there, but we could only run good for four or five laps and then the car would just go away on us today. That’s very unusual for how we’ve been performing lately. Mike Beam (crew chief) were kind of scratching our head and I know Kyle (Busch) was out there driving it — by his comments he’d never felt anything like that. We have to figure out what’s up.”
What happened to take Kyle Busch out of the race? “Sam Hornish came over and apologized to us. He ran into us on the backstretch and turned us into Brendan Gaughan. Sam came over and apologized, Brendan Gaughan came over to see if Kyle was okay. Of course, Kyle had already left. Sam came over and talked to Mike Beam (crew chief) and I and Chad (Walter), his crew chief came over and talked. None of those guys are really people to go out and wreck people. To happen in the middle of the straightaway, we knew something happened.”
JEFF GREEN, No. 10 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position: 43rd
