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[/media-credit]TOYOTA NASCAR NOTES & QUOTES
July 23 – 29, 2012
TOYOTA TIDBITS 200 FOR TOYOTA: When the green flag flies for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) on Sunday, it will mark the 200th start for the Toyota Camry in NSCS competition. Since entering the series in 2007, Camry drivers have combined to capture 44 wins, 196 top-five results, 370 top-10 finishes and 38 pole positions in six seasons at NASCAR’s highest level.
‘WINDY CITY’ REWIND: Toyota drivers picked up three top-five finishes in the NASCAR races over the weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. Camry driver Kenny Wallace earned a fourth-place result in Sunday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race and Tundra drivers Timothy Peters (third) and Matt Crafton (fourth) registered top-five showings in Saturday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) event. With his fifth-place showing, Peters extended his series points lead to 23.
INDY TRIUMPH FOR TOYOTA?: Toyota has won at least one NSCS race at 21 of 23 venues on the current Cup Series schedule. Indianapolis Motor Speedway is one of just two tracks where the manufacturer has yet to visit victory lane at stock car racing’s highest level. In five races at IMS, Toyota drivers have recorded eight top-10 finishes. California’s Auto Club Speedway is the only other current track where Toyota has yet to win a Cup race.
MWR MAKING MOVES: With the additions of Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin joining Martin Truex Jr., MWR drivers have earned at least one top-10 finish in all but one race this season — totaling 26 top-10 results. The team has also earned four of 19 pole positions — Phoenix (Martin), Texas (Truex), Richmond (Martin) and Dover (Martin) — and led 620 laps. In addition, Bowyer earned his first win since joining MWR at the road course race in Sonoma, Calif., in June.
A DIFFERENT INDY: For the first time in series history, the NNS will compete at the famed 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway instead of Lucas Oil Raceway. The Indianapolis short track holds a special place in Toyota history as the site of the first victory for a Toyota Camry in NASCAR competition. Jason Leffler was behind the wheel of the Camry that captured that inaugural checkered flag at in NNS competition on July 28, 2007. Since that first race win, Camry drivers have combined to win 69 NNS races.
SOCIAL MEDIA & WEBSITE: Background and images about the Toyota NASCAR program are available at www.toyotaracingmedia.com, @ToyotaRacing, www.facebook.com/toyotaracing and www.youtube.com/toyotaracingusa.
NOTES, QUOTES & NUMBERS NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS): After 19 races, Denny Hamlin is fifth in the series point standings, trailing leader Matt Kenseth by 79 points … Martin Truex Jr. (eighth) and Clint Bowyer (ninth) also rank in the top-10 in the standings … The first Toyota victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was earned by Gil de Ferran in the 2003 Indianapolis 500 … Camry crew chief Chad Johnston, who calls the shots for the Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) No. 56 Camry driven by Martin Truex Jr., grew up a racer himself in Cayuga, Ind. … Jeff Koons, who provides pit support for the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) No. 18 Camry, is from Greenfield, Ind. … JGR has earned three wins in the Brickyard 400 … Current Camry driver Bobby Labonte registered the win in 2000, and former Toyota driver Tony Stewart picked up a pair of first-place trophies in 2005 and 2007 … JTG-D Racing has hired Bobby Hutchens as the team’s new general manager with David Hyder assuming the crew chief role on the No. 47 Camry temporarily … Michael Waltrip and NAPA will present a check for $25,000 to victims of the Colorado wild fires on Saturday prior to the running of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Colorado National Speedway … Fans can participate by making contributions through a link at www.michaelwaltripracing.com.
CHAD JOHNSTON, crew chief, No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing What does the race at Indianapolis mean to you? “All of the races pay the same in points. But, if I had to pick one race to win, Indy is the race that means the most to me. I have a tough time putting Indy into words. It ranks up there along with winning a championship. If I had a bucket list for things I wanted to accomplish, Indy is at the top, or very close to the top. I mean, I remember walking out through the sea of people to pit road on a Sunday in 2006. I had always been on the other side of the fence. I saw where I used to sit in the stands every year for both the Indy 500 and Brickyard 400 races. To now be a part of the show is unbelievable.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Where does an Indianapolis victory rank on the list of prestigious NASCAR races? “It’s number two. It’s right there. Daytona is one, and Indy is two. They’re both pretty close. Indy is an important race track for a lot of people. The history of that place — it’s all been Indy cars. But, it ‘s still one of the first big superspeedways in America dating back to the early 1900s. There’s a lot there that everyone always wants to win.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued) What does it take to be successful at Indianapolis? “Indianapolis is probably one of the trickiest places we go to on the schedule — Pocono being one, Darlington being one, Indy being another. It’s so hard to find a particular line that really, really works for you or really works for your car because the groove is so narrow. It’s plenty wide for one or one-and-a-half cars, but the line that you run around there, you vary six inches and it feels so different. You really have to be particular in hitting your marks and getting your car set up. The way that it changes throughout the weekend, going from practice, when there’s not much rubber on the race track, and then to the race with a lot of rubber on the race track — the trajectory of the corners changes. How wide do you enter the corner? How long do you stay out? How sharp do you turn down? I’d love nothing more than to win there on Sunday with my M&M’s Camry. It would be something cool. Been close a couple times, but I’d like to get a little closer.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Who are your biggest threats for a ‘wild card’ spot in the Chase? “Obviously, you have the two guys that are right behind me — I think Kasey’s (Kahne) had a lot of fast race cars, so you would assume he definitely has a pretty good shot at it. I think the 24 (Jeff Gordon) is somebody you would figure would get a win between now and the Chase. That’s why I say that extra win is going to mean a lot. We’re not that far from Kyle (Busch) in points either. There are five, six or seven of us there very, very close and one win would be a big deal. I think it’s one of the most exciting races to the Chase that we’ve had — especially for me, because I’m involved in it. It does add a little more pressure, because you can’t afford to have a bad race at this point.”
How do you balance another win versus picking up points? “That’s very, very hard. Probably a really hard question for Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) as it is for me. You’re out there to get the best finish you possibly can and the points position we’re in right now — we can’t afford to have a bad finish, but a win is very valuable. You don’t want to go ‘checkers or wreckers’ and go from a victory or a 25th place finish — that’s something that I think we really can’t take that big of a risk yet. I don’t think we’re at that point yet. We’re still close in the points at getting maybe a couple spots in the point standings itself. I think we have to kind of wait and play it out. If we can do something a little crazy to get a win, yeah, we’re going to do it. At the same time, the risk versus reward — we have to weigh both ends of it out.”
NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS): After 18 races, Mike Bliss ranks eighth in the series point standings … Brian Scott (10th) is also among the top-10 in the standings … Travis Pastrana will be back behind the wheel of the RAB Racing No. 99 Camry at Indianapolis — a location where he was scheduled to make his NASCAR debut a year ago before an accident at the X-Games sidelined him for several weeks … Through Oct. 1, the Kyle Busch Foundation will be raffling a custom motorcycle in conjunction with Deadwood Choppers at www.KBFChopperRaffle.com.
KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Kyle Busch Motorsports What do you think of the Nationwide Series moving to the Brickyard? “Moving to the Brickyard, you’re obviously moving it into more mainstream with the Cup cars being there the same weekend. More attention is going to be around it. You won’t have to travel between two different venues. There’s certainly two sides to every story. There’s a lot of people that only go to the short track and wouldn’t really care to go to the big track and now that the race is at the big track, you might lose som e of those fans, but you might gain more fans because they like the big track.”
TRAVIS PASTRANA, No. 99 Boost Mobile Toyota Camry, RAB Racing How is the learning curve in NASCAR different from other racing you’ve done? “I think the more competition you have, the longer the learning curve. When you look at NASCAR, there are so many guys that are so good. The fine line in this is so precise, so the learning curve is going to take time. But Motocross — I started driving motorcycles at four and didn’t win a championship until 16. This one is a lot more — if I make a mistake in NASCAR, it’s the next day as opposed to Rally where we had one full year of crashing and one year of outside the podium every race and the next year we win the championship. That was a faster progression than this learning curve is going to be because there is a lot more really great drivers with great teams.”
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS): After nine races, Timothy Peters continues to lead the series point standings … Matt Crafton (sixth) is also in the top-10 in the standings … Todd Bodine will host the third-annual ‘Onion Slice Open’ golf tournament at Blue Ridge Trail Golf Course in Mountaintop, Pa., on Thursday, Aug. 2 … The NCWTS will enjoy a weekend off and returns to action at Pocono Raceway on August 4.
TOYOTA 2012 NASCAR STATISTICS
Series Races Starts Wins Top-5s Top-10s Poles Times Led Laps Led (Drivers) NSCS 19 230 (20) 5 28 53 7 103 1,631 NNS 18 201 (31) 6 25 43 5 87 946 NCWTS 10 102 (17) 4 21 35 2 26 273
TOYOTA DRIVER ROSTER – Indianapolis Motor Speedway NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Express Camry J.J. Yeley, No. 49 JPO Absorbents Camry Clint Bowyer, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Camry Mark Martin, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Camry Kyle Busch, No. 18 M&M’s Camry Martin Truex Jr., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Camry Mike Bliss, No. 19 Humphrey Smith Racing Camry Landon Cassill, No. 83 Burger King Camry Joey Logano, No. 20 Dollar General Camry Joe Nemechek, No. 87 AM/FM Energy Stoves Camry David Stremme, No. 30 Inception Motorsports Camry Travis Kvapil, No. 93 Burger King Camry Bobby Labonte, No. 47 Scott Products Camry
NASCAR Nationwide Series Kenny Wallace, No. 09 Family Farmers Camry Joey Logano, No. 20 GameStop Camry Jeff Green, No. 10 Toyota Camry Mike Bliss, No. 44 TriStar Motorsports Camry Brian Scott, No. 11 Dollar General Camry Kyle Busch, No. 54 Monster Energy Camry Eric McClure, No. 14 Hefty/Reynolds Wrap Camry Jason Bowles, No. 81 American Majority Camry Denny Hamlin, No. 18 Sport Clips Camry Joe Nemechek, No. 87 AM/FM Energy Wood Camry Tayler Malsam, No. 19 G-Oil/Noah’s Light Fund Camry Travis Pastrana, No. 99 Boost Mobile Camry
WEEKEND RACE SCHEDULE Sat., July 28 — NNS @ Indianapolis Motor Speedway — 4:30 PM (ET), ESPN — Race 19 of 33 Sun., July 29 — NSCS @ Indianapolis Motor Speedway — 1:00 PM (ET), ESPN — Race 20 of 36
