TOYOTA NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS)
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Indianapolis Motor Speedway – July 28, 2012
Camry driver Denny Hamlin (fourth) was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in Saturday afternoon’s inaugural NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Joey Logano (seventh) also recorded a top-10 finish for Toyota at the famed two-mile oval.
Travis Pastrana (13th) earned his career-best NNS finish in his seventh career start and first at Indianapolis.
Other Toyota drivers in the field at Indianapolis included Mike Bliss (11th), Brian Scott (14th), Jason Bowles (16th), Joe Nemechek (18th), Kenny Wallace (19th), Tayler Malsam (20th), Kyle Busch (22nd), Eric McClure (24th), Tayler Malsam (29th) and Jeff Green (36th).
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 18 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 4th How was your car during the race? “Our car was just too loose all day and especially on restarts — we couldn’t make any ground up. I was in the way for the first 10 laps. Track position is so important. Once you get going you have to have it. We just didn’t have a car fast enough on the short run today.”
How difficult was it to pass during the race? “It’s so much — it’s a tough balance because there’s just not enough horsepower in these cars and the drag is too high to make a pass. It’s really tough. Overall, a good day for our Sport Clips Toyota. Top-five is not what we were looking for, but still a great day.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 GameStop Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 7th How was your race? “We didn’t do very good this weekend. We were just slow from when we unloaded. We tried to make some improvements here and there, and we just never did. We got a little better. It’s kind of frustrating. We couldn’t run with the fast cars. Battling for track position back there. You can’t pass a car on this race track to save your life. So, that makes it real difficult.”
Is there anything from today that will help in tomorrow’s race? “Yeah. Some things. The fact that you can’t pass a car is one thing, for sure, you can take over there.”
MIKE BLISS, No. 44 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position: 11th
TRAVIS PASTRANA, No. 99 Boost Mobile Toyota Camry, RAB Racing w/Brack Maggard Finishing Position: 13th What was it like racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway? “It’s a very intimidating place. This is it for motorsports — this and Daytona. Definitely an honor to race here. After practice I was really worried, I didn’t think we had the speed. Definitely was a big gap between the guys out front and the guys in the back — bigger than most of the short tracks. I felt really good. We learned a lot. They did a great job getting the car working because we just went back to what we had. It took me awhile to get the line on this track just because there is so much speed. This is the biggest track I’ve ever raced. I’m really excited with a top-15 — the first top-15 and the crew did a great job.”
What did you learn in today’s race? “The drafting and everything — I’m just clueless. I understand racing, but when you have guys making up huge runs coming up and two or three-wide and all of the sudden it’s like, ‘Wow.’ I’m earning a little respect in here and there’s always going to be those few people that you lose respect for or they lose respect for you as it goes on. It’s just racing situations. I’m really excited. We’re just trying to go out there now and not damage the car, get all the experience we can, not crashing in qualifying — I’ve done that a lot of times where we just didn’t get the benefit of racing the race because I messed up the car early. That’s what we did the last two races. I’ve learned my most in the last two races. Respectable finishes, but still every driver wants to win. It’s going to take time.”
TRAVIS PASTRANA, No. 99 Boost Mobile Toyota Camry, RAB Racing w/Brack Maggard (continued) Did you ever dream of racing at Indianapolis growing up? “For me, Daytona was always the one that I looked up to in NASCAR because that’s where all my friends and family — that’s where we would go and watch at my friend’s house. My best friend Jim, him and his parents have been coming to Indy since he was three-years-old and they would come every single year. It’s pretty cool to have his parents in the stands here. It’s neat how much tradition — kids come up to you and they understand racing and they know all the guys that have been racing and it’s a privilege to be in that circle or at least starting to break into it.”
BRIAN SCOTT, No. 11 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 14th
JASON BOWLES, No. 81 American Majority Toyota Camry, MacDonald Motorsports Finishing Position: 16th
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 AM/FM Energy Wood Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position: 18th
KENNY WALLACE, No. 24 Family Farmers Toyota Camry, SR2 Motorsports Finishing Position: 19th
KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Kyle Busch Motorsports Finishing Position: 22nd
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: 29th
JEFF GREEN, No. 10 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position: 36th
