TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Indianapolis Motor Speedway – July 29, 2012
Camry driver Kyle Busch (second) was the top-finishing Toyota driver in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Busch earned his career-best finish at the 2.5-mile speedway, and led the field twice for two laps.
It marks Busch’s best result of the season since a third-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May. Camry drivers Denny Hamlin (sixth) and Martin Truex Jr. (eighth) also earned top-10 results at the speedway.
Hamlin started from the pole and led twice for a total of 27 laps.
Other Camry drivers in the field at Indianapolis included Mark Martin (11th), Clint Bowyer (15th), David Stremme (24th), Landon Cassill (25th), Bobby Labonte (26th), Joey Logano (33rd), Travis Kvapil (37th) and Mike Bliss (43rd).
Four Camry drivers are in the top-15 in the unofficial NSCS driver point standings following Indianapolis — Hamlin (fifth), Truex (seventh), Bowyer (10th) and Busch (11th). Busch sits second among ‘wild card’ candidates for the Chase.
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 2nd What did you need to get past Jimmie Johnson? “I have no idea. I don’t know that you can go around this place that fast. You talk about guys being in their own zip code — he (Jimmie Johnson) was in his own country today. It was just a great day for us in this M&M’s Camry — it was phenomenal. We unloaded really well. Dave Rogers (crew chief) and the guys gave me a great race car. I can’t say enough about them. We gave it everything we had — we had a little miscue on a pit stop there, but rebounded nicely and was able to come out of here with a second-place today. It feels like a win for us for as bad as the last two months have gone. Just excited to hopefully be able to turn this around and hopefully start getting headed in the right direction. Get ourselves running the way we need to be running or finishing I should say — we run fine. Just getting those finishes is what we need.”
Does this finish give you momentum? “I’m a lot happier today than I’ve been in the last two months. Just so many frustrating days, including yesterday having the fastest car. I know what Jimmie (Johnson) feels like today because I had that yesterday, but I didn’t win. We kind of gave that one away too. All in all, just excited about the opportunity to get going here to Pocono and Watkins Glen — a couple places that we’re really excited about going back to.”
How was your race car today? “It was a really, really good race car, that’s for sure. Jimmie Johnson wasn’t even in his own zip code today, he was in his own country. The rest of the field has a whole lot of work to do, I can tell you that. It feels so good to actually run well and finish well. We’ve been needing to do this for so long — we’ve run well, we’ve just never been able to close out the deal. It feels like a win for us. I wanted to do a burnout, but I’ll save that for when we really do collect the checkered flag.”
How was this weekend for Joe Gibbs Racing? “I felt good about it. I thought we qualified decent — best I’ve ever qualified here, best I’ve ever raced here. The guys gave me a great race car — can’t say enough about them for doing that. Denny (Hamlin) qualified on the pole and was running well in the race — he had a couple mishaps that he bounced back from. He certainly made the most of the effort today.”
Does this finish help after some frustrating results recently? “We’ve had a lot of frustrating days here — we’ve had the last eight frustrating weeks. It’s been really hard on us and hard on our team. This is a great run for us and I really appreciate all these guys — Dave Rogers (crew chief) and all these guys on this M&M’s Camry — to give me a good piece to qualify well and run up front like that and to just come out of here with a solid day. It feels like a win for us.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 6th Did you have anything for Jimmie Johnson today? “The Hendrick cars had something going on with the back of their cars that’s unique. Other than that, they were the dominant cars. No one was going to run with them, especially the 48 (Jimmie Johnson). The 24 (Jeff Gordon) found something there at the very end that was beneficial. We had about a fourth, fifth, sixth-place car and that’s kind of where we ended up. Once I got back there, I was able to maintain and make up a little ground, but I wasn’t going to go any further forward than where I was.”
What happened on one of the early restarts where you lost several positions? “We did it again on the last restart, it laid on the front end and took off dead straight. I don’t know if it’s because we had a car pushing us and then basically I think what happened is it dug the nose into the ground and took the front tires off the ground. I couldn’t steer it into the corner and I did it again on the last restart. We got pushed into the corner and I couldn’t control it after that. It was just one of those days where we didn’t have the car to win anyways.”
How difficult is it to pass at this track? “It’s almost impossible unless you’re really faster than the guy in front of you. It’s so hard to pass and everyone who finishes second to 43rd is going to tell you that same thing. It’s frustrating, but it’s part of it. We come to this track that wasn’t necessarily made for our cars and it’s just tough. The aero is so important anyway with our cars that you put us on a flat track with a lot of speed, it’s going to be dramatic.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 8th How was your race? “I told Chad (Johnston, crew chief) and the guys after the race that this is what we needed. When we showed up here on Friday, we didn’t have the car we wanted. We were way off and we had to work on it very, very hard. To have the speed we had today was really awesome. We really fought track position — starting 17th and then had a little bit of trouble on a couple of our stops and we lost a few spots. Every single restart, but the last one I was on the outside. It’s just so tough on the outside so the last one I got on the bottom and gained some spots. Overall, it was good. It was a good day, the guys did an awesome job. Our new TRD (Toyota Racing Development) motor was awesome — best motor I’ve ever had so I want to thank those guys. The NAPA car was good — we were just missing a little bit. We were a little too tight all day long and could just never fix it.”
Will this setup transfer to Pocono next week? “The package we ran today is something that I think will work at Pocono. Since they changed the side skirt rules, we’ve struggled a little bit as a team. We were really onto some stuff that was working good for us at Kansas and Texas and places early in the year and then they cut the side skirts off on us. We had to go to work. The package that we ran today is a lot different. It’s something that I think will work at Pocono — it’s a lot more similar to what Mark (Martin) ran really well at Pocono with. Heading down that road and hopefully we’ll work things out and do some testing tomorrow at Michigan and then go to Pocono and have a good run.”
CHAD JOHNSTON (Cayuga, Ind.-native), crew chief, No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing How did you feel about today’s race at your ‘home’ track? “It wasn’t bad. We fought tight all day long. We’ve been tight since we got here. We need to work on the front of our cars and get them to turn a little bit better. Besides that, it was a pretty good day and pretty uneventful. This place is awesome. All the history here and coming here growing up and eventually getting to race here — it’s incredible. I think everybody that grows up racing in Indiana dreams of coming here and racing in some aspect. It’s a special place. I think it’s special for people even if they’re not from Indiana.”
MARK MARTIN, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 11th How was your race today? “The finish is a little disappointing since we were getting up in the top-10 and then we got caught in a losing shuffle there on that last restart. We had a solid top-five car there and I was really proud of it — proud of our Toyota engine, it was so strong. We need to get a little bit better. We didn’t have a top-five car, but we did have a top-10 and it was a great team effort by our guys. We’ll keep working on it and try to get it a little faster. This car was good on restarts. The outside on that last restart just wasn’t the place to be. I wasn’t able to get a hole and I lost a bunch of spots.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 15th How was your race? “Hats off to Brian Pattie (crew chief) first and foremost for as bad as we were yesterday to be able to go through the notes and come up with a good package. Early on in the race we took off and went up through there like gangbusters. I’m like, ‘We’re going to be alright here.’ Just was racing and got on that outside — them outsides on the restarts, you’re in no man’s land. You try to get to the bottom as quick and efficiently as possible, but the 31 (Jeff Burton) got to the inside of the 42 (Juan Pablo Montoya) and I realized that I was three-wide on the outside and tried to get out of there and just barely caught in the left-front and cut my tire down, spun out. Anytime you spin out on a track like this, you usually end up crashing in the infield. Just thankfully everything worked out and we ended up with a top-15. Not what we wanted, but it could have been a heck of a lot worse.”
DAVID STREMME, No. 30 Inception Motorsports Toyota Camry, Inception Motorsports Finishing Position: 24th
LANDON CASSILL, No. 83 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing Finishing Position: 25th
BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Scott Products Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Finishing Position: 26th
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 33rd
TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 93 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing Finishing Position: 37th
MIKE BLISS, No. 19 Humphrey-Smith Racing Toyota Camry, Humphrey-Smith Racing Finishing Position: 43rd
