TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Watkins Glen International – August 12, 2012
Camry driver Clint Bowyer (fourth) was the top-finishing Toyota driver in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Watkins Glen International.
Kyle Busch (seventh) and Martin Truex Jr. (10th) also earned top-10 results for Toyota at the 2.45-mile, 11-turn road course in upstate New York.
Busch led three times for a race-high 43 laps (of 90) in his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Camry.
Other Camry drivers in the field at Watkins Glen included Landon Cassill (23rd), Travis Kvapil (24th), Bobby Labonte (27th), Joe Nemechek (29th), Joey Logano (32nd), Denny Hamlin (34th), Jason Leffler (35th), Chris Cook (41st), Patrick Long (42nd) and Brian Vickers (43rd).
Four Camry drivers are in the top-15 in the unofficial NSCS driver point standings following Watkins Glen – Truex (sixth), Bowyer (seventh), Hamlin (10th) and Busch (15th). Busch currently ranks third among ‘wild card’ candidates for the Chase.
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 4th How was the racing today? “That was some slick racing the last few laps. You watch these road racers race in the rain and find traction. It kind of reminded me of the old motocross days. It was real slick in that oil and you had to find grooves around it. I almost got into the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) there. We were sliding everywhere. He about got me and I about got him. It was kind of fun, but it was pretty nerve-wracking.”
Are you happy with a top-five finish for your points position? “We needed that. It was a solid weekend for us. This isn’t one of my best tracks and I’m real proud of Brian Pattie (crew chief) and everybody on this 5-hour ENERGY Toyota for helping me out.”
What did you experience at the end of the race? “I’ll add to the disbelief. What a wild last couple laps. It kind of reminded me of the old motocross days when you had to go to the outside, inside and find some traction because the groove certainly didn’t have any traction. Pretty wild. Sam (Hornish Jr.) and I had a heck of a race there then the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) slipped up on the last corner and I thought I was going to hit him. Pretty intense last couple laps.”
Are you a road racing ace now after a fifth-place result and your Sonoma win? “I would not say I’m an ace. Thank Brian Pattie (crew chief) and everybody on this 5-hour ENERGY Toyota. This isn’t one of my best tracks and they pulled through and gave me a great race car again and got ourselves a good finish.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 7th
DAVE ROGERS, crew chief, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing What happened with Kyle Busch’s car? “Well the 47 (Bobby Labonte) broke, you can see him, he just went by smoking, he left oil down all over the track. Kyle (Busch) hit the oil and it allowed the 2 car (Brad Keselowski) to get to us and he kind of raced us the way he raced us. It was a good car and Kyle gave a great effort — really proud of everyone on this M&M’s Toyota Camry team. We were fast and we were here, but we didn’t get the job done today.”
Is there anything wrong with the No. 18 Camry? “There’s nothing wrong with the 18 car — he just got in the oil from the 47 (Bobby Labonte).”
Was the oil on the race track from the No. 18 or another car? “There is 100 percent chance it came from somebody else. There is nothing wrong with this M&M’s Toyota Camry. This car is fine, it’s not leaking oil — look at the back bumper, there’s no oil on it. There was another car in the field that blew a motor, went by us, we knew he blew a motor and instead of getting off the race track like he should have, he tried to stay out there and run the extra two laps and when he did he ran right through the groove. That was a mistake by another driver — oil on the field and the rest of us had to deal with it. Kyle (Busch) was just the first one there.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 10th How was your race? “Man, it was rough. We dodged a big bullet there with a 10th-place finish. We had a good car. The NAPA Toyota was fast. We were running third and one lap from pitting and we ran out of gas and the caution came out. So, when we pitted we had to go to the tail end of the longest line and I think there were only 25 laps to go and we were in the tail end of the longest line. We had to pass a lot of cars to get back to 10th. Man, if we didn’t run out of gas we were going to get us another top-five here. Those kinds of days when you make mistakes you’ve got to battle back. It was a good points day for us. We dodged a big bullet by being able to come back through the field like that.”
LANDON CASSILL, No. 83 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing Finishing Position: 23rd
TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 93 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing Finishing Position: 24th
BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Miller Welders/Freightliner Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Finishing Position: 27th
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 Genny Light/AM/FM Energy Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position: 29th
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 32nd What happened to bring you to the garage? “I felt it about 10 laps before that caution — I felt it bouncing really hard in the rear. It ended up ripping the whole mount – the whole shock mount right out of the chassis. We’ll get back out there. They have to weld a new one in there. It’s a bummer. I felt like we were a couple adjustments away from where we needed to be, but could get it to where we needed to be by the end of the race. We’ll go out there and try to salvage everything we can get. The points position we were in was all about wins and now it’s even more about wins. We’ll salvage what we can with our Home Depot car and try it again in Michigan.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 34th What happened to take you out of the race? “I have a thing with wrecks and fires lately. It’s frustrating. Our FedEx Freight team had a rough weekend after getting caught up in the oil on Friday and getting caught in a wreck and just today the motor let go. For us, it’s really the first engine issue all year. It’s unfortunate, but it’s part of racing – it’s what happens. Just an overall bad weekend for us, not the way we wanted to end it.”
What did you experience in the race car when your engine gave way? “It was fine. Once again, I started feeling the heat and I looked down and saw fire right by my feet and it was coming through the fire wall. That part of it is pretty scary. Once I started to get a little fire on me, I decided to stop at the nearest fire station.”
JASON LEFFLER, No. 49 American Israel Racing Toyota Camry, American Israel Racing Starting Position: 35th
CHRIS COOK, No. 19 Plinker Tactical Toyota Camry, Humphrey-Smith Racing Finishing Position: 41st
PATRICK LONG, No. 30 Inception Motorsports Toyota Camry, Inception Motorsports Finishing Position: 42nd
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 55 MyClassicGarage.com Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 43rd What happened to take you out of the race? “We blew an engine getting into turn 6. On the downshift maybe I over-revved it. I’m not sure. It’s really frustrating. MyClassicGarage.com Toyota was a really good car and I was really excited about the race.”
