TOYOTA NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS)
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Atlanta Motor Speedway – August 31, 2012
Tundra driver Kyle Busch (second) was the top-finishing Toyota driver in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Busch started fourth in his Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) Tundra and led the race eight times for 75 laps in his first NCWTS start of the 2012 season.
Fellow Tundra drivers Parker Kligerman (fourth) and Matt Crafton (ninth) also recorded top-10 finishes on the 1.54-mile track in Hampton, Ga.
Other Tundra drivers in the field included Johnny Sauter (12th), Timothy Peters (13th), David Starr (18th), John Wes Townley (19th), Ross Chastain (20th), Todd Bodine (21st), Dakoda Armstrong (23rd) and Johnny Chapman (32nd).
Peters continues to hold the unofficial NCWTS point lead by six points over James Buescher.
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Dollar General Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports Finishing Position: 2nd What happened to your truck at the end of the race? “Nothing, just got beat. It’s a truck that’s won here three, four, five years in a row — whatever it’s been. We just got beat on setup tonight. I felt like the truck was decent, but definitely we just don’t have a good enough handle on it in the long runs, so we kind of struggled there where those guys can keep accelerating and going. Got beat. Thanks to Dollar General, Monster and everybody at FlexCo. It’s a good night, I guess.”
What will it take to get Kyle Busch Motorsports back to victory lane in NCWTS? “You’ve got to get off the same old stuff you’ve run for three years. That’s the problem. We’ve got to get on something new. Those guys have beat us here three, four years in a row and we’ve run the same setup here three, four years in a row and we’ve been beat. I’ve finished second here every time. It’s about time you get off the same old horse and go ride a new one.”
Was Ty Dillon’s truck stronger or did your handling go away? “He (Ty Dillon) was just that much better. It wasn’t the last five laps — he ran me down from five seconds back or three seconds back, whatever it was. I don’t know. They had a better truck. They had a lot better handle on the bottom of the race track than we did and especially throughout the longer of the run he could hold the bottom a heck of a lot better than I could. There when it’s time to race when a guy catches you and you have to go somewhere else — you have to go to the top and you try to push and you just get sideways and get in the fence — there’s no room to catch it up there. All I could do to try to push as hard as I could and didn’t have anything to hold onto.”
How different does the truck drive versus the Nationwide and Cup cars? “It will be different for sure. Just the way that you attack the corners versus the way you’ve got to manipulate the throttle and everything like that. The driving characteristics are entirely different between all three vehicles. Getting your hands out there and trying to figure out what to do — certainly running the truck there gave me a lot of good ideas for tomorrow that I need to in my Nationwide car and which I’ve applied to my Cup car already. The Cup car seems to be pretty decent — just a matter of trying to continue to make all of them better and run up front.”
PARKER KLIGERMAN, No. 7 Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing Finishing Position: 4th How was tonight’s race? “We had a fast number 7 Toyota Tundra on the long run. That first run we were so awesome. We drove through the field and I thought we had something for the 18 (Kyle Busch). I thought we had something for the 3 (Ty Dillon). We got the lead there for a lap and I just let the 3 in and I was probably too nice. From there, we had that restart in second, got a great restart and just got put three wide and swamped and I got loose and lost nine positions, so we had to drive through the field again and we did it again. From there, we made an adjustment that probably wasn’t the right adjustment and we were just kind of hanging on for the end and it took it us out of being a first-place truck to a fourth-place truck.”
Are these the type of finishes you need to contend for the title? “Championship-wise, you’re looking for top-fives, clean trucks. Consistency will put you in the battle. Wins will win you the war. I feel like we’re damn close. I thought tonight was our night. I really did. I was grinning from ear to ear for about half this race thinking, ‘We’re going to win the race. This is great,’ and then it just all kind of fell apart, but we’ll get it done. Chad (Kendrick, crew chief) and all these guys do a great job. It’s an amazing thing for us to come back from our first three weekends together and run like this. I was disappointed, but I hope these guys don’t get down because they did a great job.”
MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing Finishing Position: 9th
JOHNNY SAUTER, No. 13 Hot Honeys/Curb Records Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing Finishing Position: 12th
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing Finishing Position: 13th What did you struggle with tonight? “It just wasn’t our night. That’s what this will do to you — it will give you a piece of humble pie. Everybody did a good job on our Toyota Tundra tonight. We just missed it. That left rear tire cut in practice didn’t help us none — we missed all of second practice. I ain’t scared. We’ll be alright.”
Was the track different at night versus during the day in practice? “It was the same — there was just no grip. We would be a little loose one run and be a little tight the next run. All night long the truck just never got into the race track at all. It was just on top and I know that’s expected for Atlanta, but it was just more than what we wanted.”
DAVID STARR, No. 81 Advocare Toyota Tundra Finishing Position: 18th
JOHN WES TOWNLEY, No. 09 Zaxby’s Toyota Tundra, RAB Racing Finishing Position: 19th How was tonight’s race? “Started out today pretty decent. We struggled a little bit, but we got it a little decent for qualifying and the race. We just kind of hung out there. The most important thing here is we finished the race. We brought it back in one piece and now we can go race at Iowa. This is a tough deal. I know a lot of other guys were complaining — having the same issue we were having as far as being really free. It’s just one of those things. We’ll just go onto Iowa and see what we’ve got for them there.”
ROSS CHASTAIN, No. 08 Melon 1/Georgia Watermelon Association Toyota Tundra, Green Light Racing Finishing Position: 20th
TODD BODINE, No. 11 Toyota Care Tundra, Red Horse Racing Finishing Position: 21st
DAKODA ARMSTRONG, No. 98 EverFi.com Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing Finishing Position: 23rd
JOHNNY CHAPMAN, No. 07 Wear Your Gear Toyota Tundra, Green Light Racing Finishing Position: 32nd
