TOYOTA NASCAR NOTES & QUOTES
November 12 – 18, 2012
TOYOTA TIDBITS
TWO TOYOTA TOP-FIVES: Camry drivers Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch earned second and third-place finishes, respectively, in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Phoenix International Raceway. Busch started from the pole in the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) No. 18 Camry and led the field four times for a race-high 237 laps (of 319), but he couldn’t get past race-winner Kevin Harvick during a green-white-checkered flag finish. Hamlin paced the field two times for a total of 46 laps and ended up with a runner-up finish after winning the Phoenix NSCS race earlier this season.
CAMRY CHASERS: Heading into the season-finale this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway — the final event of the 10-race ‘Chase for the Sprint Cup’ championship playoff — Bowyer fell to fourth-place in the standings after his 28th-place finish at Phoenix, following an on-track incident with Jeff Gordon. He now trails first-place Brad Keselowski by 52 points. Hamlin moved up to fifth in the standings (-62 points) and Martin Truex Jr. is in 11th-place (-111 points).
KYLE’S COMEBACK: With his third-place result at Phoenix, Camry driver Busch has recorded seven top-10 finishes in his last nine starts, including five top-five results in the last six NSCS races. The Las Vegas-native, who missed the Chase by just one spot, has earned one pole position and led 673 laps — nearly a quarter of the laps during the Chase. This year, Busch has registered 12 top-five finishes and 19 top-10 results.
TWO TOYOTA TRIUMPHS: Camry driver Joey Logano picked up his ninth NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) win of the season on Saturday at Phoenix and Brian Scott earned his second career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) victory in Friday night’s race at the one-mile Arizona oval. In Saturday’s NNS race, Logano started from the pole in the JGR No. 18 Camry and led the field four times for a total of 168 laps (of 204 laps). He battled new JGR teammate Brian Vickers side-by-side for the lead in the final laps, before Logano was able to pull away for the win. Vickers earned a second-place result in his first race with JGR and Busch finished fourth. In Friday’s NCWTS race, Scott also took the lead during a green-white-checkered flag finish en route to earning a first-place trophy in the Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) No. 18 Tundra. The Boise, Idaho-native started third on the grid and led the field three times for a race-high 48 laps (of 153).
CHAMPIONSHIP CHANCES: Tundra driver Timothy Peters finished fourth in the NCWTS race at Phoenix last Friday in the Red Horse Racing No. 17 Toyota Tundra — his 10th top-five finish this year. The finish enabled him to move into second-place in the championship point standings. Peters finds himself just 11 points behind leader James Buescher going into the season-finale at Homestead. The 32-year-old driver has recorded two top-10 finishes at Homestead, including an eighth-place result in last year’s event.
MEETING MILESTONES: Going into the season-finale this weekend at Homestead, Toyota drivers can reach some significant milestones for the manufacturer in each of the three NASCAR series. The next NSCS win for a Camry driver will mark the 50th for Toyota since joining the series in 2007. Camry drivers currently have 49 total victories, including 10 wins this year. In the NNS, Camry drivers have crossed the finish line first 74 times and the next Toyota win will be the 75th victory since the start of the 2007 season. Scott’s recent win at Phoenix was the 99th Tundra triumph in the NCWTS and Toyota drivers will look to earn the 100th victory this weekend at Homestead.
HOMESTEAD HIGHLIGHTS: Toyota drivers have tallied seven victories in NASCAR’s three national touring series at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Hamlin earned Toyota’s only NSCS win at Homestead in 2009 by leading the final 45 circuits around the 1.5-mile oval. Busch has registered both of the NNS victories for Toyota at the Florida oval, winning back-to-back races in 2009 and 2010. Tundra drivers have won four of the eight NCWTS races they have competed in at the track, including wins by Busch (2010), Todd Bodine (2008 and 2005) and Johnny Benson (2007).
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NOTES, QUOTES & NUMBERS NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS): Going into the season-finale at Homestead, Toyota drivers have combined for 10 victories, 51 top-five results, 107 top-10 finishes and have led 3,868 laps this season … Denny Hamlin and a few of his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 FedEx Camry crew members will join N.J.-based FedEx volunteers on Wednesday to deliver a truckload of donated food and a $20,000 contribution to the FoodBank of New Jersey in Hillside, N.J., to help support Sandy storm victims … Once at the food bank, the group will assist the organization in preparing to serve the community … Shannon Myers, the rear tire changer for the Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) No. 55 Camry driven by Mark Martin, was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the 1995 NFL draft … Myers was a wide receiver at North Carolina’s Lenoir-Rhyne University.
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Has this season helped you enjoy racing again? “Yeah, it really has. Not to relearn to love racing — just to enjoy it again. I’ve always loved coming to the race track, being around the guys in the garage area and having fun with this. But when you face it, when you’re not having success it’s not much fun. We’re all competitors. It’s no different than a football player when they have a bad year — it’s just not fun. I got to that point where I was miserable coming to the race track and to be able to be back running where I feel like we’re capable of running how we used to run the first few years of me being in the Cup Series, it’s a breath of fresh air to be with a group of guys that everybody is pulling in the same direction and, more importantly, enjoying themselves.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Will your recent strong runs provide momentum for 2013? “You’ve got to continue to work hard and strive to get better. For missing the Chase by what we did, yeah, we had a lot of technical problems, but I’m sure there were a few races where we could have finished better. So, we’ve got to get better every chance we get. These last 10 weeks have been pretty good. We’ve run well. We’ve been fast. We’ve shown speed. Maybe we’ve been third-to-fifth- or third-to-sixth-place cars. It’s just a matter of continuing to evolve and getting better as a team and communicating, because this car is obsolete, so we’ll work on all of that stuff in 2013.”
NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS): After 32 races, Mike Bliss ranks eighth and Brian Scott sits in ninth in the NNS point standings … The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) Camry team is looking to secure its fourth owner’s title at Homestead … The No. 18 currently leads the NNS owner’s point standings by 33 points over second-place and can guarantee the owner’s title with a finish of 28th or better at Homestead … Trey Burklin, the jack man for the JGR No. 20 NNS Camry driven by Ryan Truex at Homestead, was a walk-on quarterback at the University of Miami.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 18 GameStop Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing What would it mean to get your 10th NNS win in Homestead? “That would be the first time in my career. I don’t know how many wins I had going into this season, but I think it was under 10, so to be able to win that many races in one season is awesome — in a limited time running 22 races or so. Pretty cool feeling to hold up nine — it’d be cool to hold up all your fingers. I was going for 11 because I wanted to take my shoes off.”
ADAM STEVENS, crew chief, No. 18 GameStop Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing How meaningful has this season been with Joey Logano? “With the very few attempts we’ve had, it means a lot. It just shows you how strong this team and how capable Joey Logano is. One of the most amazing stats to me is how many of our top-fives are actually wins — when you get him (Logano) a sniff of the lead, he’s just like a rabid dog and he’ll find a way to do it.”
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS): After 21 races, Timothy Peters ranks second in the series point standings — 11 points behind leader James Buescher … Parker Kligerman (fifth), Matt Crafton (sixth) and Johnny Sauter (ninth) are also in the top-10 … The Red Horse Racing No. 11 Tundra, driven by Todd Bodine, will feature a Toyota Tundra Endeavour Project paint scheme at Homestead … A 2012 Tundra Crewmax pickup recently towed the 170,000-pound space shuttle ‘Endeavour’ and its custom tow dolly across a Los Angeles freeway bridge en route to the California Science Center, where the shuttle was placed on permanent display on October 13, 2012 … Tundra drivers have won four consecutive races — Kligerman (Talladega), Denny Hamlin (Martinsville), Sauter (Texas) and Brian Scott (Phoenix).
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing What is your strategy going into the season-finale at Homestead as you battle for the championship? “We’re focusing on nothing but a win. We know that we have to be aggressive to get out there and have a shot at this championship, so there’s nothing we can do but focus on winning. Before Phoenix, mathematically we were in, but we needed a legitimate shot heading into this weekend. My crew chief, Butch Hylton, made a great call during the race at Phoenix to get us a good finish and now we have a shot going into Homestead and that’s all we can ask for.”
What do you like about racing at Homestead? “I like a track that is abrasive and it puts it back in the driver’s hands. I have a good history there. Plus, being in the mix of this championship battle in our Tundra. I’m looking forward to getting down there and hopefully showing them who’s boss.”
TODD BODINE, No. 11 Endeavour Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing Do you feel honored to feature the Endeavour design on your Tundra in Miami? “It’s pretty neat. It’s something that’s so important to the history of our country — the history of the world, really — to be able to be a part of that is a pretty neat deal. I actually was on Endeavour in 1995. I became friends with the director of the space center, Jay Honeycutt, and he got us on there and it was pretty neat. I got the chance to sit in the pilot’s seat. Not a lot of people get that opportunity and it was quite an honor to get to do it. It’s really an amazing thing that the Tundra was able to pull the Endeavour and that much weight, and just shows how tough these trucks are.”
TOYOTA 2012 NASCAR STATISTICS
Starts Series Races (Drivers) Wins Top-5s Top-10s Poles Times Led Laps Led
NSCS 35 422 (24) 10 51 107 11 206 3,868 NNS 32 366 (42) 10 43 79 11 136 1,844 NCWTS 21 210 (27) 9 46 80 4 75 1,048
TOYOTA DRIVER ROSTER – Homestead-Miami Speedway NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Express Camry Bobby Labonte, No. 47 Clorox 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 Plinker Tactical Camry Landon Cassill, No. 83 Burger King Camry Joey Logano, No. 20 Home Depot Camry Joe Nemechek, No. 87 AM/FM Energy Stoves Camry David Stremme, No. 30 Inception Motorsports Camry Travis Kvapil, No. 93 Burger King Camry
NASCAR Nationwide Series Blake Koch, No. 00 Toyota Camry Derek White, No. 24 OCR Gazbar Camry Mike Bliss, No. 10 G-Oil Camry John Blankenship, No. 44 Coal Save the Country 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 Thrush & Son Home Improvement Camry Joey Logano, No. 18 GameStop Camry Joe Nemechek, No. 87 AM/FM Energy Stoves Camry Hal Martin, No. 19 American Custom Yachts Camry Jeff Green, No. 91 TriStar Motorsports Camry Ryan Truex, No. 20 Grime Boss Camry Kenny Wallace, No. 99 RAB Racing Camry
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Parker Kligerman, No. 7 Red Horse Racing Tundra Kyle Busch, No. 18 Dollar General Tundra Ross Chastain, No. 08 Custom Cooling Tundra Dusty Davis, No. 22 Toyota Tundra John Wes Townley, No. 09 Zaxby’s Tundra German Quiroga, No. 51 NET10 Wireless Tundra Todd Bodine, No. 11 Endeavour Tundra David Starr, No. 81 Zachry Tundra Johnny Sauter, No. 13 Seal Master/Curb Records Tundra Chris Fontaine, No. 84 Glenden Enterprises Tundra Timothy Peters, No. 17 Red Horse Racing Tundra Matt Crafton, No. 88 Menards Tundra
WEEKEND RACE SCHEDULE Fri., November 16 — NCWTS @ Homestead-Miami Speedway — 8:00 PM (ET), SPEED — Race 22 of 22 Sat., November 17 — NNS @ Homestead-Miami Speedway – 4:30 PM (ET), ESPN2 — Race 33 of 33 Sun., November 18 — NSCS @ Homestead-Miami Speedway — 3:00 PM (ET), ESPN — Race 36 of 36
