Toyota NSCS Sonoma Post-Race Notes & Quotes

TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Sonoma Raceway – June 23, 2013

Martin Truex Jr. won the 25th annual Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the 1.99-mile Sonoma Raceway road course.

The win enabled Truex to record his first victory for Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR), as well as his first win driving a Toyota Camry.

Truex last visited victory lane on June 4, 2007 at Dover International Speedway.

The Mayetta, N.J.-native led the field three times for a race-high 51 laps (of 110) en route to victory lane

Camry drivers have six wins this season.  In addition to the win by Truex at Sonoma, Matt Kenseth has three victories this year (Las Vegas, Kansas and Darlington) and Busch has a pair of 2013 first-place trophies (California and Texas).

Toyota drivers have now registered 55 NSCS wins since the start of the 2007 season.

Camry driver Clint Bowyer (fifth) also registered a top-five finish at Sonoma.

Other Toyota drivers in the field included Brian Vickers (13th), Travis Kvapil (17th), Kenseth (19th), Denny Hamlin 23rd), David Reutimann (26th), Busch (35th), David Stremme (36th), Tomy Drissi (38th), Alex Kennedy (40th) and Bobby Labonte (43rd).

After 16 races this season, Bowyer (third) is 45 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson, while Kenseth (fifth), Busch (eighth) and Truex (10th) are also in the top-10 in the unofficial point standings.

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position:  1st
How does it feel to be in victory lane?
“I can’t even put it into words.  I’ve got so many people to thank that have stuck with me.  Everybody at NAPA Auto Parts. Everybody at Toyota Racing.  Michael (Waltrip, co-owner) and Rob (Kauffman, co-owner).  Chad (Johnston, crew chief) — Chad has come so far as a crew chief, I can’t even tell you how proud I am of him.  The team — they’re just phenomenal. We’ve had cars really fast all year long.  We’ve had some tough luck, but that’s part of racing.  I’m just proud of these guys for sticking behind me and working hard and giving me race cars like this.  Got to thank everybody that supports our program and stood behind me for 200 and something races without a win.  We’ve been close a lot and it feels damn good to get one finally.”

Did your strategy play out the way you expected?
“Well, it worked out for us, for sure.  We weren’t real sure going into the race where it was going to be.  The tires were falling off so bad in practice.  We were really going to play it by ear.  We knew our fuel mileage was good.  We tried to make sure that we had some options in that department, especially.  The car was just awesome, what can I say.  Chad (Johnston, crew chief), he’s been the most awesome crew chief I think I could ever have.  My pit crew has really turned it on lately. Today was just our day.  We had a lot of days where it wasn’t our day.  Today, it was just our time.  The car was flawless. Just tried to forget about what was behind me and focus on winning.  We’re going to get a bunch of them now, I can tell you that much.”

Has this win sunk in yet?
“No, not even close.  I just can’t thank all these guys enough.  Everybody on my NAPA team, everybody at Michael Waltrip Racing for working so hard and sticking behind me, my teammates — everybody who sponsors this car — everybody at Toyota Racing Development for some awesome engines.  We learned a lot from Clint (Bowyer) here last year, obviously with what he did and were able to use some of it.  He’s an awesome freakin’ teammate, him and Mark (Martin) and Brian (Vickers) today ran really good.  We have such a great race team right now.  I’m just so glad this thing is out of the way because we’ve been so close and I feel like now we’ve gotten this one out of the way we can do it a whole bunch more.”

Was it a challenge to save fuel and race hard for the win?
“It’s a fine line here between running hard enough and too hard and not hard enough — I don’t know.  I wanted to run hard enough that I could keep at least matching the guys behind me on lap time or pulling away.  I was trying to be smart, trying to be smooth and keep something in case we had a caution.  The only thing I could think of for the last 15 laps was please no caution, please no caution and just try to focus on hitting my marks and not screwing up.  All the credit goes to my team and Chad (Johnston, crew chief) and my pit crew has been awesome lately.  I’m just so proud of Chad for what he’s done.  He’s really come along as a crew chief and we’re going to win a bunch of races together.”

What will you do to celebrate this victory?
“It’s going to be a wild ass week, I can tell you that much.”

MICHAEL WALTRIP, co-owner, No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
How does it feel to get back-to-back victories at Sonoma?
“It’s been great.  I was real confident that Martin (Truex Jr.) would run well today.  I’ve just seen him run on this track, and he understands how to get around here as good as anyone.  So I’ve been confident all week coming here about how we’d perform.  I just checked my phone, I have 68 messages from people, and the last one was from one of our employees back in North Carolina, Bobby Kennedy (executive vice president of race operations).  He’s been with me since 2000 building cars, and he said I might be late tomorrow.  (Laughter.)  There’s a lot of people that — I don’t think I can articulate how important it is for us to get NAPA to victory lane.  You know, they’ve been with me since 2001 when I drove for Dale (Earnhardt), and we haven’t had them to victory lane since 2003.  You talk about Martin’s breaking a losing streak; NAPA broke one bigger than that.  Michael Waltrip Racing exists because of some key cornerstone partners.  One is NAPA; one is Aaron’s; obviously Toyota is the reason why I have a team; and then to have 5-hour Energy join us and let us bring on Clint, that made our team better.  It’s just really special to get a win for Martin and for NAPA.  We knew — I believe in this man.  He can drive a car as good as anybody on the track.  Chad (Johnston, crew chief) is new to the crew chiefing game.  He joined as an engineer and he’s worked his way up, and he called the perfect race today, and he’s been on his game all year long.  It’s really fun to see these two mature, and I think they can do a lot of special things over the next few years.”

What does it feel like to watch Martin Truex Jr. get back into victory lane?
“Well, I will never forget, and this was a special moment that happened today, when I leaned in the car to congratulate Martin (Truex Jr.), he had just come onto pit road, and I leaned in and there were tears in his eyes, and you could feel the elation and the joy and the relief.  And as I did that, it took me straight back to 2001 when I finally pulled into victory lane and was able to briefly celebrate what was the greatest racing day of my career.  I saw all that same emotion and the same feeling in Martin.  I’m glad I got to experience that, and it reminded me of a special day, and it made me really thankful that he was — you’re looking at winners that are totally thankful that we’re here, and while your questions might seem repetitive at times and some of them not that great — no offense — but if you could just keep asking them for a while we’ll keep answering them because we love being here and we’re really thankful that we’re celebrating this win.  Martin has got a beer and I’ve got a goblet.”

CHAD JOHNSTON, crew chief, No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
How does it feel to overcome adversity during the race weekend and end up in victory lane?
“Like Martin (Truex Jr.) said, we didn’t have the practice that we wanted Friday.  We didn’t feel real confident that the car was where we needed it to be.  And obviously we had our issues in qualifying and the guys did a great job of replacing all the wiring in the car from an incident in qualifying.  It’s typical road course racing.  You set your strategy before the race and you stick to it.  But you’ve kind of got to adapt as the cautions come out and you make the decisions based on information you have and hope the cautions fall your way, and today they did.  It’s an awesome feeling to get all the guys that work on this NAPA Toyota into victory lane.  There’s not a better bunch of guys in the garage.  I wouldn’t replace any of them with anybody in the garage.  It’s nice to get them, get NAPA, get Martin back in victory lane, and it’s just a good day.”

CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position:  5th
How was your race today?
“It was a good run.  I felt like — I still think we had the fastest car — it’s just that jinx, man.  That’s where it’s at — nine different winners.  I was trying to be patient in traffic.  I knew my strong point was long runs and we just never got that opportunity to showcase — never got in the lead.  I think if we could have got in the lead we would have been dangerous. Just wasn’t our day.  Another top-five.  Another strong run for the boys.”

How do you feel about your teammate Martin Truex Jr. winning the race?
“Super excited for Martin (Truex Jr.).  It’s been a long time coming — everybody knows that.  For whatever reason, he’s had this terrible luck.  So, really, really proud of him, Chad (Johnston, crew chief) and everybody on the NAPA Toyota.  Like I said, it’s been a long time coming.  Very happy for all of them.”

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position:  13th

TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 93 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position:  17th

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Home Depot Husky Tools Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position:  19th

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position:  23rd

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 83 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position:  26th

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position:  35th

DAVID STREMME, No. 30 Lean1/Raley’s/Swan Energy Toyota Camry, Swan Racing
Finishing Position:  36th

TOMY DRISSI, No. 87 TheWolverineMovie.com Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports
Finishing Position:  38th

ALEX KENNEDY, No. 19 MediaMaster Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position:  40th

BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Kingsford Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing
Finishing Position:  43rd