Toyota NNS Indianapolis Post-Race Notes & Quotes

TOYOTA NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS)
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Indianapolis Motor Speedway – July 27, 2013

Camry driver Kyle Busch won Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS).

The 28-year-old driver earned the first NASCAR win for Toyota at the legendary 2.5-mile Indiana speedway.

Busch started from the pole in the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) No. 54 Monster Energy Camry and led the field for a race-high 92 laps (of 100).

Busch registered his 48th win driving a Camry and his 59th career series victory, as well as his eighth triumph this season.  Earlier this year, Busch picked up first-place trophies at Phoenix (March 2), Bristol (March 16), California (March 23), Texas (April 12), Darlington (May 10), Charlotte (May 25) and New Hampshire (July 13).

The Las Vegas-native also picked up his fifth win of the season after starting from the pole position — surpassing Sam Ard’s record of four wins from the pole in a season (1983).

Busch’s pole also established a new record for the most career pole awards in the NNS — 31.

Camry driver Brian Vickers finished sixth and earned the $100,000 Nationwide ‘Dash 4 Cash’ bonus.

Busch and Vickers JGR teammate Matt Kenseth (seventh) also earned a top-10 finish.

Other Camry drivers in the field at IMS included Elliott Sadler (13th), Alex Bowman (15th), Cole Whitt (17th), Parker Kligerman (18th), Joe Nemechek (23rd), Tanner Berryhill (29th), Eric McClure (31st), Ken Butler (32nd), Mike Bliss (36th), David Green (38th) and Jeff Green (40th).

Three Toyota drivers are in the top-10 of the unofficial NNS point standings — Sadler (third), Vickers (fifth) and Kligerman (10th).  Sadler is just 13 points out of first-place.

KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position:  1st
What does it mean to win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway?
“It’s Indianapolis — it’s pretty awesome to be able to win here.  Whether you’re driving Nationwide or Cup — sports cars, Formula 1, Moto GP, anything — it’s cool to win at this place just with all the history and all the automobiles that have raced on this surface before.  All the fans that have been here over the years — it’s pretty awesome and it’s pretty special.  It’s really awesome for Monster Energy.  I should have been here last year, but I messed up and then I almost messed up again and gave it away.  I was able to persevere there and get back — can’t say enough about this Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing engines, Nationwide Insurance.  Just an awesome day and unbelievable day.  Such a great race car built by these guys — Adam Stevens (crew chief) and everybody here on this JGR team.”

What happened on the final restart?
“I had no friends around me on the restart.  The restart before I had (Matt) Kenseth behind me and he pushed me and got me clear of the 22 (Joey Logano).  There on that final restart, (Kevin) Harvick was hanging back a little bit trying to get a run and time it right, and I waited on him until the last loop.  The one marker on the restart zone, I just had to wait and bottle everybody up and then wait so I could be single file, or at least just have Logano to deal with and not everybody else trying to dive bomb me.  I got down into (turn) one and just lost all grip.  I just slid.  I was turning left and turning right just trying not to get into Logano and got into him and then we chased it up the race track.  I was watching my mirror at the same time seeing if anybody was coming and there comes the 2 (Brian Scott) out of nowhere and he got by us there.  It made it tough to pass him back.  We were significantly faster than him, but just the aerodynamics of this race track has made it so tough. Anybody that runs the bottom of the race track can take your air.  I had to use the air that he was taking from me to my advantage on him and get him loose and then try to get by.”

What does it mean to break Sam Ard’s record for most wins from the pole in a single season?
“That’s awesome.  We also set the record for the most poles in the series.  Whatever records are left — let me know and I’m going to try to put my name on them.”

How special is this win for your wife Samantha — with her being from Indiana?
“She (Samantha, wife) was elated.  It’s a great opportunity for her growing up in Indiana — you can either call her from Indiana or you can call her from Chicago — she was right on the border there.  Going to school just an hour north of here at Purdue and obviously spending a lot of time in Indianapolis over those years — she was pumped, she was excited and it was something she was really wanting to do.  I wish today was Sunday, but hopefully we can do it again and back it up tomorrow and get fresh with the bricks and enjoy some more tomorrow.”

Were you saving the race car at any point during the race?
“We were kind of doing that all day.  We certainly had a really good car and we weren’t meaning to stretch it out — I was running not hard, but was still running a pretty good pace.  Once you get out so far you just try not to keep stretching it because eventually you’re going to have a caution so you’re just trying not to waste your energy, waste your car and everything that you’ve got — tires, fuel, save fuel if you can.  When Joey (Logano) was behind me there, he ran really, really hard and pushed me to my limit for about six laps that he was hanging with me and then his car started falling off and mine still went fast and we were able to stretch back out on him a little bit.  I think we got up to about a second and a half gap on him and after I got to that point, I just kind of was rolling into the corners and letting the car roll and saving my tires in case there were late cautions, which there were.”

ADAM STEVENS, crew chief, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Was your car the strongest one throughout the weekend?
“I don’t know if I would go that far.  We did have a good test — it was cut short by weather, but we got what we needed out of it.  We made the changes that we needed to in order to get our car where it needed to be at the test.  Honestly, a big factor in this weekend — we kind of hit the lottery here with the weather conditions.  It was almost identical to the test.  It’s very unusual for Indiana this time of the year, as you all well know.  That helped our cause.  We didn’t have to chase it much.  The weekend played out fine and practice went pretty well. We were back and forth on a few things and I think Kyle (Busch), myself and the guys really put our heads together and put some good race adjustments in it and it showed today.  A little bit surprised by the qualifying speed, but in a pleasant way.  We didn’t have a chance to make a mock run.  The race there, you knew how it was going to play out strategy-wise, you just didn’t know when the cautions were going to fall.  We chose to stay out there short of our window when a bunch of guys came and got four tires and fuel.  We knew that they did it so they could take two tires when we all got in our last pit window.  Obviously, if we had needed the track position at that time then we would have done the same thing.  I wanted to make sure he had four fresh tires at the end of it so he could run hard when it came down to the actual time to race.  That’s what we did and we got a little bit fortunate when we hit pit road before the caution came out.  Had we had to pit under that caution — if we would have gone another lap then we would have been behind all those guys that took two on that stop.  If it would have went green, we still would have been in good shape, but we got a little good fortune there with the weather for sure and with that caution falling after we came down pit road.”

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position:  4th
How was the race today?
“These guys did a great job.  We had a lot of adversity to overcome today and unfortunately we were on the race track hitting the splitter all day.  It probably cost us a shot at the win — we would have had it otherwise.  It was still a great day.  To get $100,000 with Nationwide’s ‘Dash 4 Cash’ and get the family here $100,000 too — that’s huge and that’s special.  Real proud of these Dollar General Toyota guys, they did a great job today.  We missed a little bit on the front splitter, but still good enough for a top-five.”

Is it difficult to watch your teammate win so many races?
“It’s tough.  I think we had a car for him (Kyle Busch), all except we were on the splitter.  We just missed our front travels a little bit and we were just on the track.  We made some changes last night and that kind of got us.  It snuck in there and got us.  We were awesome yesterday in practice and we probably got greedy trying to get more out of it.  Between practice and the race, it might have cost us, but still a great top-five.  Good points day for us.”

Do you feel this team is close to a win?
“I hope so.  We are so close to a win.  These guys have done such a great job and they deserve a win.  Everyone on this Dollar General Toyota team — we had a good race today and we had a great car all weekend.  We probably got a little greedy last night after practice and we got on the splitter too hard and then we just couldn’t recover from it during the race.  We still had a solid points day.  If we keep just chipping away at top-fives and top-three’s then eventually we’ll get to victory lane.”

MATT KENSETH, No. 18 GameStop Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position:  7th

ELLIOTT SADLER, No. 11 OneMain Financial Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position:  13th

ALEX BOWMAN, No. 99 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Toyota Camry, RAB Racing
Finishing Position:  15th
What did you think about racing at Indianapolis?
“Coming here is pretty cool.  Growing up racing sprint cars and midgets, everybody wants to get to here.  It didn’t really hit me until we were riding around there with like 10 (laps) to go and I was like, ‘Man, I’m running 10th at Indy and that’s pretty cool.’  It was a tough day for our guys.  We had Nationwide Children’s Hospital on the car and really appreciate them coming on board and sorry they didn’t get the coverage in the race.  Not having decals for the backup car and sorry to my guys for wadding up the primary in qualifying, but for us to come out of here as decent as we did, I think it shows a lot about our race team and how we prepare our backup car.”

How did the handling of the race car during the race?
“This place is awkward in a stock car.  It’s big, flat and you can do your homework down the straightaway and then you’re really busy for 20 seconds and then you do your homework all over again. It’s just awkward to me, but it was definitely really cool.”

COLE WHITT, No. 44 Takagi Tankless Water Heaters Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position:  17th

PARKER KLIGERMAN, No. 77 Toyota Camry, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position:  18th

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports
Starting Position:  23rd

TANNER BERRYHILL, No. 17 NationalCashLenders.com Toyota Camry, SR2 Motorsports
Finishing Position: 29th

ERIC MCCLURE, No. 14 Hefty/Reynolds Wrap Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position:  31st

KEN BUTLER, No. 24 M&W Transportation Toyota Camry, SR2 Motorsports
Finishing Position:  32nd

MIKE BLISS, No. 19 Tweaker Energy Shot Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position:  36th

DAVID GREEN, No. 00 Toyota Camry, SR2 Motorsports
Finishing Position:  38th

JEFF GREEN, No. 10 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position:  40th