Toyota NASCAR Notes & Quotes Homestead Nov. 2013

TOYOTA NASCAR NOTES & QUOTES
November 11 – 17, 2013

TOYOTA TIDBITS
CAMRY CHASERS:  Heading into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) season-finale this weekend at Homestead- Miami Speedway — the closing event of the 10-race ‘Chase for the Sprint Cup’ championship playoff — Camry driver Matt Kenseth ranks second in the point standings and the 2003 NSCS champion currently trails leader Jimmie Johnson by 28 points.  Kyle Busch sits fourth in the standings while Clint Bowyer is eighth.  Both Busch and Bowyer have been mathematically eliminated from a chance to win the Cup title this season.

KYLE CLAIMS NNS VICTORY:  Busch won his 12th NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race of the season last Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway, enabling the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) No. 54 Camry to move within four points of the Penske Racing No. 22 team in the NNS owner’s standings heading into Saturday’s season-finale at Homestead.  Busch led a race-high 169 laps (of 200) at Phoenix en route to his 63rd career NNS win — a series record — and his 52nd victory behind the wheel of a NNS Camry.

JONES YOUNGEST TRUCKS WINNER:  Tundra driver Eric Jones was victorious in last Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Phoenix to become the youngest winner in series history at 17 years and four months. Jones, who led a race-high 84 laps (of 150) in the Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) No. 51 Tundra, has recorded top-10 starts in all five of his series starts, including his win on Friday night and a second-place finish at Iowa Speedway in July.

TOYOTA TAKES NCWTS TROPHY:  Jones’ victory in Friday night’s race at Phoenix enabled Toyota to clinch its sixth NCWTS manufacturer’s championship in 10 years participating in the series.  Toyota regained the series’ top manufacturer position after previously winning a record five straight NCWTS manufacturer’s championships from 2006 to 2010.  Overall, it marks the ninth time Toyota has earned a NASCAR manufacturer’s title since the start of the 2004 season.  Toyota also earned three consecutive NNS manufacturer’s crowns from 2008 to 2010, and holds a two-point lead in the current NNS manufacturer standings going into Saturday’s series-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend.

CRAFTON CLOSE TO CHAMPIONSHIP:  Tundra driver Matt Crafton will claim the NCWTS driver’s championship when he starts the season-finale race in Miami by virtue of his 46 point lead on the field.  The 37-year-old Tulare, Calif.- native is looking for his first NASCAR national touring championship after recording 19 top-10 finishes in 21 starts this season in the ThorSport Racing No. 88 Tundra.

INTERMEDIATE SUCCESS:  Seven of Toyota’s 13 NSCS wins this season have come on intermediate race tracks similar to Homestead-Miami Speedway, the site of this weekend’s season-finale.  Kenseth has tallied victories on a total of four 1.5- mile tracks this season – Chicagoland Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Kentucky Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway — as well as a victory at the 1.366-mile Darlington Speedway in South Carolina.  Busch has recorded 1.5-mile triumphs at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway.  Kenseth won at Homestead in 2007, prior to joining JGR.

TWEET RACE:  This weekend marks the final @ToyotaRacing Tweet Race (ToyotaRacing.com/TweetRace), where  fans, after registering online, can use Twitter to advance their favorite Toyota driver around a virtual track and enter for a chance to win prizes.  Fans selected Busch as the winner of the first five Chase events and Bowyer for the four most recent races.

NOTES, QUOTES & NUMBERS
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS):  In seven seasons, Toyota drivers have won 62 NSCS races and 54 pole positions in 251 NSCS races … Denny Hamlin earned the only NSCS victory for Toyota at Homestead in 2009 … Camry drivers have earned three pole positions at Homestead … David Reutimann won the pole in 2008 and former Camry drivers Kasey Kahne started from the front of the field in 2010 and Joey Logano started from the pole position last November … Hamlin has earned top-10 finishes in three of the last five races this season … AJ Allmendinger will drive the JTG-Daugherty Racing No. 47 Camry in the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway before piloting the vehicle full-time in 2014 … NNS regular Parker Kligerman will make his second career NSCS start in the Swan Racing No. 30 Camry in Miami … Shannon Myers, rear tire changer for the Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) No. 55 Camry currently driven by Elliott Sadler, has a connection to the Miami-area through football … Myers was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the 1995 NFL draft after playing his collegiate career as a wide receiver at North Carolina’s Lenoir-Rhyne University.

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Had you hoped there would be a closer points battle going into Homestead?
“I’m disappointed — obviously, with the way our season has gone and kind of being in the championship hunt, you hope to go down to Homestead and race for it on performance.  On the other hand, I’m extremely happy.  I’m really, really happy with my team.  There’s not another car out here I’d want to be driving.  It’s a special group of guys — we’ve had just an amazing, incredible season and we still have one week left.  Really thankful for putting me in the car and all our partners and everybody that gave me this opportunity.  Man, it’s been a great season.  We still have a week to go.  Hopefully, we can go to Homestead and go down there and contend for a win.”

JASON RATCLIFF, crew chief, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What is the 20 team’s approach going into Homestead?
“I hate to oversimplify it, but it’s just that, it’s simple.  We need to go out here no different than maybe what we did earlier in the season, and that is just throw caution to the wind.  We have everything to gain and nothing to lose.  We don’t have to play defense.  We can be full bore on offense.  We can get as aggressive as possible.  We need to go out and lead a lot of laps and win the race, and that’s really all we can do.  And not only that, if we could close our season out, we know how big that would be for us to close out what’s been a great season with a win — even if we fall short of that championship, that would be an awesome way to close it out for us.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How important is it to close out the season strong?
“It would be very important for us.  Priority one is to try to get a win.  We’re going to do everything we can to do that.  We obviously have our work cut out for us.  There’s a lot of guys racing for a championship that have the best of the best under them every week and it’s going to be hard to compete, but we’ve been chipping away at it.  We’ve definitely the last two months have performed a lot better and gotten back to similar to old form.”

NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS):  Since 2007, Camry drivers have registered 88 wins and 80 pole positions … After 32 races this season, Elliott Sadler (fifth), Brian Vickers (eighth) and Parker Kligerman (10th) rank in the top-10 in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) point standings … Toyota currently leads Ford by two points in the 2013 NNS manufacturer standings … Kyle Busch has two NNS wins at Homestead in 2009 and 2010 … Busch won the pole at Homestead last November and former Toyota driver Joey Logano earned two pole positions in Miami in a Toyota Camry in 2008 and 2010 … Drew Herring will drive the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Camry for in the final race of the season, replacing Brian Vickers who is sidelined by a blood clot in his leg.

KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Are you confident you can win the NNS owner’s championship at Homestead?
“We look forward to going to Homestead.  I feel like that’s a place we run well at — myself in the past in the Nationwide cars and I think I led the most laps a couple years ago and won.  Last year, I led the most  laps and finished second.  This year, we need to lead the most laps and win the race again to have a shot at winning the owner’s championship.”

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS):  Since 2004, Tundra drivers have visited victory lane 111 times and earned 91 pole positions … ThorSport Racing’s Johnny Sauter has recorded seven consecutive top-10 finishes, enabling him to climb from 10th to fourth in the standings in as many races … In addition to Crafton (first) and Sauter (fourth), Tundra drivers Darrell Wallace Jr. (eighth) and Timothy Peters (10th) are also in the top-10 in driver standings … Wallace currently trails Ryan Blaney by five points in the NCWTS Rookie of the Year standings going into the season finale at Homestead … Tundra driver German Quiroga will travel to Las Vegas after Friday night’s season-finale race at Homestead to compete in the Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon on Sunday — his first marathon.