Toyota NNS New Hampshire Post-Race Notes & Quotes 7-12-14
· Kyle Busch (second) was the first Toyota driver to the finish line in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
· Brad Keselowski won the race at the one-mile New Hampshire oval.
· Busch led the field once for 34 laps.
· Camry drivers Matt Kenseth (third) and Elliott Sadler (sixth) also registered top-10 finishes.
· Sadler ranks second in the unofficial NNS point standings. He trails leader Regan Smith by eight points in the standings.
KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
How was your race?
“We got what we could out of our Monster Energy Camry. We felt good that it would be a solid top-five car and it should be a second-place car here this weekend — and that’s where we ended up. It’s good to come out of here with the points that we deserve. It would have been nice to win and steal a checkered flag, but it just wasn’t meant to be here today. We fought hard there at the end. Had the best run there at the end with our race car — the adjustments Adam Stevens (crew chief) made all throughout the day, but just not quite enough. If we had track position, maybe things would have been a little bit differently, but with what we had given to us there at the end of the race — we had to fight hard to get by a few guys, got to second and chased him (Brad Keselowski) down and couldn’t find enough to get by him.”
Could Brad Keselowski have been caught — if lapped traffic wasn’t an issue?
“No — probably not. He was getting bottled up in traffic — which would kind of bring him back to me. I’d get through the traffic okay and keep my distance to him and actually close in a little bit more sometimes when we were in clean air, and then we’d get to traffic again and I’d get screwed up or he’d get screwed up — back-and-forth a little bit. If it was just clean and green all the way to the end I don’t know that I could have done anything with him. I was hoping for an opportunity there in traffic. A couple opportunities presented themselves, but he recovered pretty well and didn’t lose much time when a bad spot got to him.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
How was your race?
“We had a pretty solid weekend. A top-five car I thought. Unloaded pretty close. We qualified third and we finished third, and the two guys that qualified first and second — finished first and second. I felt like we were a third-place car and we finished third. The two better cars were in front of me and I just couldn’t catch them. 42 (Kyle Larson) was a little better on the short run and we were a little better on the long run and got away there a little bit. This is about what we had. We had a couple shots to work on it. We made it a little bit better, but not good enough to run with the 22 (Brad Keselowski) or the 54 (Kyle Busch).”
What were you thinking about during the late stages of the race?
“Well, I had the fourth-place car kind of breathing down our necks with 20 (laps) to go — so I was working hard to try and find some grip to get away from him. We wanted to finish as high as we could. Once I got away from him I was running as hard as I could. Never know what’s going to happen in these races. Never know if the leader is going to have a problem. You need to keep driving and hope for something good to happen.”
ELLIOTT SADLER, No. 11 OneMain Financial Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
JAMES BUESCHER, No. 99 Rheem Toyota Camry, RAB Racing
Finishing Position: 22nd
MATT FRAHM, No. 44 Gilchrist Metal Fabrication Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 25th
ERIC MCCLURE, No. 14 Hefty Ultimate/Reynolds Wrap Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 26th
MIKE BLISS, No. 19 Tweaker Energy Shot Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 32nd
BLAKE KOCH, No. 10 Supportmilitary.org Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 39th
