Toyota NNS Dover Post Race Notes & Quotes

Kyle Busch captured the checkered flag in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Dover International Speedway.

Busch started fifth and led the field once for a total of 101 laps (of 200).

It was the fifth NNS win of the season for Busch, and his second victory this year at the Delaware one-mile oval. In addition to his two wins at Dover, earlier this season Busch picked-up first-place trophies at Phoenix, Bristol and Richmond.

Camry drivers have now recorded seven NNS wins this season.  In addition to Busch’s five wins, Elliott Sadler and Sam Hornish Jr. each have one victory this season.

Elliott Sadler (fifth) also registered a top-five finish in his Camry.

Busch now has 57 wins driving a Camry in the Nationwide Series, and 68 wins overall in the Nationwide Series. Camry drivers have now registered 95 NNS wins since the start of the 2007 season.

KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position:  1st
How was your race car today?

“It was really good — this Monster Energy Toyota Camry was awesome.  Can’t say enough about the guys.  We fought, we battled hard on it — I don’t know why I just didn’t quite like what we had going on — it shows up in the race.  Happy about that.  Qualifying just doesn’t quite go our way.  Everybody on pit road did a great job today.  Adam Stevens (crew chief) made some really good calls.  Just to get two tires there at the end and stay out front and keep the track position that we had — I felt like that was a good call.  That was important.  We screwed up going the other way on that here before and so that helped us here today.”

What was the difference in the second half of the race?

“Well, even the first half — you know I knew we had a good car and I was kind of biding my time — I was just chilling.  I was trying to pass those guys when I could pass those guys.  But, the opportunity never really presented itself quick enough I thought.  And, then the second half of the race there when we beat the 22 (Joey Logano) guys off pit road — these guys here they did a great on that pit stop to be able to do that.  It was good for us to be able to get out front like that — get out in clean air and show what this car had for speed.  This Monster Energy Toyota Camry was awesome.  It was really, really fast.  Can’t say enough about all these guys.  Adam Stevens (crew chief) and everybody here on this team — they do a great job for me.  Our race setup is really good, but it doesn’t qualify very good.  I’m always — it’s just a handful in qualifying to say the least.  These guys did a good job though — I’m proud of that.  Really like what we got going on.  It’s good to be back here in victory lane again.”

Was the car as good the first half of the race?

“It never looks as good because you’re not able to pass guys and just drive through the field, but I don’t know that anybody did that.  I mean the 9 (Chase Elliott) I guess made up spots.  He got back to third from having his issue there with traffic, while we were racing.  For me, the fastest car here I had a hard time passing the 60 (Chris Buescher) and the 2 (Joey Logano) in front of me.  I couldn’t quite get to them.  I couldn’t quite get around the outside of them — there was just too much track you had to make up.  You didn’t have enough motor to do it down the straightaways.  It’s frustrating when you have those moments going on, but it’s early enough in the race that you just kind of bide your time and see what you can learn, try to pick at it and get yourself better for tomorrow.”

What did you learn for tomorrow’s race?

“Well, I thought that there was going to be a better outside lane.  I got it going early in the race and then that second run when I was trying to pass the 60 (Chris Buescher) and the 2 (Joey Logano) I couldn’t get it going until after we had slowed down to a certain point on tires.  And then I got it going again kind of.  When you’re out front and your car is good and you’re on the bottom — there’s no way that anybody can beat you like that.  It’s tough to make up ground on guys when they’re better than you and they’re running the groove you want to run.”

ELLIOTT SADLER, No. 11 SportClips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position:  5th

How does it feel to get your first top-five finish since Iowa in May?

“It’s been too long for this race team.  Proud of everybody on this SportClips Toyota.  We worked really hard — made a lot of adjustments yesterday after practice.  Chris (Gayle, crew chief) did a good job on adjustments today.  Top-five here at Dover — probably the best we ran at Dover here the past two years.  We’ll take it, try to take this momentum and move on to Kansas”

JUSTIN BOSTON, No. 20 Zloop Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position:  12th

JAMES BUESCHER, No. 99 Rheem Toyota Camry, RAB Racing
Finishing Position:  15th

ALEX BOWMAN, No. 80 Chiba Toyopet Toyota Camry, Shige Hattori Enterprises
Finishing Position:  19th

BLAKE KOCH, No. 44 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position:  23rd

JEFF GREEN, No. 14 Reynolds Wrap Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position:  26th

MIKE BLISS, No. 19 SupportMilitary.org Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position:  29th

KEVIN LEPAGE, No. 10 SupportMilitary.org Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position:  31st