TOYOTA NASCAR NOTES & QUOTES
Oct. 13 – Oct. 19, 2014
TOYOTA TIDBITS
CAMRY CHASERS: All three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers are in the top-10 in points as the final race in the ‘Contender’ round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship approaches this weekend at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway. Camry driver Kyle Busch currently sits second in the points and is just six points behind leader Joey Logano. Denny Hamlin is currently seventh in the standings and 15 points out of first-place. Matt Kenseth finds himself sitting in the ninth spot and just one point outside the top-eight drivers who will advance to the ‘Eliminator’ round next week. After Talladega, eight of the remaining 12 drivers in the point standings will advance to the third round of the championship playoffs as the series heads to Martinsville Speedway.
DEGA MEETS DANCING DOUBLE: Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) team owner and two-time Daytona 500 champion (2001, 2003) Michael Waltrip will be back behind the wheel of the No. 66 Camry at Talladega on Sunday. Waltrip, who is only running the four superspeedway races on the NSCS schedule this season, will compete in the race on Sunday and then fly to Los Angeles immediately following to participate on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ on Monday evening. In 56 career Talladega starts, Waltrip has earned one win (fall 2003), eight top-five finishes and 16 top-10 results, including a fourth-place finish in the spring 2013 race.
TUNDRAS AT TALLADEGA: Tundra drivers have earned six victories at Talladega in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) competition, including six of the past seven years. Johnny Sauter is the most recent Toyota driver to cross the finish line first last fall at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. Busch registered back-to-back wins at Talladega in 2009 and 2010, while former Tundra drivers Todd Bodine (2007 and 2008) and Parker Kligerman (2012) have also been victorious at the Alabama oval.
TOYOTA’S 10 YEARS IN NASCAR: Toyota is celebrating its 10th anniversary in NASCAR this year. Here is another highlight from Toyota’s first 10 years in the sport. Toyota clinches its fourth consecutive NASCAR Camping World Truck Series manufacturer’s championship when Kyle Busch crosses the finish line first at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway (October 31, 2009).
NOTES, QUOTES & NUMBERS
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS): Kyle Busch is the only Chase driver who has started and finished all five Chase races in the top-10 … Busch has started from the front of the field at Chicagoland and last week at Charlotte and has recorded top-10 finishes at Chicagoland (seventh), New Hampshire (eighth), Dover (10th), Kansas (third) and Charlotte (fifth) … Camry drivers have won twice at Talladega with Busch earning the win in spring 2008 and former Camry driver Tony Stewart crossed the finish line first that fall at the 2.66-mile superspeedway.
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Halloween Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Do you believe the team is heading in the right direction at this time of the season?
“It certainly feels good that we’re heading in the right direction at the right time of the year. It’s all about peaking at the right time and hopefully we haven’t peaked, yet, and we still have a way to climb. I feel like we do anyways. We haven’t won. There’s opportunity there. Again, it’s just trying to get ourselves smarter each and every week about making the right decisions and unloading with the right setups in these cars. It’s about having the guys back at the shop building us some really good downforce. And it’s about thanking TRD (Toyota Racing Development) for working on the engine program through this year and getting ourselves in a better spot here the last month or so and feeling good about heading down the straightaways. All the pieces are coming together and they’re all coming together at the right time and you can do great things. Hopefully, there’s still a continuation of that here in the next five weeks.”
What is the key to pulling off a victory at Talladega?
“The key there is to somehow stay out of trouble. At Talladega, you pretty much stay around the bottom, since there is a lot of grip there, and you can pretty much run wide open every single lap. Everyone can run up on top of each other. When you get single-file at the bottom, sometimes it’s hard to get a lane on the outside with enough good cars to get something going. It can be frustrating at times because of that. It also seems to still put on a good race each time we go there. If you can be a contender and stay in line on the bottom, you can make it a pretty easy and safe race. Normally, guys are not content doing that, so that’s when it starts to get crazy.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Home Depot Husky Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What do you think the racing will be like at Talladega?
“I think that Talladega is going to be a moving target since it really depends on what everyone has for a game plan this weekend. I wouldn’t be surprised if the two guys already locked in to advance are up there racing hard at the front of the pack while the other ten are hanging out near the back for the majority of the race. I don’t know that I have that in me though because I can’t stand not going as hard as I can all the time. There’s so much that is unpredictable and out of our control at Talladega that we’ll see what happens, but the further we get into the Chase, it’s apparent how important good and consistent finishes are in order to advance.”
NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS): Camry drivers Elliott Sadler (fourth) and James Buescher (10th) are currently in the top-10 in the NNS point standings following 30 of 33 races this season … Sadler has registered 22 top-10 finishes in 30 starts this season, including a current streak of three consecutive top-10 results … The next NNS win by a JGR driver will mark the organization’s 100th series victory … Of the 99 victories to date, 90 have come in a Camry since 2008 … The Nationwide Series takes two weeks off before returning to action at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, Nov. 1.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS): Tundra drivers Matt Crafton (first), Johnny Sauter (second), Darrell Wallace Jr. (fourth), German Quiroga (sixth), Timothy Peters (seventh) and Jeb Burton (ninth) rank in the top-10 of the NCWTS point standings after 17 of 22 races this season … Tundra driver have registered 13 victories this year … Crafton has finished in the top-10 in six straight races … Wallace has recorded runner-up finishes in three of his last five races, including Bristol, New Hampshire and Las Vegas … Daniel Suarez, 22, will make his first career NCWTS start on Saturday at Talladega in the No. 35 Tundra … Suarez will run a full season in the Nationwide Series next year with Joe Gibbs Racing along with select races in the NCWTS for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
DARRELL WALLACE JR., No. 54 ToyotaCare Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Are you looking forward to the final five races of the season?
“I’m pumped to get back to the track this weekend and see what we can do in the final five races. We’ve been dominate the last few races with our Toyota Tundra’s and I know the final five races will be the same. After finishing second the last two races, I am ready to finish one position better and continue our move up in points. I haven’t had the best results at Talladega, but we were running up front in both the truck race last year and the Nationwide Series race earlier this year before getting caught up in wrecks. I’m confident we will unload with a fast ToyotaCare Tundra and if we can stay out of harm’s way, we should be just fine and hopefully be in position to contend for the win at the end.”
TOYOTA 2014 NASCAR STATISTICS
Series Races Starts (Drivers) Wins Top-5s Top-10s Poles Times Led Laps Led
NSCS 31 289 (23) 2 32 67 6 126 1,271
NNS 30 290 (43) 8 41 73 9 101 2,229
NCWTS 17 178 (20) 13 51 91 6 113 1,844
TOYOTA DRIVER ROSTER – Talladega Superspeedway (NSCS & NCWTS)
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Camry
Clint Bowyer, No. 15 Camry
Kyle Busch, No. 18 Camry
Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Camry
Alex Bowman, No. 23 Camry
Cole Whitt, No. 26 Camry
Joe Nemechek, No. 29 Camry
Mike Wallace, No. 49 Camry
Brian Vickers, No. 55 Camry
Michael Waltrip, No. 66 Camry
JJ Yeley, No. 83 Camry
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
John Wes Townley, No. 05 Tundra
Joe Nemechek, No. 8 Tundra
Jeb Burton, No. 13 Tundra
Timothy Peters, No. 17 Tundra
Daniel Suarez, No. 35 Tundra
Erik Jones, No. 51 Tundra
Darrell Wallace Jr., No. 54 Tundra
German Quiroga, No. 77 Tundra
Chris Fontaine, No. 84 Tundra
Matt Crafton, No. 88 Tundra
Johnny Sauter, No. 98 Tundra
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