- Matt Kenseth (sixth) was the first Toyota driver to the finish line in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Virginia’s Martinsville Speedway. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the race-winner.
- Kenseth started from the third position and led two laps (of 500) in today’s race and fellow Camry drivers Clint Bowyer (33) and Denny Hamlin (68) also took turns at the front of the field during the race.
- Camry drivers Bowyer (seventh) and Hamlin (eighth) also earned top-10 finishes at the half-mile speedway.
- After the first of three races in the ‘Eliminator’ round of the Chase, Camry drivers are fourth (Kenseth) and fifth (Hamlin) in the standings. Four drivers advance to the final round to race for the championship at Homestead Miami Speedway following the next two races at Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway.
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
How was the race?
“It was a long day — it was one of the low lights of my career honestly. I’m glad we got that finish even though we’ve got the car all banged up and all the extra stuff going on. At the end of the day I’m glad we got the finish, but it was a rough day.”
What do you think about Kevin Harvick’s comments that you won’t win the championship?
“I don’t blame him (Kevin Harvick) for feeling that way honestly. It was a mistake — he was an innocent bystander and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I totally understand how he feels and I totally understand why he would say that. I totally get it. He knows it was a mistake too, but that doesn’t really help him. I don’t really blame him. He got taken out of the race for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Are you pleased with the sixth-place finish?
“We didn’t run the way we wanted to run today. We still finished respectably with all the stuff that happened. Like I said, we didn’t run great today, but they made some good calls and did the right things at the end and finished strong.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 AAA Insurance Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
Did you have a good chance at the victory on the final restart?
“We had a shot darn it. We got caught in the high line behind (Ricky) Stenhouse on that final restart and it hurt our shot. Real proud of Brian Pattie (crew chief) and all the guys. It was a good day for the AAA Toyota.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 8th
How frustrating was the final restart?
“It’s hard because you’ve got guys that go laps down in the course of the race and get enough lucky dogs and then 50 laps on their tires and they want to stay out. Just bottle necks the field up and we all got the short end of last restart stick again. Just sucked at the end and we can’t finish where we’re running. We’re running better than what we’re finishing. Other guys like (Ryan) Newman are finishing better than they’re running. That’s part of the deal, you’ve got to do it for all 500 laps and we just didn’t have a very good car once the track went shaded there and we came in first and came out fourth on a slow stop. I couldn’t recover from that.”
Did the contact with Jeff Gordon on pit road impact your car?
“No, it didn’t affect us at all. What affected us were the guys that stayed out that had no shot of doing anything but holding the field up — that hurt us the most.”
Are you frustrated or mad about the finish?
“A little bit of both. I’m just looking at the guys that finished in front of us and I had them beat all day. It’s just with that last restart — NASCAR fans have been so spoiled with all these late restarts and it’s great for the fans to watch and it’s exciting, but just wish these races could play out. Tracks like Martinsville you’re not going to get long green flag runs. Just disappointed that we finished eighth. It could have gone the other way as well, but we were just fighting to get back around those guys that had stayed out. Tough day and I thought we had a race-winning car there in the middle part of the race, but as soon as the track got shaded we lost the handle a little bit.”
Is the frustration also because this was a track you could capitalize on for the Chase?
“We can still do it. Now we know at least two guys are going to make it on points, but we still have to be solid and still have to do everything we can to show we can be part of the final four. Today was a good race for that, just didn’t finish as well as we needed.”
Does it help that a non-Chase driver won the race?
“It helps all aspects of that and it opens up the door now for the points side of things. Eighth place just isn’t going to cut it. I hate to be down on it because we did have a good solid day going, but it’s frustrating when you don’t get that good finish on that last restart.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Halloween Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 11th
COLE WHITT, No. 26 Uponor Plumbing Systems Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 18th
MIKE WALLACE, No. 66 Testoril Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports
Finishing Position: 26th
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position: 27th
ALEX BOWMAN, No. 23 DipYourCar.com Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 29th
JJ YELEY, No. 83 DipYourCar.com Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 39th
CLAY ROGERS, No. 93 Burger King Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 43rd
