Toyota NSCS Showdown Post-Race Notes & Quotes
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position: 1st (transfers to Saturday night’s All-Star race)
How did you and Brian Pattie decide to take four tires rather than two?
“He (Brian Pattie, crew chief) said to take four tires and I said, ‘Yeah, okay.’ Then everybody took two and I was like, ‘Oh no.’ We had a pretty good car – our 5-hour ENERGY Toyota was good especially on the long run. That gives me a little bit of confidence going into the 600. I think we’ll be a little bit better. I appreciate all the guys’ efforts and all their hard work. The way we’re running is not due to a lack of effort. It’s such a tough thing when you’re struggling and you’re trying to figure everything out – you’re running bad and you’re confidence gets beat up and you just can’t seem to figure it out. Just like anything in life, you keep digging and you keep working hard at it and eventually you’ll figure it out and we’ll have the success we’ve worked so hard for.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position: 11th
How was the car in the race?
“All in all we had a great day with our Aaron’s Dream Machine Camry and it would have been perfect if we could have advanced. In order to win a Showdown, All-Star race, short track, big track, you have to just be perfect and I wasn’t perfect tonight. I just buzzed the tires on my restart and the advantage of taking two is your clean air and when you fall back to fourth, fifth, sixth then you’re clean air is gone and you’re at a disadvantage. I made a mistake and I don’t really know what I would do to be any better. I’m a little baffled at why I was so terrible on that restart, but all in all we unloaded great and we improved on the car in practice, we had respectable speed in qualifying and we had really good speed in the race. All in all, it was a great day and we learned a lot. Very happy and proud of our Aaron’s Dream Machine team, but just disappointed that we couldn’t advance.”
MATT DiBENEDETTO, No. 83 Burger King Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 15th
JEB BURTON, No. 26 Estes Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 16th
JJ YELEY, No. 23 Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 18th
