- Tundra driver Daniel Suarez (second) was the first Toyota driver to the finish line in Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Dover International Speedway which was won by Tyler Riddick.
- The runner-up result is Suarez’s career-best NCWTS performance and matches his career-best finish earned in the NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Bristol.
- Erik Jones (third) and Matt Crafton (fifth) also earned top-five finishes for Toyota during the 200 lap race.
- Tundra driver Ben Kennedy (sixth) and Johnny Sauter (ninth) also finished in the top-10 at Dover.
- Crafton leads the unofficial NCWTS standings over second-place Tyler Reddick by 11 points. Tundra drivers Jones (third), Sauter (fourth), Timothy Peters (sixth) and Cameron Hayley (seventh) are also in the top-10 in the point standings after six of the 23 events in 2015.
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 51 ARRIS Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 2nd
How were you able to pass so many cars and finish a career-best second?
“My ARRIS Toyota Tundra was strong. I felt like it was strong enough to finish in victory lane, but something that was very important here was traffic. I feel like it was difficult to pass in traffic. It would just depend where you caught traffic. I felt like we were a little bit back because of traffic. Somewhere between the 19 (Tyler Reddick) and myself there was traffic. I have to thank everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports for the great truck, for the great performance.”
What has this season been like so far?
“Talking about the whole 2015 season, it has been different from my 2014 with what I was racing in Mexico and K&N races. It’s definitely a big step – a big, big difference. Racing with Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports, it’s a great opportunity and I’m very lucky. To have fast race cars every weekend is just great. I feel like we have a shot every single weekend and I feel like I’m learning a lot. Every single weekend we learn something new. Kyle (Busch) has been on our side a lot, helping us as well. I feel like we are getting closer and closer. We are learning a lot and hopefully we can get one win soon.”
Was traffic what held you back from winning this race?
“To be honest, I feel like we had a faster truck. Traffic was everything. I was talking with my crew chief Jerry Baxter through the radio during the middle of the race. I told him, “I don’t care about tires, I need the track position.” For sure the track position was very important. Erik Jones he changed just two tires in the last pit stop and he was able to almost get the win and he was driving away, but traffic was a big problem for him and for me and I feel like for everyone. Traffic was something that was a gamble, but overall I feel like we learned some good stuff for tomorrow.”
How has Kyle Busch helped you transitioning into NASCAR?
“A little bit of everything. Most of the race tracks that we have been to this year, I have never been to before. Some of them I’ve been in the K&N and some of them I’ve never even watched the race. It’s just a little bit difficult to get used to a race track when you have no idea what’s going on or what to expect with a new race car. It’s a little bit difficult and Kyle (Busch) has been very helpful to me to know what to expect. How I need to be to be strong in the race, not just in practice, what to look for, all these kinds of detail you usually learn with experience and I feel like all the conversations with him have been very helpful to me to try to hurry up all these learning process and to know a little bit more about the race track.”
ERIK JONES, No. 4 Special Olympics World Games Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 3rd
Was lap traffic an issue at the end of the race?
“We just couldn’t finish it out. It just got tough working through the lapped traffic and had to use up a lot of tire and didn’t quite have enough left. We had a good Tundra and we fought hard all day. We came pretty close – we’ll win one soon and keep getting better every week. It was a good points day and we’ll just keep moving along.”
Was the call for two tires on the final pit stop the deciding factor at the end of the race?
“Yeah, it was. We got so free at the end, just couldn’t hang on to it. I feel terrible for these guys. I did all I could, just too bad. We had a good Tundra and it’s a good points day. We’ll keep moving on and keep bringing fast race trucks. We learned a lot today. We’re growing as a team and we’re getting better.”
What has it been like having Kyle Busch as a driving coach?
“It’s pretty awesome, really. We sat and had lunch this week and talked about a lot of things and talked about racing and life in general. To have him on the radio this week with us and coaching me along, especially with some of the struggles we were having earlier in the race and falling back and trying to come through the race. Just helped me a lot today and he’s helped me a lot in the past and I’m sure he’ll help me a lot in the future. It’s pretty cool to have a guy like that in your ear and know he’s there to help, even helping me tomorrow.”
MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Rip It/Menards Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
What was your race like?
“Track position was everything. I messed up and 40.05 and sped on pit road and gave it away. I felt if we would haven’t have sped on pit road, we would have had a shot at the thing. Driver error on that. These guys never gave up all weekend and worked really hard.”
Were you frustrated after the pit road speeding penalty?
“It’s very frustrating. You can’t pass – we saw that, there was virtually no passing. You try to get everything you can. It was too fast and I hate it for these guys for me making mistakes like that. We’ll go get them in Texas.”
BEN KENNEDY, No. 11 Local Motors Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
JOHNNY SAUTER, No. 98 Smokey Mountain/Curb Records Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
How was your race?
“Clean air was huge today. Our Tundra handled so much better up front and out of traffic, but we just couldn’t get the track position we needed. The Smokey Snuff team made a lot of changes and didn’t give up on it, but we just didn’t have enough to get up to the leaders.”
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 20th
CAMERON HAYLEY, No. 13 Carolina Nut Co. Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 21st
How was your race?
“We had a fast truck. I just blew a motor, that’s the easiest way to say it. We dropped a valve spring and came in, we thought our day was done, and they decided to put another valve spring in it. We tried to make some laps and get some points back and we were leaking too much oil. Super-fast truck, we were running top-three – it just didn’t work out.”
JUSTIN BOSTON, No. 54 ROKMobile.com Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 25th
What happened to take you out of the race?
“Well, it is definitely an unfortunate day for us here. This is my home truck and we had a really fast 54 ROK Mobile Tundra. To be honest I’m really upset. There’s a couple guys who run you really close in this series and don’t give you an inch of room. When you’re that early in the race, you have to give guys some room and that’s what happened. I ran out of room on the apron and came up on the track and hit the 33 (Brandon Jones) and ended our day. It’s unfortunate – we’ll go get them in Texas. We have fast trucks and we’re moving in the right direction, it’s just unfortunate we didn’t get to run all the laps today.”
JESSE LITTLE, No. 97 Carolina Nut Co. Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 30th
What happened on the race track?
“I’m fine. I just made a rookie mistake, I just got loose. I should have known better. I knew how much the air affected these trucks – it’s a lot, a lot more than I thought and I shouldn’t have taken a chance that early in the race. I hate it for my guys, I hate it for Carolina Nuts. We’ll try to do whatever we can to hopefully come back and rebuild. It’s a bummer, man. We had a great Tundra, just shouldn’t have done that.”
What happened coming off of turn 2?
“I just forced an issue that I shouldn’t have. I was driving up underneath the 15 (Mason Mingus) and I knew the truck was really sensitive to aero, but not that much and got loose and it brought me right around. Not much you can do after that. I just hate it for everybody. This is exactly what I was trying not to do and it’s something that kind of sets us back. I learned and that’s what it’s all about. We’ll go get them next time.”
