TOYOTA NASCAR NOTES & QUOTES
July 6 – 12, 2015
TOYOTA TIDBITS
KENTUCKY 10: Toyota drivers have visited victory lane at Kentucky Speedway 10 times in NASCAR competition. Two of four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at the 1.5-mile track have been won by Camry drivers – Kyle Busch (2011) and Matt Kenseth (2013). Former Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) driver Joey Logano won three consecutive NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) events at the track (2008, 2009 and 2010). Tundra drivers have tallied five Kentucky victories by Busch (2010 and 2014), Johnny Benson (2008), Todd Bodine (2010) and Mike Skinner (2007).
BUILT IN GEORGETOWN: Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK) is Toyota’s largest vehicle manufacturing plant in North America and is located just 50 miles south of Kentucky Speedway in Georgetown, Kentucky. Approximately 7,500 team members prepare five production models at the 7.5 million sq. ft. facility. Since 1988, more than 10 million Camrys have been built in Kentucky. Several Toyota NASCAR drivers/team owners have visited TMMK, including Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Joe Gibbs and Michael Waltrip.
NOTES, QUOTES & NUMBERS
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS): Camry drivers Matt Kenseth (ninth), Denny Hamlin (12th), Clint Bowyer (15th) and Carl Edwards (17th) currently rank in the top-20 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) point standings … Carl Edwards won his first NASCAR race at Kentucky in 2003 (NCWTS event) and has one NXS victory at the 1.5-mile track.
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How do you think the racing at Kentucky will be with the new rules package?
“Looking ahead to this weekend with the new aero package, obviously right now no one really knows yet how it’s going to act until we get a whole bunch of cars on track together. I’m excited about it though and I think it’ll be an interesting race for sure. The key to a good car at Kentucky is getting the car to handle well through the bumps there. The track surface is pretty rough there and I think it’s one of the roughest tracks that we go to. You need to be able to handle well through the bumps and be decent in traffic.”
JASON RATCLIFF, Crew Chief, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How big of a change is the new rules package?
“Our No. 20 team tested Kentucky a few weeks ago and we came home feeling pretty good about our time spent on track there. We’ll get about four more hours of track time on Wednesday of this week with the new aero package and I’m looking forward to that because I feel that it’s a step in the right direction. Kentucky has been a good track for us over the last couple of years with a win and a top-five run for Matt (Kenseth). It’s a track that I’m really fond of as well, so I’m looking forward to this coming week and weekend. I think that the aero package may shake things up a bit since I feel it is a significant change, but I don’t think that we’ll know as a group what we think about it entirely until we get into a race setting. Any time that NASCAR makes a change that is that big, it seems like different groups pick it up faster than others may so I think it will definitely change the game up mid-season.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Crispy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Is Kentucky a special place for you?
“I love Kentucky. It was special there in 2011 when we were able to win the first Cup race there. I look forward to going back there every year. It’s a pretty challenging racetrack. It’s a place that lends itself to different kinds of setups because it’s so rough. Fast lap times at Kentucky come from momentum. The place is so round that there’s not a ton of banking compared to some other 1.5-milers. It’s all about how round the corners are and just being able to maintain corner speed and stay on the gas. We certainly think we have as good a shot as any to get back to victory lane there with our M&M’S Crispy Camry. It’s a place we get excited about for sure.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Minons Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Are you looking forward to racing at Kentucky?
“I’m really excited about the lower down force package. Hopefully it tests well. Hopefully it makes the cars harder to drive and makes it more of an exciting race and more of a challenge and gives us more of an opportunity to pass. It’s still a small step, but I believe it’s a step in the right direction and we couldn’t be doing it at a better racetrack. Kentucky is really special to me. It’s the site of my first win in the top levels of NASCAR competition. The truck win there in 2003 was a life changer for me. That win and then our win there in 2005 in the XFINITY series was really cool and a lot of fun. Now getting to race a Cup car there, I guess I have the opportunity as a driver to join Kyle Busch as a guy with wins in all three series at Kentucky, which would be really special to me. The fans at Kentucky are amazing. There is always a ton of energy there. It’s a fast track. It’s a bumpy track. Both ends are different. For all those reasons, it’s really fun. Because it’s a fast race track and it has some character and bumps and different banking levels – it’s really fun to drive. I enjoy Kentucky and I am looking forward to this weekend.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 Casey’s General Store/Hughes General Contractors Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
How do you feel about the new rules package at Kentucky?
“I think a good race car driver adapts to any situation as does a good race team with the communication process and the way they go about their business. A lot of times when you cut downforce away and things like that the cars that were fast were probably going to still be that way. People get behind and struggle, but they usually find their way back to the top once they get ironed out. If you look back at the last several years of racing, when they made a rule change it kind of shook things up and made for a really entertaining race and a good product on the race track. I’m looking forward to seeing the product. We’re going to learn at Kentucky. I think they’ve done the due diligence. They’ve reached out to all of the channels, leaning on a lot of smart people – certainly a lot smarter than any one person in particular. I think they’ve got a great plan going into this for all of us and I think if we don’t see exactly what we’re looking for at Kentucky hopefully we’ll see it soon.”
NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS): Camry drivers Daniel Suarez (10th), David Starr (13th) and JJ Yeley (15th) currently rank in the top-15 in the NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) point standings … Kyle Busch will compete in the NXS race for the third time this season … Busch won his last NXS start at Michigan International Speedway in June after being sidelined following the season-opening NXS race at Daytona … Erik Jones will run double-duty, competing in the NXS and NCWTS races at Kentucky.
ERIK JONES, No. 20 Freightliner Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How do you adjust to running both the NCWTS and NXS at Kentucky where you haven’t raced for a couple years?
“I’ve been there once. I came there with an ARCA car a few years ago and ran a race. I took some things from that and I tested a truck there with Kyle (Busch) and that was pretty helpful. I will be able to take some things from that and apply. The Tundra and Camry are quite a bit different, especially at the mile-and-a-halves. I think Kentucky is kind of a place where we can close the gap a little bit just because it doesn’t race like a true mile-and-a-half like a lot of other places. I feel like they might be more similar than most every other weekend. Should be fun, Kentucky is a cool place with a lot of character. It’s getting rougher and I haven’t been there in a few years so it should be pretty good and rough now.”
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS): Tundra driver Matt Crafton leads the NCWTS standings by 12 points over second-place Tyler Reddick … Erik Jones (third), Johnny Sauter (fourth), Timothy Peters (seventh), Cameron Hayley (ninth) and Ben Kennedy (10th) also currently rank in the top-10 for Toyota … Christopher Bell will make his second NCWTS at Kentucky for Kyle Busch Motorsports after earning a fifth-place result at his debut in Iowa last month.
TOYOTA DRIVER ROSTER – Kentucky Speedway (NSCS, NXS & NCWTS)
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Camry
Clint Bowyer, No. 15 Camry
Kyle Busch, No. 18 Camry
Carl Edwards, No. 19 Camry
Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Camry
JJ Yeley, No. 23 Camry
Jeb Burton, No. 26 Camry
David Ragan, No. 55 Camry
Matt DiBenedetto, No. 83 Camry
NASCAR XFINITY Series
Blake Koch, No. 8 Camry
Derek White, No. 13 Camry
Cale Conley, No. 14 Camry
Daniel Suarez, No. 18 Camry
Jeff Green, No. 19 Camry
Erik Jones, No. 20 Camry
Eric McClure, No. 24 Camry
Timmy Hill, No. 26 Camry
JJ Yeley, No. 28 Camry
David Starr, No. 44 Camry
Kyle Busch, No. 54 Camry
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Erik Jones, No. 4 Tundra
Ben Kennedy, No. 11 Tundra
Cameron Hayley, No. 13 Tundra
Timothy Peters, No. 17 Tundra
Daniel Suarez, No. 51 Tundra
Christopher Bell, No. 54 Tundra
Matt Crafton, No. 88 Tundra
Johnny Sauter, No. 98 Tundra
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