- Tundra driver Kyle Busch (second) was the top-finishing Toyota driver in Wednesday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway. Ryan Blaney won the event.
- Busch started from the pole position and led the field once for four laps (of 202) on the 0.533-mile track.
- Tundra driver Dalton Sargeant recorded a 10th-place result in his NCWTS debut.
- In addition to Busch and Sargeant’s finishes, Tundra drivers Erik Jones (sixth), Matt Crafton (seventh) and Johnny Sauter (ninth) also recorded top-10 results at Bristol.
- Crafton led the field for 39 laps over two stints in his Tundra, while his ThorSport Racing teammate Sauter led once for seven circuits.
- The Bristol NCWTS race was halted for 45 minutes due to rain and was extended two laps over its 200-lap scheduled length for a green-white-checkered dash to the finish.
- Crafton currently ranks second in the unofficial NCWTS point standings and sits just six points behind leader Tyler Reddick following Bristol. Tundra drivers Jones (third), Sauter (fourth), Cameron Hayley (sixth), Timothy Peters (seventh) and Ben Kennedy (10th) are also in the top-10 in the point standings after 14 of the 23 events in 2015.
KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 JEGS Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 2nd
What happened during the incident on the final lap?
“Shoot, I don’t know. I think I was by it by then. I don’t know. I just got into (turn) one and saw an opening on the outside and took it to get outside the 33 (Brandon Jones and then the 88 (Matt Crafton) – I got outside the 88 – and I probably bunched everybody up, you know? Because I was three-wide on the top, but what are you going to do. It’s a green-white-checkered restart – go for it, right? Not the finish we wanted tonight – we certainly wanted to win – but this JEGS Tundra was fast. Just when everybody gets strung out there and can run their momentum and everything, it’s just hard to pass – real hard to pass – and frustrated at not being able to make moves like you want to, but we came home second, so a good night for us. This truck though, it’s just for wins, you know? So at least the 4 (Erik Jones) go by the 88, so that’s a good night for us.”
How good was the final restart for you?
“It was a really good one for us. We were on the outside lane and somehow the bottom got jumbled up a little bit. I just made sure that I knew to go to the top and put it on kill up there as hard as I could and just drive the heck out of it. Fortunately it worked out for me and it stuck good enough that I was able to get around the outside of the 33 (Brandon Jones) and I got around the outside of the 88 (Matt Crafton) surprisingly and I think it surprised him as well too and he had to get out of the gas. From there it was kind of a mess behind me. I was just trying to be focused on the 29 (Ryan Blaney) and continue to drive up there and try to get him. There was just not enough laps. Our JEGS Tundra was fast tonight, just not in the right position. Sometimes through the night we didn’t make very many good calls. I tried to make too many calls tonight, I should have left more of that on my crew chiefs shoulders. Overall, we had a good finish and a strong run for the 54 and for that team and for JEGS. We appreciate them being on board here this weekend. I won’t go on to the next one, but my next one will be Loudon (N.H.) so I’ll be there.”
What was the decision to pit the second time for tires?
“The first run of the race we just felt like we were too low on air pressure and we were just squirmy all over the place for the start of the race or at least the first 10 laps or so. Everybody went by me and I fell back a straightaway from the lead. We knew we needed to put air in the tires and then as that run progressed though, I got really loose so we wanted to snug it up a little bit and make the truck a little better to drive on entry so I could really hustle it. All those adjustments, we were better on the short run with the air pressure, but we were definitely way, way tighter and way too tight. When we went back out we were running third I think and just mired right there and I was not making any ground on the trucks in front of me and I was actually losing ground to them so I knew we weren’t going to be able to win. We came in and pitted and tried to free it back up some and unfortunately we never could get it freed back up enough, I don’t know why. We just tried to get something out of nothing essentially. Probably bought us maybe a couple spots. I don’t think I would have been able to make as many moves on those restarts late in the going if I was on that tight set of tires that we had.”
ERIK JONES, No. 4 Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 6th
What happened at the end of the race?
“I was trying to go up and follow Kyle (Busch), but unfortunately the 33 (Brandon Jones) was trying to go the same way after Kyle went by so I couldn’t get up there. Sixth was a good day for us overall and we made up some with our Tundra in the points – we made up two points and that’s two more points closer than we were. Not a terrible day overall, but we definitely need to get better and figure out some of our stuff and what we need to do better, what we went wrong and just figure out how to be better.”
MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Great Lakes Flooring/Menards Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
Has it been a long day?
“It’s definitely been long. We fought the rain all day yesterday as well and today it’s been hit or miss and we got most our practice in, but I’m very happy with this Menard’s Toyota Tundra. I’m fine if they call it – like I said, it’d be a little less pressure, but like I said I definitely think we’ve have something if we need to run to 200. I would be just fine. I’m Indian, so maybe I could do a little maybe Indian rain dance so we’re done here and keep the rain coming.”
JOHNNY SAUTER, No. 98 Smokey Mountain/Curb Records Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
How was the race?
“Pretty uneventful night for us. We tried to play pit strategy there to get track position and just really couldn’t keep it. We pitted for four tires there with 30 (laps) to go, but that caution just kept prolonging and prolonging it. I don’t think we were really able to take advantage of our four tires the way that I wanted to. We weren’t good enough. I think we probably had a sixth or seventh place truck and ended up ninth just because we restarted on the bottom. Just the way it is.”
DALTON SARGEANT, No. 5 Galt Toyota Tundra, Wauters Motorsports
Finishing Position: 10th
How happy are you with your performance in your first Truck Series race?
“Overall I can’t be more proud of everyone at Wauters Motorsports for the work they put into this No. 5 Toyota Tundra. It was just a huge learning process through the entire race and ended up bringing it home in the top-10. Can’t be more than happy with that finish for my first Camping World Truck Series start especially coming to a place like Bristol where it’s absolutely crazy. At the end of the race there it got pretty hectic and we were three wide there at a few points, but at the end of the day just really happy and learned a lot throughout the entire race. That was one of the most important things to me coming in was just to learn as much as I can racing around some of these guys and all these veterans – guys like Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney. It’s just been a really cool experience and I can’t be more than thankful.”
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 12th
BEN KENNEDY, No. 11 Local Motors Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 15th
CAMERON HAYLEY, No. 13 Carolina Nut Company/Curb Records Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 18th
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 51 ARRIS Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 30th
