Toyota NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway
Exhibition Race – 187.5 miles, 75 laps
Saturday, February 13, 2016
TOYOTA NSCS DRIVER FINISHING POSITIONS at Daytona International Speedway
1st, DENNY HAMLIN
2nd, Joey Logano
3rd, Paul Menard
4th, Kyle Larson
5th, Casey Mears
12th, MATT KENSETH
13th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
16th, CARL EDWARDS
17th, KYLE BUSCH
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA NOTES
· Camry driver Denny Hamlin won Saturday night’s Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway.
· The victory was Hamlin’s third victory in the exhibition race in Florida.
· Hamlin is the fifth driver in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) history to win three or more Sprint Unlimited races.
· The Camry driver led the field five times for 39 laps (of 79) – the most by any driver in the race that extended into overtime.
TOYOTA QUOTES
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
Did your new crew chief Mike Wheeler seem poised with his call coming down the stretch?
“I don’t know if he was poised. He wasn’t poised on the radio, but we’ve got such a young team of crew chief, engineers and they all look like they’re a bunch of high school kids, but they did a great job. And, I’m so happy for Mike Wheeler (crew chief) to start one-for-one with a good win here at Daytona. Thank our partners – this win first of all couldn’t be possible without my teammates. Matt (Kenseth) sacrificed so much pushing me at the right time and Carl (Edwards) at the end as well. Total team effort, just like Kyle’s (Busch) championship. We win as a team and this was a Joe Gibbs Racing win. Got to thank Toyota, FedEx – Toyota for their commitment to this Daytona Rising has been awesome – Sprint, Coke, the Jordan Brand, Greenbrier, Sport Clips and the fans. I mean, it’s great to open up with a win.”
Did you know what Paul Menard was going to do?
“I knew – I had in my mind what he was going to do and when the cars were closing that fast you’ve almost got to anticipate where they’re going to go or else you’re going to get wrecked, so luckily it worked out for us. This is a leader driven race team and we were able to bring it home.”
Can you describe the last couple of laps?
“It was such a dilemma for me to figure out what lane to start in. I’d gotten good pushes from Matt (Kenseth) all night long and I hated leaving him in that top line, but I just felt like I’d had success on the bottom all night and I just didn’t want to leave that for that final restart. And, like I said, this is a team win. Without my teammates committed to my rear bumper there at the end of the race it wouldn’t be possible. We win as one and this was definitely a team win for Joe Gibbs Racing.”
What was the difference that enabled you to stay out front?
“It’s just a leader driven race. When you’re working your mirrors and working the pack behind you sometimes you can’t do anything about it. They come with such a head of steam that you can’t block both lanes, but I just felt like I always put myself in the right lane to cover once I did get passed for the lead and that kind of was able to allow us to stay upfront.”
How close were you on fuel?
“Well, we were very close on fuel. We drove it in which is a good sign for our fuel mileage for this Toyota, but we had a plan all along to come in and pit on lap 22 and it just so happened a caution came out as we came on pit road. It was part of our plan, it just all worked out in our favor.”
What happened with the damage on your race car?
“It looked like the 16 (Greg Biffle) cut a tire or something out of the ordinary because his car just broke loose at the wrong time and we got into him. I’m proud of this FedEx Express team. To get back with these crew guys and these guys and Mike Wheeler (crew chief) it’s a good start to the season.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 12th
What happened out there?
“I don’t know what happened in the wreck. I was going straight one second and I was turned into the door of the 78 (Martin Truex) the next – I really don’t know, but yeah we had some good speed in our Dollar General Camry. The finish is disappointing, but our performance was really good. Denny (Hamlin) was really fast. I was almost able to get behind him off of (turn) two and the 42 (Kyle Larson) was in there, so anyway we were just – that was good racing that last lap and, like I said, I don’t really know what happened.”
What did you think of the overtime format?
“I think the concept is good. Tonight’s hard to say because we still wrecked – typically we don’t wreck until the second lap at a superspeedway anyway – but I think the concept is certainly good and we’ll avoid things like we had at Talladega last year.”
Is there anything you need to do for next week?
“There’s a lot of little things I didn’t do very good on pit road – got some work to do there to get our pit road speed a little closer and be able to see our stall and obviously we wrecked, but other than that our performance was really good. I was really happy with the speed of our car.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 13th
What was it like out there?
“It’s just tough when you get in the middle of the pack to do anything, you know? The more you try to make moves – desperation moves – when you’re back there, the more spots you end up losing, so it’s a tough battle. You’ve got to – you just really have got to stay patient and almost wait for guys to give you the spot. There’s a lot of guys trying to take the spots tonight and that’s where we see the accidents.”
What’s the difference between surviving and ending up in the garage in the Sprint Unlimited?
“It’s not that hard if you don’t run into people – if you don’t try to put your car where there’s not enough room for it. That’s what causes accidents, so we’ve seen a lot of guys make mistakes tonight. We got our car destroyed on the last lap because somebody made a mistake and the racing like that is frustrating, but it is what it is. It’s a product of this racing, so I’m just frustrated we could never get near the front tonight. We had one opportunity at one point in time. We just about got clear of one car we needed to clear to really have a shot at getting to the very front and running up there. It seems like once you get there, you can kind of stay there. We were able to do that last year. It’s just hard in the middle of the pack to make any ground. Every time you try to make a move, you go backwards. It’s tricky, but it’s just frustrating to tear up cars for no reason.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 ARRIS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 16th
What happened out there?
“I just tried to wedge my car into a spot and I got up there and I could feel Brad (Keselowski) and I just didn’t know how overlapped I was. I knew I had to get in front of him to make it and it’s 100 percent my fault. I wrecked everybody, but, man, we were having fun and just we were going to be aggressive in this race, had to go for it and I took two high risk maneuvers and one of worked and one of them didn’t.”
How aggressive was the racing in the Sprint Unlimited?
“I was probably the most aggressive and it beat me. It’s Daytona – we want to win this race rather than tearing up the cars. You’ve just got to go as hard as you can. I just wish it didn’t tear up the cars, but had a good time.”
Did you learn anything for the Daytona 500?
“I learned a lot. I was telling them I learned Brad (Keselowski) still won’t lift for me if I try to cut him off, but he shouldn’t. I really was having a good time.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s 75 Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 17th
What did you see out there?
“I seen the 19 (Carl Edwards) and the 2 (Brad Keselowski) really fighting for a spot and from my vantage point that’s all I could see. I could tell we were going to wreck, so I tried to check up a little bit and then it was just on from behind me, but nothing else you could do from there I guess. It’s funny when the guys behind you get through the wreck and they’re all able to go on the rest of the way, but I hate it for our M&M’s Camry. I was still kind of playing out – I was pushing the 13 (Casey Mears), we were working really good together and I was going to push him as hard as I could to see if I couldn’t get up a little farther in front to give ourselves a chance to win.”
What is your plan for the rest of Speedweeks?
“Well, 500 qualifying – that’s easy. To be able to go out into the Duels, get ready for the Duels to try to finish the Duel and not tear up another race cars, that’s primary concern. And then from there, you want to have a good 500 and not tear up a race car there in the 500, but there’s a lot of things that can happen in those types of races and we hope to win the thing, but you’ve got have luck on your side.”
