Toyota NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Race 2 of 36 – 508 miles, 330 laps
Sunday, February 28, 2016
TOYOTA NSCS DRIVER FINISHING POSITIONS at Atlanta Motor Speedway
1st, Jimmie Johnson*
2nd, Dale Earnhardt Jr.*
3rd, KYLE BUSCH
4th, Kurt Busch*
5th, CARL EDWARDS
7th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
16th, DENNY HAMLIN
19th, MATT KENSETH
29th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
32nd, DAVID RAGAN
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA NOTES
· Camry driver Kyle Busch (third) was the top-finishing Toyota in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
· Busch led the field twice for three laps (of 330) before recording his second-straight third-place finish to start the 2016 season. After results of third at Daytona International Speedway and in Atlanta, Busch leads the NSCS point standings and has a three-point advantage over Camry driver Martin Truex Jr. in second.
· In addition to Busch’s third-place finish for Toyota, Camry drivers Carl Edwards (fifth) and Truex (seventh) also recorded top-10 results.
· Early in the race, Camry driver Matt Kenseth (19th) led the field three times for 47 laps and appeared to be a favorite to contend for the win before a pit road penalty and black flag caused Kenseth to lose multiple laps.
· Camry driver Truex led the field six times for 34 laps, while Edwards led one lap.
TOYOTA QUOTES
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s 75 Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
Did you think you had a chance at the win during the final restart?
“I did actually and once I cleared the 4 (Kevin Harvick) getting into turn one I thought I had a really good shot at being able to overtake the 48 (Jimmie Johnson). I tried running a little bit higher than him to see if I could get some momentum off two and I never really got any. We got down to three and I was like, ‘Well, the only opportunity I have is to try to go out of his wake and not follow him,’ and when I did that, man, it landed on the splitter and just plowed up the race track. Kind of crazy there when all that went down, but great day for us and this 18 M&M’s Camry. M&M’s is celebrating their 75th year – proud to have them onboard with us and celebrating their 75th year. A lot of fun all the years we’ve had with them. Adam Stevens (crew chief) and the guys did a great job. What else could I say? They fought hard to battle back from being at the tail end and got a good points day out of it, so we’ll go on next week and go to Vegas and see if we can’t score a win in the hometown.”
What were you talking to Dale Earnhardt Jr. about after the race?
“About the two thirds mark of the race was pretty fun. It was himself (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) and Brad (Keselowski) and me that were just battling back and forth and slide jobbing one another and high lane-ing it and cutting each other off and everything, so it was pretty fun. This package lends itself to that. Pretty good race I felt like – a lot harder than some of us may want it to be, but that makes it good for the drivers and the crew chiefs to have to work together to come out here and build a good package for themselves and a comfortable race car. We had that for much of the day, so I give a lot of credit to Adam Stevens (crew chief) and the guys. We weren’t very good yesterday, but they definitely put their heads to the paper and made a good job last night adjusting on this thing for today.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 ARRIS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
How much fun did you have with the new low downforce package?
“They just need to keep taking more. This is real racing. We’re driving hard. You can see the guys out here just digging for everything they’re worth. I’m worn out. That’s a tough race and just a lot of fun. I just can’t thank NASCAR enough and Atlanta – don’t ever pave this place – it’s a perfect race track. I hope the fans enjoyed the show. The thing is, just know that in that car we’re driving as hard as we can. And Thank ARRIS – all the folks from ARRIS that came out here. It’s a top-five – we wanted to win this thing, but we’ll keep working on it.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., No. 78 Furniture Row Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
How was today’s race?
“Out of control all day long, so it was a lot of fun to race like that. I don’t think it’ll be quite that slick at most tracks. We always know this is the slickest track on the circuit and it’s always going to be handful and then you add less downforce, the tires burn out like they did – it was pretty wild. Sideways on the straightaways is pretty much how you can sum it up.”
What does this say about your team with your off-season change to Toyota?
“It says a lot I think. I think we’ve actually – even with all the changes and all the things we had to go through, I feel like we’ve started the season stronger than we ended last season. That’s exciting for all of us. They guys worked hard over the off-season to get ready. They deserve it and everybody at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) has really helped us along, helped us get off the ground strong and can’t thank them enough for that. Lot of exciting stuff going on and looking forward to going to Vegas next weekend, a place that’s been good to us the last couple years, and see if we can’t get to victory lane.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 16th
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 19th
What do you know about the black flag penalty?
“I got black flagged for some type of pit road penalty and I didn’t know it and pitted the lap they told me to do a pass through, but I guess they must have been – I’m assuming they were black flagging us before that and they pulled our card, so I never heard anything about it or at least saw the flag or anything, so I came when they told me to come and I guess they must have penalized us a couple laps or something. I don’t really know. I haven’t really seen it.”
MATT DiBENEDETTO, No. 83 Sewanee/ZAK Products Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 29th
DAVID RAGAN, No. 23 Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 32nd
