TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Auto Club Speedway
Race 5 of 36 – 400 miles, 200 laps
March 20, 2016
TOYOTA NSCS DRIVER FINISHING POSITIONS at Auto Club Speedway
1st, Jimmie Johnson*
2nd, Kevin Harvick*
3rd, DENNY HAMLIN
4th, Joey Logano*
5th, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.*
7th, CARL EDWARDS
19th, MATT KENSETH
22nd, DAVID RAGAN
25th, KYLE BUSCH
27th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
32nd, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER IN NSCS POINT STANDINGS — following Auto Club Speedway**
1st, Kevin Harvick* 195 points
2nd, Jimmie Johnson* 184 points
3rd, CARL EDWARDS 171 points
4th, DENNY HAMLIN 170 points
5th, KYLE BUSCH 170 points
11th, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 127 points
15th, MATT KENSETH 113 points
30th, DAVID RAGAN 67 points
33rd, MATT DiBENEDETTO 58 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
TOYOTA NOTES
· Camry driver Denny Hamlin (third) was the top-finishing Toyota in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at California’s Auto Club Speedway.
· Hamlin led the field once for two laps (of 205) in a race that went into overtime on the two-mile speedway.
· Toyota driver Carl Edwards (seventh) also tallied a top-10 result in Fontana and led the field three times for nine laps.
· Camry drivers Matt Kenseth (19th) and Martin Truex Jr. (32nd) also led laps in California with Kenseth leading two circuits, while Truex led 21 laps.
TOYOTA QUOTES
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
How does it feel to finish third?
“Disappointing third, I can tell you that, but two penalties, radio changes, just a lot of mistakes on my part early on and gave us ourselves a shot a there. I just – the 22 (Joey Lugano) for the one time he time didn’t get a good restart, we didn’t have that push there and that hurt us. I thought going early in the zone was probably the thing to do – hindsight maybe later, but who knows? Those two (Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick) linked up on the bottom and there’s really nothing we could have done at that point, but thanks Sport Clips, Toyota, the Greenbrier, the Jordan brand, Coca-Cola, Toyota for everything they do. Good day – just not a great day.”
What was your impression of the racing on the track?
“It was great racing. Low downforce is obviously the way. This package is obviously something we can build on and I can’t wait until we take another chunk of downforce out of these things and really you’re going to see some great racing.”
How was the tire fall off?
“The tire fall off was major. Our car wasn’t very good on restarts, but on the long run and that’s something used to not happen. If you’re slow, you’re slow. This time with this package and this tire, at least there’s a discrepancy at the beginning of the run and the end.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Subway Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
How was your race?
“Some of those restarts were just a blast. That’s what it’s about. We were really – I was having a blast. At the end, I just got choked up one time behind Brad (Keselowski), he got really loose and kind of killed our momentum. We had a really fast Subway Toyota. I wish we could have done better with it.”
What type of challenges did you experience during the race?
“We had every type of challenge you could have. We had a little bit of tire trouble. The tires, you could take it easy on them and you could kind of create your own destiny there. I think Goodyear has a good tire here and just have to be careful with them.”
What’s your impression of the new package?
“It’s fun, you can drive – you can really race. The guys still got out there and raced and got some leads, but really to me that was some really good racing in the middle of the race and on those last restarts.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 19th
DAVID RAGAN, No. 23 Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 22nd
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s 75 Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 25th
MATT DiBENEDETTO, No. 83 Cosmo Motors Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 27th
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 32nd
How was your race?
“We had a good run going until the No. 22 (Joey Logano) put our car into the fence. There was a lot of right-side damage to the car, and we were pretty much toast after that incident. Not sure what he (Logano) was thinking about at the time, but that hit spoiled our day. We went from being a contender to the back of the field. Really frustrating to have a good car and not have anything to show for it. I think we were running in or close to the top five when the (No.) 22 rammed our Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota.”
