TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Dover International Speedway
Race 12 of 36 – 400 miles, 400 laps
Sunday, May 14, 2016
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS — at Dover International Speedway
1st, MATT KENSETH
2nd, Kyle Larson*
3rd, Chase Elliott*
4th, Kasey Kahne*
5th, Kurt Busch*
7th, DENNY HAMLIN
9th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
17th, DAVID RAGAN
28th, CARL EDWARDS
30th, KYLE BUSCH
40th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER IN NSCS POINT STANDINGS — following Dover International Speedway**
1st, Kevin Harvick 418 points*
2nd, KYLE BUSCH 397 points
4th, CARL EDWARDS 381 points
9th, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 336 points
12th, MATT KENSETH 313 points
13th, DENNY HAMLIN 308 points
30th, DAVID RAGAN 161 points
33rd, MATT DiBENEDETTO 141 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
TOYOTA NOTES
· Camry driver Matt Kenseth earned his first checkered flag of the season in Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Dover International Speedway.
· The victory marks the seventh for Toyota in the first 12 races of 2016 and secures a place for all four Joe Gibbs Racing Camrys in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.
· Kenseth’s win is the 135th NSCS victory for JGR, tying the organization with Roush Fenway Racing for the third-most wins in NSCS history.
· Camry drivers Denny Hamlin (seventh) and Martin Truex Jr. (ninth) also earned top-10 finishes on the one-mile Delaware oval.
· Kenseth led 48 laps (of 400) en route to the win. Fellow Camry drivers Hamlin (15 laps), Truex (47 laps) and Carl Edwards (27 laps) also spent time at the front of the field.
TOYOTA QUOTES
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
What does it feel like to get this win and secure your place in the Chase?
“It feels great to get this one for sure. A great racing organization obviously at Joe Gibbs Racing, everyone at Toyota and TRD (Toyota Racing Development) have done a great job. These engines and power and designs we have – I’m thankful to be driving this thing. Thanks to Dollar General, DeWALT – they’re great sponsors – Citizen, Gatorade, WileyX, Interstate Batteries – we have great partners and couldn’t do it without them. We were tight all night on restarts and then finally on that last one we got so loose I thought Kyle (Larson) was going to get by me. Kept digging the best I could and tried to hold on.”
How were you able to get this win at Dover?
“It feels good to be here, been a tough few months, for sure. These guys did a great job, did a great job on pit road today. Obviously Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and these guys did a great job with the car and adjustments as well as Toyota and TRD (Toyota Racing Development). We had a good car today. I thought we were competitive and there were a few guys at different parts of the race that were a little bit better and Kyle (Larson) gave me all I wanted at the end, and then some. We were fortunate to be able to hold him off.”
What’s it like racing for the win in the final laps like that when you’re being challenged for the win?
“We got real loose that last run and haven’t been that loose most of the day. We were quite tight most of the day. I watched Carl (Edwards) earlier in the race use some grip off of turn four in the middle of the track and a few other guys I kind of saw that as they were going by me. Kyle Larson is extremely talented and I knew if I was on the bottom, he was going to be on the top. We got so free, I started working that middle groove and I was able to get just far enough ahead. If he would have snuck outside of me, it would have been over. I had just enough momentum to stay in front of him.”
Are you relieved to secure your place in the Chase with this victory?
“It feels good to be in victory lane. It always feels good to win. Dover has always been my favorite track. I made my first Cup start here many moons ago. We only got a couple of these things. It feels good to get one and I feel like this is usually one of my better places and it’s been a little bit of a struggle lately. It feels good to be here, for sure.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., No. 78 Furniture Row Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
How were you able to recover with a top-10 finish after almost being collected in the massive wreck?
“Our guys did a really good job today. I thought really all weekend, we had a new package, science project kind of deal Friday and yesterday and went with what we know for Happy Hour. At the beginning of the race we were a fifth, sixth-place car and just kept working on it, kept working on it and when we needed to be the best car, I think we were. Just one of those deals, wrong place, wrong time. Frustrating, but we got a top-10 out of it so not too bad. The guys on pit road did a great job fixing it. Just hate that it happened. I wanted to be fourth on that restart, but I didn’t want to be fourth that bad. I should have been third so maybe I should have not let the 19 beat us off pit road. I don’t know how you can see those things coming. All in all good day, just bad finish.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 23 Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 17th
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Stanley Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 28th
What did you see of the accident in front of you?
“I didn’t see much. I was trying to give Kurt (Busch) a little room, it looked like he got choked up and as I looked at the replay it looked like I moved down a little and (Kyle) Larson got underneath me. I don’t think he meant to do it, but it surprised me. I didn’t know he was that close. We’ll just chalk it up to racing, but the hard part is we felt like we were going to win that million bucks for those kids and I felt like we could win this race. It’s tough not to be out there.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Pedigree Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 30th
How was the car handling before the accident and what did you see from your vantage point?
“We either missed something today or we had something break – just something wasn’t right. Got really, really, really evil there about lap 230 or lap 250, something like that and I was having a real hard time holding onto it and even making laps. Just trying to check everything out and see if there was anything that was broke, but obviously now there’s a lot of things broke and hard to decipher what we can figure out and learn about what we might have had happen there today. Just a tough break. I have no idea what happened. It was just a may lay in front of me and everybody was going every which way. There were a couple games on restarts today from a few people that I saw and guys get hit and get squirrely and as soon as they get hit and get squirrely, it’s pretty much everybody piles in after that because you can’t checkup that fast and you get run over from behind because everybody is so tight.”
MATT DiBENEDETTO, No. 83 Cosmo Motors Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 40th
Did you have any indication that something was happening with the right front on your race car?
“No, not really. It kind of came out of the blue. We had a decent car and were running okay and then it drove off into (turn) one. Either something broke or it blew a right front – we’re not really sure. I hate it for my guys – they worked hard. We changed everything going into the race, it’s unfortunate. Thank you to Cosmo Motors, the whole team at BK Racing. I’m always grateful for the opportunity and we’ll go get them next week.”
