TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes
Charlotte Motor Speedway
600 miles, 400 laps
May 26, 2016
TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
4th, DENNY HAMLIN
9th, CARL EDWARDS
16th, KYLE BUSCH
27th, MATT KENSETH
35th, DAVID RAGAN
34th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Starting Position: 1st
How strong is this race car compared to what you had last year when you were so competitive?
“I liked what I felt last year and I’ve been thinking about this race a lot since then. We had a really good car that day and thought we were going to go to victory lane and got beat on fuel mileage. Just excited for all my guys and for Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Boats, Furniture Row, Denver Mattress and everybody that works so hard on this deal – Toyota Racing, TRD – just awesome race cars. We had to work hard today, we were not that good in practice and made a lot of changes throughout this qualifying session. Hats off to my guys for some really good work and lucky to be with this group for sure.”
What will it take to get to victory lane for this team?
“Just continuing what we’ve been doing, we’ve been so good and we’ve really had a great season. We don’t have a lot to show for it, but we’ve got a lot of confidence and a lot of momentum and fast race cars. Hopefully we can get to victory lane here soon.”
How special was your ‘Catwalk for a Cause’ event last week?
“It was a great week and it’s always great to put on that event. This year it was bigger than ever. So much support from so many people and the kids were tremendous as always. It’s really inspiring to see them get out there and do that, it’s just a humbling deal to be able to put that on.”
How does it feel to be on the pole for the Coca-Cola 600?
“It feels awesome. Obviously proud of my team for the effort. We really had to work pretty hard for it today. It was just one of them Charlotte deals where things were continuously changing and we were just chasing the race track and changing the car. Just really never got it really close to right until that last adjustment so really just proud of the effort, proud of my guys for that and it feels good – 600 miles, that first pit stall. We’re going to be on pit road a lot Sunday night and that’s certainly going to be an advantage so we’ll take advantage of it and hope it works for us. Looking forward to getting to work on Saturday and hopefully we’ll be good for Sunday night.”
Do you have more confidence coming to intermediate tracks with your recent performance?
“We did that last weekend and it didn’t work out for us. This sport’s tough, things are constantly changing with the tire this time, it’s a lot different than last year’s tire and that kind of caught us off guard this weekend and five laps of practice didn’t help. We learned a lot last weekend that I feel has already helped us today. Hopefully it will continue to help us throughout the weekend, but our cars have been so good and our team has been doing such a great job and it definitely gives you a good feeling coming to tracks like this. Hopefully if we can do all the right things on Sunday I think we’ll definitely be one of the guys to be able to contend for this thing. Just looking forward to the opportunity and hopefully we can work together and do what it takes to get our first win of the season.”
Is it unusual to not be as fast in the first two rounds and have it all come together in the final round?
“I don’t know, I don’t think it’s unusual, it was changing quite a bit throughout each run and we were making some pretty big adjustments. We didn’t feel like our first run was very good. Really the first two rounds didn’t put together a very good lap on my end and then the car just wasn’t where I needed it to be. Fixing the problems I had and the problems with the car, it just came together when it counted. Like I said, just proud of my team for what they did and I’ve got so much confidence in them, I just tell them what I need and they go to work on it and it seems like they’re always able to give it to me. That’s a great feeling and it’s a lot of fun at the race track when you have that going on. I know our cars are fast and it’s up to us to just do all the right things to put it together. Just proud of them for that and it’s definitely fun. It’s a fun lap around here, in qualifying trim this place is really fast. It was cool, it was a lot of fun today. We worked hard and we changed a lot today so it says a lot about our group and what they’re doing right now.”
Did you believe the car was strong enough to contend for the pole tonight?
“I don’t know, I really didn’t think about it. I just focused on what I thought we needed to do better, focused on trying to give the right information to my crew chief and my engineer and then it’s ultimately up to them to make the final decision what we do to the race car. That’s really what we focused on. I don’t think we ever put odds on our chances or anything like that, it’s just a constant battle of trying to figure out how we can be better. At Kansas, we got the pole a few weeks ago there and I guess really didn’t see it coming there either, but you never know. We went from 12th the first round to first in the third round so you never know what people are doing, what they’re working on, how good their car is, how bad it is so you just have to continue to work and try to get better every time you go on the race track.”
Does having a down day tomorrow impact the race team?
“I don’t think it makes a difference to the driver. I think an extra day out of town for the crews, well most of the guys are in town here so it helps them, but our guys are from Denver so it’s another day away from home for them so it’s a little more difficult for our guys I guess than everybody else. Everybody else is going to drive home tonight and sleep in their own bed. From our end, I don’t think it changes at all really. Get ready to go on Saturday and come back and do our own deal.”
Was the pickup in the third round the track changing or your adjustments or a combination of both?
“I’d say it was a little bit of both. I think the track was getting better and we saw all the top fast guys and I think everybody picked up in the last round and we just happened to be able to pick up more. It was both, the track got faster for sure, but we made good adjustments on our race car for sure and got better that way. Just put it all together when it counted. You never know how they’re going to turn out, we’ve been doing the same thing for weeks and we got a pole a few weeks ago and now we got another one so it’s just momentum. Things are working for us right now and we’re confident in our decisions and its fun to race when you have that and things are going the way you need them to.”
Did you notice a difference from last week to this week with the rule change on tow in the cars?
“Honestly, it’s really not a big difference – very, very small. I guess to try to help explain it a little bit, we took the rule last week was three-tenths less skew, at Kansas we had to take two-tenths out before qualifying to get through tech and we sat on the pole. It’s really small, the rules changes coming for next year are really big – the rules changes from last year to this year are big. I would say that skew change was very, very minimal and honestly if it’s a few hundredths of a second, it would be a lot so it’s a very small change.”
Is this a high point to your season?
“We’ve had a lot of strong points this year, a lot of good moments, we’ve led a lot of laps and this is our second pole. It’s obvious that our speed wasn’t just a come and go type of thing, we’ve been fast everywhere every week. We obviously feel like we’ve let a few wins slip away so I wouldn’t say this is the high point, but it’s definitely a good feeling. Anytime your car is fast and you’re getting poles and you’re leading laps, that’s where you want to be as a driver, that’s where you want to be as a team. Now we just have to put it all together on Sunday and hopefully lead the last lap. We’ve led plenty of others, we just need to get that last one.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 4th
How was the car in qualifying?
“Pretty good, I think in qualifying we’ve really been pretty good this year and that’s been kind of par for us. We really plan to concentrate on Saturday and getting our car good on the long run, that’s really where we’ve been struggling most of the season. We’ve got a new setup idea and we’ll see if it works and really excited to get to Saturday, I want to get to practice and see what they’ve come up with.”
Does it mean anything to you that you’ve made the final 12 in qualifying all season thus far?
“It’s just a stat thing, obviously we have a great average start this year. If I could switch the average start with the average finish, I’d do it.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Subway Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 9th
How was the car in qualifying?
“I think we had something that we just couldn’t get worked out of it. In qualifying I think we did pretty well considering. It’s a good starting spot and considering we have 600 miles to get where we deserve to be, but just truly cool to be driving the Subway Toyota this weekend. Just a lot of neat things they’re doing for our troops. Hopefully we can give them a good show.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 16th
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 27th
MATT DiBENEDETTO, No. 83 Hope For The Warriors/Cosmo Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 34th
DAVID RAGAN, No. 23 Bubba Burger Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 35th
