TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
318.46 miles, 301 laps
July 15, 2016
TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
2nd, KYLE BUSCH
3rd, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
5th, DENNY HAMLIN
13th, CARL EDWARDS
16th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
18th, MATT KENSETH
23rd, DAVID RAGAN
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 2nd
Did you have anything for the pole-winning lap that Jimmie Johnson posted?
“No, I thought we were kind of close to that in the second round. Overall, I messed up a couple times on that lap that we had and a little bit off of four and definitely checked up and had to get out of the gas just to save the car and come down and have a good lap. Still surprising that we were second. The car wasn’t driving as well as I would have liked it to drive for qualifying there and stuck quite as good as I would have expected it to, but good speed and that’s what matters right now and being able to put up a good lap like that. Great job to the Interstate Batteries team, Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and the boys, they’ve done a good job here. Looking forward to hopefully working on our Camry a little bit more tomorrow and making it drive good and have some good speed as well for Sunday.”
How important is good pit selection at this track?
“There’s one that we wanted and we don’t get that one. Normally (Jimmie) Johnson likes to take down on that end so hopefully he stays on that so then we can have one. We do have good pit selection and we were just kind of talking about that where we wanted to be and what we were kind of looking for, seeing what we can do in order to get the best race possible on Sunday.”
How was the car in qualifying?
“Our car wasn’t quite as good as I had hoped it would be as far as the feeling that I had with grip. It was fast though, the second round and third round were certainly high up there on the speed charts, but just didn’t quite have the comfort that I was looking for out of the car to be able to push it a little bit more and get some more time out of it, actually had to give up a little time because of the lack of grip that I felt off the exit of four and ended up p2 today. The Interstate Batteries Camry is good, Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and the guys did a great job and just look forward to being able to work on some balance and work on some feel that I like for tomorrow and get ready for Sunday.”
Are there any similarities from this track to other tracks?
“This place is kind of its own animal, it’s a lot of a short track and it kind of reminds you a little bit of Martinsville, bit it doesn’t drive near the same as Martinsville. This place is definitely pretty tricky as far as trying to figure out what the right balance of speed is and what the right balance of grip is. You can be really fast here and be really loose and you can try to calm that down and get some comfort built into the car for you so you can just steer it to the left and not worry about having to counter-steer to the right and then you’re slow. A lot of different things go into what you want to feel as a driver here around this place.”
What are the biggest changes from qualifying setup to race setup?
“The biggest thing that you look for is just trying to get the car as fast as you can make it for the short run for qualifying so you’ll put some nose weight to it, you’ll put some camber to it and things like that and you’ll free it up so you can make sure you can hustle it as fast as you can possibly hustle it and not have the thing go tight on you. If you do those things for the race you’ll just be way too loose and you won’t be able to hang on for the long run so you definitely have to take some of those adjustments out and make sure that the car is well balanced and will last here probably 80 laps or so.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., No. 78 Furniture Row Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Starting Position: 3rd
How many changes have you all been making to the car today to be so strong?
“It’s been a hectic day. It seems like we’ve been thrashing all day long. Everything is last minute, last second and just throwing stuff at it, but when it counts we keep hitting it. We were first in practice and third here. We barely made it through the second round and then went on to finish third. All in all, it was a good day. Just a lot of quick decisions by everyone.”
How challenging is this race track with the heat and new tires?
“This is a tricky place for sure and so line sensitive and heat sensitive. Just have to work tomorrow on getting it balanced for Sunday. I think for us, we’ve had really good speed all day, it’s just if we can get the balance close or not. Tomorrow, that second practice seems to really be the one that counts – that first one, not so much. We’ll do some experimenting in the first one and try to learn what we need to make differences in our car and what we need to make it feel somewhat decent and then the second practice we’ll concentrate on getting the balance hopefully right for the weather conditions on Sunday.”
How important is track position at New Hampshire?
“It’s very difficult, but with the tire we have this year we’re hoping it falls off more, which will make everybody have to put tires on. Typically this would become a fuel mileage race and a race where you have to catch the cautions right so you can stay out and get that track position. Hopefully the tires wear out this weekend where we’ll actually have to put tires on during a pit stop and it will be harder for guys to jump from 15th to 20th and be suddenly at the front. Hopefully that’s the case and we’ll be able to race our way up front all day long, have good stops and just keep track position and not have to worry about gaining it.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 5th
How was the car in qualifying?
“It was alright. We were pretty good through the first two rounds and just got off balance there on the final round. Disappointing, I thought we could run quite a bit better than what we ran there. Still a good starting spot. We’ve been like third or fifth here a bunch of races in a row so we can win from there and really pretty optimistic that we’ll have a good car for this weekend.”
How much will the temperature impact the tires and the race?
“I don’t think a whole lot will change for sure. I think that once it gets over 80 (degrees), everything else is what it is. I don’t know, I think that if you get your car dialed in you can make passes and if you don’t its going to be a difficult, long day.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 13th
What happened that you missed the top-12 by only .001 of a second?
“I messed up (turns) one and two my first lap. We have a really fast race car. I still beat Matt (Kenseth), which is good for bragging rights up on the driver intro stand. But we have a really fast race car and one one-thousandth of a second, that’s not a lot. We gambled and decided that we were just going to sit and save the laps on our tires and Martin (Truex Jr.) got us. Hopefully we can get to victory lane for Sport Clips. They’ve been really good to us and we’ve got a good enough car.”
MATT DiBENEDETTO, No. 83 Cosmo Motors Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 16th
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 18th
How much are the tires falling off today and how much will that impact the race strategy?
“Every week is a little different. I think that today as hot as it is, it seems there’s a little tire fall-off. New tires seem like they make more of a difference here. If that happens then I think you’ll see a lot more passing than normal.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 23 Flaming Leprechaun Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 23rd
