Toyota NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Race 18 of 33 – 150 miles, 60 laps
Saturday, July 23, 2016
TOYOTA NXS DRIVER FINISHING POSITIONS at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
1st, KYLE BUSCH
7th, DANIEL SUAREZ
19th, JJ YELEY
20th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG
22nd, ERIK JONES
34th, HARRISON RHODES
36th, JEFF GREEN
38th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
TOYOTA NXS DRIVER POINT STANDINGS following Indianapolis Motor Speedway (race 18 of 33)*
1st, DANIEL SUAREZ 608 points
5th, ERIK JONES 539 points
15th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG 369 points
16th, JJ YELEY 345 points
*unofficial point standings
TOYOTA NOTES
· Camry driver Kyle Busch won his seventh NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) race of the season on Saturday afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after starting from the pole, marking his seventh victory in 11 NXS starts in 2016.
· Busch led every lap but one – a race-high 62 laps (of 63) – en route to his 83rd-career NXS victory and 72nd in a Camry. The victory was also Toyota’s 12th NXS win of 2016.
· Busch has now won three NXS races at Indy in just five starts (2013, 2015-16).
· Busch and Jones (22nd) won a pair of 20-lap heat races to start from the front row for the main event feature.
· Daniel Suarez (seventh) earned his 15th top-10 finish of the season and continues to lead the series point standings.
TOYOTA QUOTES
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How were you able to win on old tires?
“Well, the new tires for those guys was good for them, but not for so good for us having old tires you know obviously, but I just dug in deep and gave it everything I had and knew I had to get really good restarts in there. The second to last one, I got a really good one and then the last one was okay – I got an okay one and then I saw (Kevin) Harvick pull out and he must have been obviously blocking the guys behind him who had a run because he never got alongside of me. I never felt him close enough that he was going to pull alongside, but this NOS Energy Drink Camry was awesome today. It was really, really fast. Chris Gayle (crew chief) and all these guys, they deserve this win here at the Brickyard. It’s a pretty awesome feeling to be able to go back to victory lane here again this year and hopefully with sitting on the pole for tomorrow we can have another sweep here with that Skittles Camry.”
Do you like your odds to be the first driver to win both the Cup and XFINITY Indy races from the pole on the same weekend?
“I think they’re pretty good and of course starting up front, that means a lot here at Indy, but, man, it’s a long race. It’s a long 400 miles and we’ll just have to see how it goes, but our Toyota today was strong. I think our Toyota tomorrow will be even stronger and I can’t say enough about JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) Engines, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), XFINITY – we appreciate them and their support of course – and the fans as well too and DVX brand sunglasses, those guys are great for me as well. I’m getting those here in a minute – I’m waiting on those to come up.”
Does winning ever get old?
“Nah, it certainly doesn’t. Man, these guys are so good, but you’ve got to drive the car to make it happen too, so I give the driver a little bit of credit, but overall, man, just a great day. Joe Gibbs Racing obviously does a great job for me – Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), Joe Gibbs Racing Engines – and it’s fun to run here and get some more experience for tomorrow. I feel like this car’s really helped me in the last few years at being excel here at the Brickyard and I’m looking forward to what we’ve got for them tomorrow.”
What were the final two restarts like?
“I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I just knew to make sure I got a good restart – as good of restarts as I could get – and that worked. It helped me. Certainly, the second to last one was really good. I got out front of (Kyle) Larson there and in the last one (Kevin) Harvick was right on me, but he must of pulled left in order to block those behind him and hold those guys back, but I had a good run through one and two and was able to go down the backstretch and not really get anybody too close to me, you know? Harvick I guess and Larson were racing each other, so that was the best thing for me to be able to kind of sneak away just a little bit.”
How different is the feel between the Cup cars and XFINITY entries at Indy and are you equally confident in both?
“I think with starting on the pole for tomorrow, it gives us a really good shot at being able to set the pace for the race early on and get out front a little bit. We have had really good cars on both the XFINITY side and the Sprint Cup side, so with today’s race I was able to kind of set that pace and then expect and hope to be able to do the same thing tomorrow, but competition is going to be a little bit different obviously with the best of the best racing for the Brickyard 400 victory. I think you’ll see some pit strategy play its hand. I think you’ll see some cautions play their hand. These Cup cars a little bit harder to drive here and tend to move around a little bit more and then tire fall off is greater, so there’s going to be a bigger chance of just seeing a different race for sure than what we saw today.”
What has changed to allow you to become so good at Indy in recent years?
“I think experience certainly has given me the opportunity to just become better and better here each and every year. Running the XFINTIY cars has certainly helped my Sprint Cup effort I feel like and even before that I think I finished second or third probably three years in a row before I was able to win here last year, so our average finish is certainly going in the right direction and hopefully tomorrow can be another good, solid, smooth day for us. If we don’t lead every lap, that’s not a problem – we just want to lead the last one and make sure that we can try to take that checkered flag home.”
CHRIS GAYLE, crew chief, No. 18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What’s the biggest key to your seven wins this year?
“He’s (Kyle Busch) sitting to my left and then good cars. I think what’s that – seven with Kyle and then one with Sam (Hornish Jr.) and one with Denny (Hamlin) – so I mean obviously good cars are part of it, but I think you just see Kyle get more out of them than most. There’s just no way around it – he’s that good. From there, you just have good cars every week. We just kind of had good cars last year, we’ve kind of tweaked on them over the off-season, made them better and I think we’re just kind of focused on ourselves – just doing what we can to make our cars better, not paying attention to what the rest of the field’s doing and just kind of get tunnel vision and that’s all we do is just try to make our cars better and I think that’s working pretty well so far.”
How long do you think it will be before you move to the Cup Series?
“Wherever I can be successful – in a situation that’s successful, sure I’d love to go Cup racing – but I don’t want to do it if I can’t be successful. I’m pretty much in the best XFINITY team that exists, so why would I go take a step to something that wasn’t going to be competitive at the next level. That’s kind of what it is for me. I kind of waited my turn – I’ve been at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) a long time. There’s was probably some other moves I could have made that may not have been the best and then I got myself in a situation that I wasn’t the happiest with and I kind of had to recover from that a little bit, so I’m trying to be smart about the moves you make going forward. I’ve got a long career – still got to work for a long ways in front of me here.”
STEVE DESOUZA, executive vice president of NASCAR XFINITY/Development, Joe Gibbs Racing
What makes your XFINTIY program so successful?
“I think Chris (Gayle, crew chief) landed on it – the crew chiefs and our management group down at the XFINTIY side and of course with all the affiliation we have on the Cup side has just done a phenomenal job in preparing and thinking ahead and working within our own group on how to make our program better and obviously Kyle’s (Busch) been a huge help on that. He and Chris – Chris being our senior crew chief this year – have really done well in bringing along the other two teams. We had a great day going with the other two cars and they ran into a little bit of problem, but I think it just – the display and the performance and how all three teams are running equally well I think shows and demonstrates how hard everybody is working together back at Joe Gibbs Racing.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 19 Juniper Networks Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
JJ YELEY, No. 44 Zachry Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 19th
DAKODA ARMSTRONG, No. 28 WinField Toyota Camry, JGL Racing
Finishing Position: 20th
ERIK JONES, No. 20 GameStop/NASCAR Heat Evolution Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 22nd
What caused you accident?
“I just wrecked all by myself. I don’t know why, but I’ve been here twice and wrecked all by myself twice, so I need to figure something out. Unfortunately, we had a fast Camry and didn’t have a shot to win – we were second class all day – but it is what it is and try to be better when I come back.”
HARRISON RHODES, No. 13 TredWear.com/Masters Properties Toyota Camry
Finishing Position: 34th
JEFF GREEN, No. 14 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 36th
MATT DIBENEDETTO, No. 10 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 38th
