TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes
Watkins Glen International
220.5 miles, 90 laps
August 6, 2016
TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, CARL EDWARDS
4th, MATT KENSETH
5th, KYLE BUSCH
6th, DENNY HAMLIN
14th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
22nd, COLE WHITT
26th, DAVID RAGAN
35th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
TOYOTA QUOTES
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Stanley Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 1st
Did you think you had a race car that could get the pole today?
“I wasn’t sure. You know the track is a little strange. It started out really slippery the first run — but, just really proud of my guys and everybody on this Stanley Toyota team. Dave Wilson from TRD (Toyota Racing Development, president) just came down. They’re a huge part of this. My teammates they’re really fast. Kyle (Busch) is really fast and Martin’s (Truex Jr.) is really fast. You’ve got to work a little bit in race trim but we’re starting upfront and we’ve got a great pit crew and hopefully we can put that Stanley in victory lane.”
How do you beat your teammates for your first Cup win at Watkins Glen?
“I think tomorrow is going to be a little bit of an adventure. The new pavement nobody knows how that’s going to go along deep into the runs with tire build up. I think the braking zones are pretty tough and it’s going to be nice and warm. So, just got to stay upfront, can’t make any mistakes. I love road races. They’re so much fun. I got to talk to Boris Said who’s basically my road racing coach to start so that was cool today. Hopefully tonight get me some good rest and hopefully be very competitive tomorrow.”
Do you think it will be slick tomorrow with the tire and new track combination?
“It was real slick. That’d be nice if it was slick like that during the race but I think as we run, as we get some rubber down these tires Goodyear does such a good job building a durable tire I think it’s just going to be a matter of tons of grip and managing that all day.”
How were you able to get the pole for tomorrow’s race?
“My guys did a great job, worked really hard this morning to change a bunch of stuff. I just have to really thank my teammates. I was I think the slowest of the group yesterday and we had a really good meeting and they helped me a ton and I think that input with those guys I got to sleep on that and I thought about it a lot. And, then the changes we made this morning all came together. The car was really fast. Just really proud of this pole. I think for us it’s a good accomplishment especially as slow as we were yesterday.”
Are you now officially a road course ‘ringer’?
“I think so you know. No, I don’t know. Like I told you, my road course career started pretty rough. There was the backing it into the fence here, there was the brush fire that we started at VIR, I mean there was a lot of stuff that’s led up to this. But, I’m really proud of doing well at these places just because it really has been a long learning process. So, now I need to put it together and get a win here. Been close here, we’ve run really well and this will be a good start to it. But, yeah if we had one more road course I’m sure, like this year, I think people would say, ‘Oh Carl.’ But, by next year they’ll forget and it will be all over again.”
Were the blocked qualifying runs some drivers faced strategy or stupidity by others?
“Man, that’s a good question. I know I came down the back straightaway on our good lap and there were at least two cars back there and man, they did everything they could to get out of my way so that was really nice of them. We try to be – Jason – I know Jason Hedlesky (spotter) and I, we work really hard to try not to mess up other people in all practice sessions and qualifying sessions just because everybody goes through a lot of work here to get hosed on a lap like that. I just appreciate everybody helping me. Here it’s really easy to mess somebody up and it’s even easier to act like you didn’t mean to so that makes it more likely to happen.”
How much pride do you take personally in starting upfront?
“I take a lot of pride in starting upfront. The qualifying day has become a lot more fun for me lately. It’s not a track position game, there’s nothing on the – it’s just how fast can you go and it took me a long time to get my mindset right to qualify when I first came into the sport and now I really enjoy it. And, what MillerCoors does is really cool. We’ve got those four poles and they’ve donated over $4,000 to charities of my choice. If we get two more they donate $25,000 so it’s really cool that they step up and do things like that for everyone that wins poles. So, hopefully we can get two more and donate that $25,000.”
Can you talk about your first lap after your team made changes overnight?
“The track was really, really slick to begin with. I don’t know if it was the rain or the rubber from yesterday but the track was much different that first lap. I watched a lot of guys go and I could see them locking up tires, I could see people missing that first corner and really that first lap was a good lap for me but I was nervous. I was nervous that I was going to slip up somewhere. The track was slick and then we ended up running a second lap in that first round because we weren’t confident that that lap was going to hold up. I think we maybe would’ve made it but there are a bunch of variables. A lot of it is probably guys like myself, you run yesterday, you go to sleep and they change everything on the car and you go out and get that first look at it and it’s tough. And, everyone when they were going again they were going faster and faster. So, we gambled, we didn’t gamble I guess we played it safe. We ran a second lap that first round and I was nervous that would mess up our pole run for the third time out in the second round. I know it’s complicated – but anyway what was your question? It all worked out fine. It was good. It was all according to plan.”
Do you have any expectations of what kind of start we are going to see or what advantage you have starting from pole?
“I think that starting from the pole will be a really large advantage just because there’s so many unknowns. I don’t really know the conditions of the track tomorrow. It was interesting how slick the track was today. As much grip as the tire has when you do get sideways here the tires break loose and they can chatter quite a bit, it’s a little bit treacherous. So, I think riding up through those esses and the bus stop that first lap is going to be a real battle in the middle of the pack. So, yeah, if I can keep everything straight and not end up in the middle of the pack by the time we get back there I think it will be a big advantage to start upfront. And, then all day having a good pit stall will help.”
What do you think made the track so slick today?
“Yeah, so I don’t know what exactly made it slick today. I don’t know if it was the rain cleaning off the rubber or if it was the rubber from the race yesterday. Yeah, so I just don’t know. I don’t know if it’s the oils coming out of the track. It will be interesting to see how it goes tomorrow. We’ll watch the race closely today. I believe the XFINITY cars are on the same tire so we’ll see how the track takes rubber and see what changes. You put all of those cars out there and they run hard in the heat for a couple of hours a lot of different things can happen. The track can change a lot and so none of us really know what to expect there. That will be interesting.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 4th
Do you think you have a Camry that can compete for the race win tomorrow?
“Qualifying was good. I think road courses in general, there’s only two of them, but in general they’re probably my weakest suit I would say and this place has been better than Sonoma for me, so I think anytime at one of these tracks that you can qualify fourth I think you had a good day. The car had a lot of speed in it, which is really encouraging. I didn’t feel like I got the very best laps every time and the car didn’t do exactly what I wanted to do every time but we were still able to post a pretty good speed so that’s encouraging. It gives us a good place to start at a race that we know is going to be very critical to have track position all day.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Snickers Crisper Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 5th
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 6th
Do you think you have a Camry that can race for the win tomorrow?
“I thought we were pretty good, like Sonoma where we qualified upfront which is good. I expect to have a good day. I thought in race trim we had a top-three car so if we can keep it up front and do like we did at Sonoma and put ourselves in a position to win we’ll hopefully get our first road course win.”
Can you take anything from the race at Sonoma and use it for Watkins Glen?
“Yeah, there were some things that we definitely took from one to the other – how to brake and some setup things as well even though the two are very different. You could take some of the same techniques so that’s what we did and it’s paying off so far.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., No. 78 Furniture Row Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Starting Position: 14th
What happened during your qualifying lap?
“There is nothing wrong with trying to do it in one run if people on the race track were paying attention to what’s going on. You’ve got somebody that just pulled out of the pits and sees you coming literally I don’t understand what the 17 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) was thinking. He was just leaving pit road and he wasn’t in a hurry to get anywhere. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense why he would’ve done what he did except for the fact that he just wasn’t paying attention. It’s a shame. We still almost made the second round. I don’t know what you can do about it. Our car is fabulous and the guys have done a great job all weekend. Certainly hard to win from there but it’s possible and we won’t give up until the race is over.”
How do you handle a situation like this moving forward?
“I don’t know what the right thing is to do. It’s just when you get to this level you should be able to know what’s going on around you and be able to pay attention to other cars, so I’m a little frustrated about that part of it especially when he was just leaving the pits. It’s not like he was on his lap. We’ve got spotters and he should’ve known there was a car coming on their lap and really I mean as close as I got to him before he even got to the esses he should’ve seen me and just checked up and let me go around the outside of him and not cost me a half a second, maybe only cost me a tenth or two.”
COLE WHITT, No. 98 RTICcoolers.com Toyota Camry, Premium Motorsports
Starting Position: 22nd
DAVID RAGAN, No. 23 Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 26th
MATT DiBENEDETTO, No. 83 Dustless Blasting Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 35th
