Toyota NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Richmond International Raceway
Race 25 of 33 – 187.5 miles, 250 laps
Friday, Sept. 9, 2016
TOYOTA NXS DRIVER FINISHING POSITIONS at Richmond International Raceway
1st, KYLE BUSCH
2nd, ERIK JONES
3rd, Brad Keselowski*
4th, Elliott Sadler*
5th, Justin Allgaier*
8th, DANIEL SUAREZ
16th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG
20th, JJ YELEY
28th, HERMIE SADLER III
40th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA NXS DRIVER POINT STANDINGS following Richmond International Raceway (race 25 of 33)*
2nd, DANIEL SUAREZ 794 points
6th, ERIK JONES 753 points
13th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG 547 points
16th, JJ YELEY 498 points
*unofficial point standings
TOYOTA NOTES
· Camry driver Kyle Busch was victorious in Friday night’s NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) race at Virginia’s Richmond International Raceway.
· Busch started seventh and led a race-high 197 laps (of 250) in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Camry en route to his eighth win of the season.
· Busch improves his career-NXS wins record to 84 victories, including 73 behind the wheel of a Camry.
· Camry drivers have won 14 races this season.
· Toyota drivers Erik Jones (second) and Daniel Suarez (eighth) also earned top-10 results at the Virginia short track.
TOYOTA QUOTES
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 NOS Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How did you win again tonight?
“Man, I don’t know. I thought I was down to begin with. Never give up I guess. Just keep going, keep working and keep doing what we can do. It’s obviously an awesome job by my crew chief Chris Gayle. He got a promotion this week, so these guys are going to be celebrating with him pretty hard these next few weeks that we have left this season. True testament to everyone with this NOS Energy Camry. This Toyota was awesome today. I can’t thank NOS enough, Toyota, XFINITY and NASCAR and of course the fans as well. We appreciate their support here on a Friday night. It’s fun to come out here and race at Richmond. We’ve got Kroger onboard and also Miller Oil for our vendor partners this weekend, so it’s special for them to be in victory lane, especially with the blue and orange. If anybody wants to go over and get one of these bad boys head on over to 7-Eleven. They’re on shelves now – the ‘ole Rowdy NOS. It’s going to be a new flavor, so tell me what you think, tweet, Facebook, whatever, let me know. It’s going to be pretty awesome, but great night.”
Where did the little bit of doubt with crew chief Chris Gayle come from?
“Oh, I didn’t doubt Chris Gayle (crew chief). I just doubted our car today. It just wasn’t right. We just kind of missed it all through practice. It wasn’t good there and then we qualified and, man, it was just a handful in qualifying. We didn’t qualify very well – seventh – that’s not very well for my expectations, but we just worked on it there at the start of the race we were really out of control and loose and I got to fourth, but I thought that was kind of where we were going to be. But then my guys had an awesome pit stop and got me out front. Chris Gayle made some really smart adjustments to it there that first time on pit road and after that it was lights out. Man, it was on a rail from there. It felt really, really good and obviously it was a great day for our teammate too, Erik (Jones) behind us, so a good one too.”
How were you able to win this race tonight?
“It’s a great night. I certainly didn’t expect that. You guys can go back and replay my message I had before the race. I figured we were going to be stuck fourth to eighth and I was right there on that first run, you know? We were fourth and that was it, but the guys made some awesome adjustments – Chris Gayle (crew chief) and all of these boys did a really good job and got me hooked up there after that first pit stop. Guys on pit road gave me a great pit stop to get me out front to get me that lead but the car was really good after that too – man, through traffic, anywhere I wanted to go, all that stuff – I didn’t expect that from practice earlier today and from how we qualified. Man, I thought we weren’t going to be but a fourth-place car.”
Did you work on the car at all with the other pit stop?
“It was pretty good at that point, but we never give up. We’re never satisfied, so we worked on it a little bit more that final stop that we had and was just able to free it up a little bit and get the car to roll the bottom a little bit longer through the runs so I didn’t have to abuse the right front tire and I could just continue to hold the groove that I wanted to and just drive away a little bit from those guys behind me. Great day for us at Joe Gibbs Racing. This Toyota Camry was awesome tonight. NOS Energy drink, can’t say enough about them, thank you. Also got a new NOS Energy Drink here, Rowdy NOS, if anybody wants to go to 7-Eleven and pickup one of them bad boys tweet us, Facebook us, let us know how it tastes of course. But, we’ve also got to thank our vendor partners here with us this weekend as well – Kroger and Miller Oil. Those guys do an awesome job supporting us. We have a lot of fun out here.”
What did you learn about the race track for tomorrow night’s NSCS race?
“Well, there’s certainly some multiple grooves out there. Guys were trying to make the middle work and guys were trying to make the top-top work and that was crazy to see. Our car was really good right around the bottom. It just seemed to like punting that line and being down there on that bottom. I think that’s the place to be if you get your car working down there and motor on. Cup cars are different because they’ve got more horsepower, so you tend to try to slow down a little bit more in the corner but use that straightaway so you’ve got to make the straightaways longer with that horsepower. Hopefully it’s a good show for the fans and I know tomorrow night will be a good show for the fans, there’s a lot on the line.”
Why do you run so well at Richmond?
“I’m not sure. There was definitely some years I went through some dry spell here though. It’s not all the time, but certainly I have had some good years here, some good runs here both in the XFINITY and the Sprint Cup side and, man, it’d be – that’s 10 wins. I’d hate to see what the second-place finish number is because that’s a lot more than I think the wins are, so certainly it’s been a good track for me over the years. I’m not sure. I remember the first time I was here, I think I knocked every wall down. I was in a Roush truck back then and it was a pretty gnarly day for me, but learned a lot and then was able to get in that Hendrick Motorsports Busch car back here in 2004 and win that – that was my first Busch win and 84 of those later here we are again, so it’s been fun and I like coming here. It’s a neat little place, but certainly I guess you’ve got to have optimistic expectations because like Chris (Gayle, crew chief) said you never have the optimum track conditions that you’re going to race in at night.”
CHRIS GAYLE, crew chief, No. 18 NOS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How did you win?
“The race – I’ll pretty much echo what Kyle (Busch) said – we weren’t very happy with the car in practice. Go through practice and you kind of work on it and it’s really tough here because you practice either early in the morning with no rubber on the race track, you qualify during the heat of the day, you never really have the conditions that you’re going to race in at night, so you never really feel 100 percent about where your car is and where it’s going to be for night. You kind of know what you need to adjust at night, but you kind of just – the better it is in the day time, the more you kind of know you can put those adjustments in and you’ll be good. But when you’re not really good during the day time, you don’t necessarily have that confidence, so I think that was one of those days for us and then kind of qualified seventh and that’s not where we expect to qualify. Then it kind of set the tone and I just – I talked to him a little before the race and was like, ‘Hey, there are days where you think you have the best car and it turns it our bad for you and then there are days where you don’t always have the best car and it turns out a lot better in the race than you expected, so just stay optimistic about it,’ and I think he did a good job of doing that and always drives his butt off all race and then I knew once we got to fourth we were kind of trading lap times with the guys in front of us. We just needed to get in front of them, so I knew adjusting the car he needed a few things a little different for him and once we got that if we could get clean air we’d be in good shape.”
CHRIS GAYLE, crew chief, No. 18 NOS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued)
Was it important to get a win after the Erik Jones announcement and how are you preparing for next year?
“It wasn’t important to get a new win – I mean, not just because of the announcement. It’s important to win every time. That’s the expectation of this team, so that’s kind of just goes without saying. Glad we did that. On staying on Sundays and working, that’s kind of already started to happen. You guys probably didn’t know, but I’ve been around for the last couple weeks if you’ve been watching a little bit, so I’ve kind of been doing that for a little bit and we’ll continue to do that for the rest of the year and maybe not Furniture Row per say, but it gives me kind of a unique perspective for all the Toyota teams to kind of see how everybody doing things different and kind of mold my team how I want to based on the goods and the bads of what I learn over the next 10, 11 races.”
ERIK JONES, No. 20 DEWALT FLEXVOLT Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
How was your race tonight?
“Mine was really good, but we weren’t quite there with the 18 (Kyle Busch). Not much to say, man. He had about the same setup as us – he’s just that good. It’s unfortunate. We’ve run second to him a lot of times this year. I wish all of those were wins, but we’re getting stronger and stronger every time. It’s just a good way to get back on track. We’ve had some rough weeks and some rough finishes. It’s nice to get back up and contend for one.”
Do you feel Kyle Busch’s experience was the difference in him winning tonight’s race?
“Yeah, for sure. It shows. It’s unfortunate. We want to win and I feel like we had a car that could do it – just not against Kyle (Busch) and the 18. Overall, the DEWALT FLEXVOLT Camry was good and that’s a big stride for me at this race track. It’s never been one of my strong suits the few times I’ve been here, so I feel like I made a lot of gains personally and I figured out a lot of things about this track and hopefully it will help next year some. It’s nice to get back on track and get a little momentum here one week before we start the Chase.”
How was your race?
“Definitely a big step for me here at Richmond. I honestly didn’t know we ran that good here in the past. I just felt like we struggled a little bit and I struggled a little bit here. I just felt like I learned a lot about the track tonight and got better myself but didn’t have anything for the 18 (Kyle Busch). We’ll have to work on that, but we were second best for sure. We were running away from everybody else, but we finished second to him about five times now, so it would be nice to hopefully beat him one of these times before the year is out.”
What’s it like to be chasing a driver who you can’t see half the night because he’s so good?
“It’s tough, you know. Unfortunately, the second restart of the first restart of the night we had to start back in seventh and for that run we were faster than him (Kyle Busch) the majority of the run, but I had to fight my way through traffic and by the time I got there I kind of burnt my stuff up. We thought we’d be good after that and didn’t really do anything on the next pit stop and then unfortunately we were too tight on the last run. Just didn’t keep up with the adjustments enough as we needed to do. It’s definitely tough every time you’re chasing a guy like that.”
Does seeing Chris Gayle win get you excited knowing he will be your NSCS crew chief next year?
“Yeah, for sure. Chris (Gayle, crew chief) has done a really nice job on the XFINITY side and I’ve had the chance to work with him some over here in the 54 car last year and we were able to win a race here at Chicagoland. Yeah, for sure, like I said he’s done a really nice job and I think we’ll have a really good effort over there and as well I think he deserves it. He’s been at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) for a long time and deserves that chance.”
What did you learn about the track here tonight?
“It’s funny, it’s nothing like Darlington, but the surface is very similar in the way it’s abrasive, it wears tires out, it’s slick for pretty much the whole run. For me, those are tracks I’ve always struggled at a little bit, just my driving style. I’ve been able to adapt here in the last few months to some of these tracks a little bit better. For sure, in the race I felt like I was learning a lot about just things you can do on exit. You get a little bit more drive later in the run, things you can do in the center to help out and really before I just never felt like I had a good grip on the track and really felt like I just needed new tires on and really had to charge with new tires to make any speed. I felt like we were able to make more speed in the long haul which is definitely what you need to do here.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 19 ARRIS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 8th
DAKODA ARMSTRONG, No. 28 JGL Young Guns Toyota Camry, JGL Racing
Finishing Position: 16th
JJ YELEY, No. 44 Zachry Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 20th
HERMIE SADLER III, No. 14 Virginia Lottery Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 28th
MATT DIBENEDETTO, No. 10 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 40th
