Toyota NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Talladega Superspeedway
Race 19 of 23 – 250.04 miles, 94 laps
Saturday, October 22, 2016
TOYOTA NCWTS DRIVER FINISHING POSITIONS at Talladega Superspeedway
1st, Grant Enfinger*
2nd, Spencer Gallagher*
3rd, TIMOTHY PETERS
4th, RICO ABREU
5th, Ben Kennedy*
6th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
8th, RYAN TRUEX
9th, MATT TIFFT
10th, WILLIAM BYRON
14th, AUSTIN WAYNE SELF
19th, CAMERON HAYLEY
22nd, MATT CRAFTON
23rd, CHRIS FONTAINE
24th, BEN RHODES
27th, KORBIN FORRISTER
31st, CODY COUGHLIN
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER NCWTS POINT STANDINGS following Talladega Superspeedway (race 19 of 23)*
1st, WILLIAM BYRON 3000 points#
2nd, CHRISTOPHER BELL 3000 points#
3rd, TIMOTHY PETERS 3000 points#
4th, Ben Kennedy 3000 points*
5th, Johnny Sauter 3000 points*
6th, MATT CRAFTON 3000 points#
11th, CAMERON HAYLEY 385 points
13th, BEN RHODES 323 points
14th, RICO ABREU 323 points
15th, AUSTIN WAYNE SELF 249 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
#Competing in the 2016 Chase for the championship
TOYOTA NOTES
· Toyota driver Timothy Peters (third) was the top-finishing Tundra driver in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday.
· Peters led the field twice for 14 laps (of 94) en route to the third-place result.
· Five additional Tundra drivers recorded top-10 finishes on the 2.66-mile superspeedway, including Rico Abreu (fourth), Christopher Bell (sixth), Ryan Truex (eighth) Matt Tifft (ninth) and William Byron (10th).
· With Talladega serving as the ‘Round of 8’ elimination race, all four Tundra championship contenders – Bell, Byron, Crafton and Peters – advanced into the ‘Round of 6’ in the NCWTS Chase for the Championship by being above the sixth-place cutoff line. All six championship contending drivers now have their points reset to 3,000 marks entering the next round and Tundra drivers are seeded first (Byron), second (Bell), third (Peters) and sixth (Crafton).
TOYOTA QUOTES
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
Now that you’ve transferred to the next round, how do you feel about your chances to make the final four in Homestead?
“Martinsville, bring it on. Red Horse Racing is an awesome team and we superspeedway race really well and we race good all year long. All the races we’re strong, but this is for the guys and women back at the shop that prepare these Tundras that makes my job a lot easier to come here and perform the way we do. Shane (Huffman, crew chief) did a great job and the pit crew did a great job. I don’t know how much more exciting you want to get plus this is Toyota’s 1000th start on Sunday so they’re going to have to make it a little more exciting than we just did. All in all, great effort. Triad horsepower is great and I’m ready for the next three.”
RICO ABREU, No. 98 Safelite Auto Glass/Curb Records Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 4 SiriusXM Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 6th
How does it feel to advance to the ‘Round of 6’?
“Just really thankful that I got to drive back on pit road this time. It was a struggle – today was a struggle. We fought all day long and I’ll tell you what – my team, they deserve this championship more than anyone. They’re carrying us through here and if anything can go wrong, it has gone wrong, but we’ve been able to fight through every single week and that’s – I’m really proud to be on this team. Everyone at – all the guys on this team, this Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 4 team, they work really hard. Without all our partners – SiriusXM, JBL, Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), everyone at KBM and at the shop, and all the guys at the KBM chassis shop as well and Joe Gibbs Racing engines – without them, we wouldn’t be here, so really thankful to be driving this No. 4 Tundra.”
Were you anxious during the race?
“Well, we were in pretty good shape in points – as good as we could have been – but you never know what to expect, so we made it through there and now we can go on to the next round. Martinsville – I struggled in the spring, so I’m going to have to get a lot better there and I’ve been doing my homework trying to get better there, but Texas and Phoenix I think we should be pretty good at and Homestead I think we’ll be really good at.”
RYAN TRUEX, No. 81 ADVICS Toyota Tundra, Hattori Racing Enterprises
Finishing Position: 8th
MATT TIFFT, No. 11 Brain Gear/Surface Sunscreen Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
WILLIAM BYRON, No. 9 Liberty University Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 10th
Are you looking forward to getting the next round of the Chase started at Martinsville?
“Just get back to a rhythm or a normal version of the races for us. Martinsville is pretty strong for us and we finished third there in the spring so hopefully we can just bring a strong truck and have a good race there and move on to the final round. We’re going for a win there for sure.”
How was the race today?
“I was proud we got a top-10 there and proud we could finish 10th and move on to the next round, we already were, but it was good to get some more experience on these plate races and just be able to contend there a little bit at the end there. Unfortunately we had some damage, but I felt like the truck was still in contention there in the closing laps so that was good.”
AUSTIN WAYNE SELF, No. 22 Trump Pence 2016 Toyota Tundra
Finishing Position: 14th
CAMERON HAYLEY, No. 13 Ride TV/CBH Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 19th
MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Shasta/Menards Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 22nd
How frustrating was it trying to stay clean in today’s race in order to transfer to the next round?
“This is a totally different atmosphere and there’s not a whole lot of things that a driver can do besides ride along the yellow line there at the end. We just had bad luck, but at least we moved onto the next round and that’s what it’s all about is getting through this chaos.”
How does it feel to advance despite an on-track issue?
“Ah, it’s good to advance without a doubt and you come into this so-called race that we have here at Talladega and just got out of it and just had a little bit of bad luck coming – the ups and downs – riding in the back and just trying to have something there at the end to fight with and we just had a little bad luck at the end”
What’s your strategy for the next round?
“Win. Period. That’s why we go to each and every race is to win. The way this Chase format is now, it’s sad to say you come into here and just try to survive, especially when you’ve got the back two that were so far out on us. It’s a crude mindset to go in here and go, ‘Hmm, I’ve just got to ride around here.’ Yeah, you worry about wanting to win the race, but if you’re wanting to advance you can’t really race in that big pack. You can’t put yourself in position, especially when the 8 (John Hunter Nemechek) had bad luck and then the 19 (Daniel Hemric) was a little bit tore up, but still if you had a bad day and the 19 ended up winning the race you can lose the deal, so if you’re riding around there in the back of the pack and just stay out of trouble, you can advance and that’s not a whole lot of fun racing like that. I promise you that.”
CHRIS FONTAINE, No. 78 Glenden Enterprises Toyota Tundra
Finishing Position: 23rd
BEN RHODES, No. 41 XPO Logistics Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 24th
Are you okay and what happened in the accident?
“I’m fine. We had a really fast XPO Logistics Tundra today and I hate that it ended that way. I just felt a huge shove from the rear and I had no chance of controlling it or where I was going to go. At the same time I was trying to follow the 24 (Grant Enfinger) down to get a good side draft and I was hoping he was going to pull me with him and maybe we could both get down there. This is the best run that we’ve had in a couple races now. This has just been a tough year. These incidents happen and it seems like this has kind of been the story of our year getting caught up in messes that may or may not be caused by us. We just have to keep going from here and go to Martinsville.”
KORBIN FORRISTER, No. 5 All Secure Toyota Tundra, Wauters Motorsports
Finishing Position: 27th
CODY COUGHLIN, No. 51 JEGS Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 31st
