Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS)
Richmond International Raceway
Race 8 of 33 – 187.5 miles, 250 laps
April 29, 2017
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Kyle Larson*
2nd, Justin Allgaier*
3rd, Daniel Hemric*
4th, Austin Dillon*
5th, Ryan Blaney*
12th, DYLAN LUPTON
14th, MATT TIFFT
16th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG
21st, DANIEL SUÁREZ
32nd, KYLE BENJAMIN
39th, JJ YELEY
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, Elliott Sadler* 295 points*
9th, MATT TIFFT 183 points
11th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG 160 points
16th, JJ YELEY 112 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
· Camry driver Dylan Lupton (12th) was the top finishing in Saturday afternoon’s ToyotaCare 250 NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) race at Richmond International Raceway.
· Kyle Benjamin made his career-first NXS start from the second position in today’s 250 lap race driving the ToyotaCare Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing.
· The 20-year old driver ran in the top-10 throughout the race, but a late-race accident forced him to the garage and a 32nd place finish.
TOYOTA QUOTES
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 18 Juniper Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 21st
How was your race?
“Very difficult. We just didn’t have the speed. I don’t know – this place has been difficult for us in the last three years and very fortunate. We had an okay – maybe a top-10 car – but right there at the end we were very fortunate with what happened. I don’t know exactly how it happened, but somebody wrecked us.”
How did the temperatures impact the race?
“Yes, it was very, very hot. Actually, I’m a little tired for some reason. Tomorrow’s is going to be more so. I will have to do something different for tomorrow.”
MATT TIFFT, No. 19 Wastebits Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 14th
Was today’s race difficult?
“It was tough. Man, we just could never get the car rotating like we wanted to and just unfortunately we never hit on it. We’ll go back to the drawing board and see what we need to do from here on out. We’ve got to start picking up a little bit early on in these races to be able to maintain in the top 10, so not quite where we want to be, so it’s frustrating, but we’ll get our Wastebits Camry back to the shop and see what we can do to get better from here on out.”
KYLE BENJAMIN, No. 20 ToyotaCare Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 32nd
How was your debut today at Richmond?
“We ran pretty good all day. It was a really positive day except for what happened at the end. I learned a lot and got to work with (Chris) Gabehart (crew chief) and get a feel for how he does things at the track. To run where I was running I felt like was pretty good for a debut. We had some work to do at the end on that last pit stop to run with those guys. I wish I could’ve seen what we had at the end. I know (Kyle) Larson drove up there, so maybe we could have to. All in all it was a good day. Really happy that ToyotaCare was on the car. It was pretty cool that they picked me, as the title sponsor of the race, even though it’s my debut. That was really awesome.”
Is there anything you can learn from this weekend for your next race at Pocono?
“There’s a whole lot that I learned. For one these guys race extremely hard. It’s definitely different. We just have to bump it up a notch for the next time I get in this car and we should be good.”
How was the heat today?
“It was pretty hot. I feel like it got hotter at the end. It wasn’t bad at the beginning in the first two segments, but the last segment got pretty sweaty.”
What happened to take you out of the race?
“I was way back because we had a flat and I had to come back down to pit road to get that fix, so I was starting on the tail end and they all wrecked in front of me. I got three wide in the middle and I couldn’t turn left or right and I actually had it missed, but the 24 (Dylan Lupton) hit me, clipped me and spun, so I hate that happened but other than that it was a very good day.”
