Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS)
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Race 10 of 33 – 300 miles, 200 laps
May 27, 2017
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Ryan Blaney*
2nd, Kevin Harvick*
3rd, Austin Dillon*
4th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
5th, DENNY HAMLIN
20th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG
22nd, JJ YELEY
26th, MATT TIFFT
32nd, CALE CONLEY
38th, TIMMY HILL
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, Elliott Sadler* 332 points*
8th, MATT TIFFT 227 points
12th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG 191 points
13th, JJ YELEY 155 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
· Camry driver Christopher Bell (fourth) was the top-finishing Toyota in his NASCAR XFINITY Series debut at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
· Fellow Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin (fifth) also finished in the top five at the 1.5-mile track.
TOYOTA QUOTES
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 18 SiriusXM Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Talk about overcoming the incident early in the race to finish fourth.
“Whenever I got buried back there I couldn’t drive back up through quite as easily as I thought I could. Eric Phillips (crew chief) did a great job on top of the pit box giving me what I needed and we were able to bring it home a top-four.”
How happy are you with a fourth-place finish in your series debut?
“I’m thrilled, we had to fight through a lot of adversity there so I’m pretty happy.”
How did you work your way back to the front after the spin early on in the race?
“Eric (Phillips) did a great job on the pit box today. He just did a phenomenal job every time, tuning on it and giving me a car to be able to contend up there. I felt really good at the end, once I got the top figured out. I wish I could have had a couple more positions, but fourth, I’m thrilled with it and happy with it. Let’s go on to the next one – Iowa, the middle of June.”
How did your series debut go today?
“JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) brought a really fast SiriusXM Camry today, just really thankful to be in this No. 18 car. We had to fight through a lot of adversity there, we had a lot of issues there. We would start passing guys and we’d have to go back and start at the tail. I’m glad it was 200 laps because we used every single bit of it. We didn’t have a lot of luck on the restarts at the beginning of the race starting on the bottom, but we got the luck when we needed it at the end.”
Did you believe your car was this strong in practice yesterday?
“After practice I knew our SiriusXM Camry was really, really good. I felt like we left a lot out there in practice, just not wanting to over drive. I spun out whenever I tested here so just tried to get through the week without making any huge mistakes. Qualifying we went out there and I probably used a little too much, but man our Camry was really good. After we got spun out on lap two I was pretty confident that we would be able to work our way back up there, but every run I’d have to start at the tail and get back to about 18th before I stalled out. I knew it was really good, but knew I needed to be in the right position to get up there.”
What were you able to take from the test session into today’s race?
“I think the test was huge, I had never sat in one of these cars before the test. Whenever Toyota came to me and said they have some XFINITY races, I was pretty excited that they said Charlotte was the first one because Charlotte was one of my favorite race tracks whenever we got to run the Truck race in the daytime. Then having the test was huge. Being able to just get seat time and just get a feel for it at the test, I don’t think I was very fast at the test so I knew I didn’t have to be the fastest car at the test, all I needed to do was get a feel for it and get some laps and come here this weekend and show speed. Thankfully our SiriusXM Camry was really, really good.”
What was the biggest challenge you encountered coming up through the field and then battling with the Cup drivers in the closing laps?
“So whenever I would go to the back, I knew my Camry was super-fast and it was really good and I knew it was capable of running up front. Whenever you’re passing guys, you can pick through a couple of them and you have new tires and everything is good and then all of the sudden you get a guy at the wrong spot and get stuck on the bottom and you slip once and then you try it again, slip twice and then all of the sudden you’ve overheated your rear tires and you’re too free. The biggest thing was just trying not to get stalled out behind guys and I failed to do that every time I would kind of reach a position and be better than the guy in front of me and complete the pass, get my tires too hot and then fall back again. I think the biggest thing today was our pit stops were really strong, that got us a lot of positions and I was able to restart on the top. Whenever you get on the top, it’s easier than on the bottom.”
Were you concerned about this race when you spun out on lap two?
“I never really ran in traffic before today. Yesterday I ran behind a couple cars, but I was really pleased with how the dirty air was so much less effective than on the trucks so that was kind of a breath of fresh air. So taking that experience from Thursday, I really figured I’d be fine when I spun out on the second lap as long as the splitter wasn’t torn up when I went through the grass and thankfully it wasn’t. .I really thought I could drive up through there faster and easier than what I did. Whenever you catch mediocre cars that you’re faster than and you try to just drive by them, you get caught on the inside and start slipping and I would get my tires too hot and that’s all she wrote for that run. If it wasn’t for the pit stops and the outside line restarts, I don’t think I would have got up there. JGR does a fantastic job and I’m just lucky to be in that car.”
How much experience running in traffic did you get in today’s race?
“It’s great experience for me getting to run in traffic. I feel like I got my fair share of experience in that last year in the Truck Series. I felt like we were coming back a lot. It’s nice to know I can do it and we can run back up through the field, but I just have to put it all together. It sucks having to come back up through there. Your day is a lot easier when you can stay up front, you’re in cleaner air, the car drives better so I just have to execute and do a better job at the beginning of races and not make these mistakes. It’s going to be easy once we stay up front, but we’re going to keep digging either way.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 20 Hisense Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
How was the race today?
“It was alright, I thought our car handled pretty decent all day and it definitely hurt with that one pit stop where we had a lugnut hang up on us. I felt we were as good as the 41 (Kevin Harvick) and the 2 (Austin Dillon) for sure and it all comes down to those last restarts. It just took too long for us to battle back there.”
What were your impressions of Christopher Bell in his first NXS start?
“I think he did a good job, he was really good on restarts so that was good. Definitely a great job for his first time and did a good job of all aspects of moving around the race track and finding grip.”
