Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Charlotte Motor Speedway
600 miles, 400 laps
May 28, 2017
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Austin Dillon*
2nd, KYLE BUSCH
3rd, MARTIN TRUEX JR
4th, MATT KENSETH
5th, DENNY HAMLIN
7th, ERIK JONES
11th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
27th, GRAY GAULDING
31st, DERRIKE COPE
32nd, COREY LaJOIE
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 491 points
5th, KYLE BUSCH 386 points
11th, DENNY HAMLIN 332 points
15th, MATT KENSETH 288 points
18th, ERIK JONES 256 points
19th, DANIEL SUÁREZ 246 points
34th, COREY LaJOIE 82 points
36th, GRAY GAULDING 61 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
· Camry driver Kyle Busch (second) was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600. He led 63 laps.
· Martin Truex Jr. finished third after leading a race-high 233 laps and moved into first in the MENC point standings.
· Matt Kenseth (fourth) and Denny Hamlin (fifth) also finished in the top five while rookie Erik Jones finished seventh.
· Toyota drivers led all three stages in the Coca-Cola 600: Busch (Stage 1), Truex (Stage 2) and Hamlin (Stage 3).
TOYOTA QUOTES
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Red, White, and Blue Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
How discouraging is it to be beaten on fuel mileage?
“This M&M’s Camry was awesome tonight. It was just super fast. I mean we had one of the fastest cars all night long and then the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) was probably the fastest car. There at the end, somehow we ran him down. You know he got a straightaway out on us, but there that last 100 laps we were able to get back to him and pass him so you know that was promising for us there at the end in order to get a second-place finish, but man just so so disappointed. I don’t know. We ran our own race. We did what we needed to do and it wasn’t – it wasn’t the right game. We come up short and finish second.”
Do you feel like the JGR cars have the speed you were lacking earlier in the year?
“Yeah, I would guess so. I mean you finish second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, tenth – eleventh, whatever the hell it is. Yeah.”
How frustrating is it to get beaten on a fuel gamble?
“This M&M’s Camry was really really fast tonight. Our guys did a great job – Adam Stevens (crew chief) and everybody brought me a really fast car. Best car I’ve ever had at Charlotte and you know, for as far as Truex got out there towards the end, that last stint, I was surprised I could close back in on him and get him there at the end in order to finish second. I don’t know. It’s a frustrating night, man. I am so so disappointed. I don’t know – there’s nothing we could’ve done different. We just ran our own race and did what we needed to do for what we had going on and come up short.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
A strong car all night. Talk about coming up short at the end.
That stings a little bit, but can’t say enough about the guys on the team and everybody in Denver. Everybody on this Bass Pro Toyota did a heck of a job today. We just – we missed it a little bit on our last adjustment. I think if not for that we probably could’ve gotten the 3 (Austin Dillon). And then lapped traffic is just so tough here. There’s a few guys out there that you don’t ever know where they’re going to be when you get to the corner and it cost you so much time trying to pass them, ultimately that’s what got us. It is what it is. Like I said, we’re proud of everybody at TRD, at Toyota, Bass Pro and all the partners. Just came up a little short tonight.”
What do you take away from a night like tonight and your performance?
“It’s two out of three. Last three years, that’s two of them we lost on full mileage, so that kind of stinks, but big picture-wise it was a good night. I mean, the Bass Pro Toyota was fast. The guys did a phenomenal job all night long. Got behind a few times, fall back, got the lead and then just – fuel mileage didn’t play out our way. We were a little too loose that last run as well and I think had we not been, we probably could’ve chased him down. We may have caught him on the last lap, but overall I mean, can’t say enough about the team and what they’re doing. Tonight was tough, man. The cars were a handful. I drove my butt off, but it wasn’t to be tonight.”
Is it odd that in a 600 mile race you wanted a few more laps?
“A couple more would have been nice, but if we had a couple more Kyle (Busch) would have beat us. He passed us coming to the checkers and I was just hanging on that last run. I was really, really, really loose and I think if we weren’t too loose then we probably would have caught the 3 (Austin Dillon) maybe on the last lap. The last 15 laps or so I was really just struggling and hanging on. Of course you get to lapped traffic and you never know where they’re going to be, there’s five or six cars out there that go in a different lane every time you catch them – they go into the corner on the bottom and they come out of the corner on the top. You wouldn’t believe how much time you lose trying to pass those guys. That cost us a ton of time and then we were just too loose trying to get there and burned the right rear off.”
How challenging was the car to drive during this race?
“It was really tricky, cars were really, really hard to drive. It was a handful. We would be out there stretching the lead and I’m telling you, if I ever tried to run 99 percent I would about crash. I literally had to drive every lap as hard as I could or it wouldn’t drive right. It was very, very tough – long night obviously and it was hot out there. Wish we could have won this one. That’s two out of the last three years that we lost them on fuel mileage and we won last year. Bittersweet that’s for sure.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Circle K Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
How much confidence does this give you moving forward?
“Well, all our cars were faster as a group, you know, which is encouraging to look at the scoreboard. I think they’re all up there, fairly close to the front. You know our car didn’t drive perfect tonight by any means, but yet we had good speed, so the rest of the year even when we drive decent, we’ve been kind of slow. It’s encouraging we got a little more speed. We still got some work to do. We still got to get driving better. I couldn’t beat the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) or the 18 (Kyle Busch) most of the time, maybe on one run. So we still got to get a little bit better, but it was a solid day.”
If you didn’t spin your tires on that last restart, do you think you could’ve had something for the cars in front of you?
“Oh, right away you got to bring that up. I don’t know. We had really good restarts all night. That last one, I did spin the tires on a little bit and Kyle (Busch) and the 41 (Kurt Busch) got in front of me. I got the 41 back, but the 18 (Kyle Busch) and 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) were in front of me and I couldn’t run them down. I didn’t pass many cars tonight. We had a solid day on pit road and we had enough speed to hang out where we were at. Just didn’t quite have enough to go get the front guys.”
Do you feel Joe Gibbs Racing is improving with the speed after tonight’s performance?
“All our Camrys were faster this weekend than what we’ve been as a group, we’ve been a little bit scattered. Our speed is better and we still have some work to do especially with my car to get it driving better. I still can’t run with the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) and the 18 (Kyle Busch) if they’re out in front of me, they’re still better than us. We still have some work to do, but we do have more speed and that’s encouraging.”
How much do you all rely on information from Furniture Row Racing?
“I don’t know, that would be a good question for Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) – their shop is 1000 miles away. I’m not really sure. We try to work as close as we can together, but certainly since they teamed up with JGR, they’ve been the class of the field with all the Toyotas since they got in one.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
How gratifying is it to take home a top five after a night of challenges?
“It’s somewhat. You know we had a really fast car, I think better than a fifth-place car, but we went through a bunch of adversity and I just had one really bad restart with 70 to go and that just – this late in the game when the track cools off, it’s too hard to pass to lose that many positions and just tried to do the best I could to battle back from there.”
ERIK JONES, No. 77 5-Hour Energy Extra Strength Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
Talk about the challenges you had tonight, especially pitting with Jimmie Johnson right there next to you.
“Yeah, we – you know it was just a long day overall, altogether with the rain delay, getting the damage early. So just a lot of things going on, but a good learning experience none the less. We had a good 5-Hour Energy Camry. I think getting that damage early kind of put us behind the eight-ball. I don’t know if we ever had the same race car we had at the start. I think we had a car that would contend up there with probably Martin (Truex Jr.) and Kyle (Busch) if we did a little work on it and after the damage, never could get it quite as fast again. A good day though. Good to get a good top 10 and you know that’s something definitely to build on.”
Did it take focus away at times with the emotion building between your team and Jimmie Johnson’s team on pit road?
“I was just sitting in there driving. They weren’t trying to distract me too much. You got to do what you got to do sometimes getting in the pit box and get your deal done. We’re all out here racing, trying to do the best we can and sometimes it’s going to work out like that.”
How was your race overall tonight?
“It was a good night and a solid night. This was what we needed after some tough races and tonight we just needed a good, solid finish so it was good to get a top-10. I think our car was a little bit better than that. We just got that hole in the nose early and never got the balance the same. The 5-hour Energy Camry was good and it was just nice to have a good night.”
How much do you rely on your teammate here at Charlotte?
“It definitely helps when you come into a track where our teammate was so fast last year and obviously we leaned a lot on their setup. I leaned a lot on him and his data and everything else in between. He had another fast car tonight and I think he had a car that could have won the race. At the start of the race I thought we had one that could have contended, but then we got the hole in the nose. Overall, nice to have somebody that’s so fast – not only here, but every week to lean on and I try to get information from him when I can to try to get faster and more consistent finishes up front.”
Do you feel Furniture Row is one of the top teams right now?
“I think so, Furniture Row is strong right now. At the beginning of the day, had we not got the damage then I think we could have run even better. Martin was really strong all night – led laps, ran up front and got a good finish even with the pit strategy deal. Cool to see that, cool to be a part of that and cool to drive fast race cars. It’s always fun to show up and drive race cars that can contend for wins.”
DANIEL SUÁREZ, No. 19 Subway Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 11th
How was the car tonight?
“It was good, we made some adjustments to the race car at the beginning of the race and then we made some changes, then we went back to where we started. I felt like we had an eighth to a 10th place car all night long. We were not the best on the long runs, but we were good on the short runs. Just a little behind there at the end with it being a fuel mileage race, we gambled a little bit there and it didn’t quite work out 100 percent.”
How much did the track change after the rain delay?
“It changed a lot. The rain didn’t make it change a lot other than the grip. It was that change we were expecting from it being more hot to when it would be cooler. It worked out well and the guys did an amazing job. The guys did a good job working on the car and tuning up the car and we had a top-10 car and we ended up one place under that.”
