Toyota NASCAR Pocono – Texas Advance

Toyota NASCAR Pocono Advance
Week of June 5 – 11, 2017

SETTING THE STAGE: In this year’s first 13 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) events, Toyota drivers have combined to win 14 stages and earn valuable bonus points for the playoffs, which begin at Chicagoland Speedway in September. MENCS points leader and Camry driver Martin Truex Jr. leads the series with eight stage wins and, when combined with his two victories (Las Vegas and Kansas) this season, also leads the competition with 18 bonus points. Other Cup Camry drivers with stage wins and bonus points in 2017 include Kyle Busch (three), Denny Hamlin (two) and Matt Kenseth (one).

NO TRICKS HERE: Toyota drivers have four MENCS victories at Pocono Raceway. Hamlin, who leads all active drivers with four-career victories at the 2.5-mile triangular track, including wins in a Camry in Aug. 2009 and June 2010 after sweeping the events in his rookie year (2006). He’s also tied for most poles (three), has the second most laps led (669 laps) and 14 top-10 results in 22 starts. Kenseth drove his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Camry to victory lane in Aug. 2015, while former Toyota driver Joey Logano won the June 2012 race. In last year’s NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) debut at Pocono, Erik Jones finished runner-up after starting from the pole whereas Daniel Suárez (ninth) also earned a top-10. While this will be Matt Tifft’s first NXS appearance at Pocono, he did earn a top-10 finish in the 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) event.

DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS: There’s no other track on the NCWTS schedule where Tundra drivers have enjoyed as much success as Texas, which is only fitting as the Tundra is built at Texas Motor Manufacturing, Texas, Inc. (TMMTX) in San Antonio. Tundra drivers have combined to bring home 16 Texas NCWTS victories in 26 races since 2004. ThorSport Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports each have four Texas triumphs with two each by Matt Crafton, Busch, and former Tundra driver Johnny Sauter, as well as a single NCWTS victory by Jones and William Byron. Busch also gave Billy Ballew Motorsports one Texas Toyota victory. Former Toyota team Germain Racing contributed to seven wins with Todd Bodine (six) and Ted Musgrave (one).

Staying Connected: You can follow Toyota Racing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter by using #ToyotaNation and online at www.toyotaracing.com. For media images, please visit www.toyotaracingmedia.com.

Toyota at Pocono – Notes & Numbers:

Daniel Suárez earned his MENCS career-best finish of sixth last weekend at Dover and now has four top-10 finishes in 13 races during his rookie season … Martin Truex Jr. won at Pocono in 2015 prior to Furniture Row Racing making the switch to Toyota and earned his first pole at the 2.5-mile track in last year’s August race … With NASCAR drivers taking over the NXS broadcast at Pocono, Toyota drivers Denny Hamlin (Hollywood Hotel) and Erik Jones (pit reporter) will be part of the on-air talent … 2016 XFINITY Series champion Daniel Suárez will make his ninth NXS start of the season at Pocono … Kyle Benjamin will drive the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Camry at Pocono, making his second-career start after making his series debut at Richmond in April … Matt Crafton has the most laps led (418 laps), most top-five (13) and 10 finishes (21) at Texas and has an average finishing position of 9.2 in 32 races at the 1.5-mile track – 14 more than the next closes competitor … Myatt Snider will make his third career NCWTS start in Texas after earning a 10th-place finish in his last outing at Daytona.

Toyota 2017 Statistics: