Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS)
Pocono Raceway
Race 12 of 33 – 250 miles, 100 laps
June 10, 2017
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Brad Keselowski*
2nd, Justin Allgaier*
3rd, Kyle Larson*
4th, Elliott Sadler*
5th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
10th, MATT TIFFT
16th, KYLE BENJAMIN
19th, JJ YELEY
20th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG
22nd, DYLAN LUPTON
37th, TIMMY HILL
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, Justin Allgaier* 409 points*
8th, MATT TIFFT 284 points
12th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG 226 points
14th, JJ YELEY 178 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
· Camry driver Daniel Suárez (fifth) was the top-Toyota finisher in Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) race at Pocono Raceway.
· This was the fourth top-five result in nine NXS starts this year for the 2016 XFINITY Series champion.
· Toyota driver Matt Tifft also earned a top-10 at Pocono with a 10th-place finish at the 2.5-mile track.
· Camry driver Kyle Benjamin started from the pole position and led 28 laps (of 100) before finishing 16th Saturday.
· The 19-year-old became the ninth driver in NXS history to earn a pole position in only his second-career start, and most recent since Joey Logano started first in his second series start at Nashville in 2008.
TOYOTA QUOTES
DANIEL SUÁREZ, No. 18 Juniper Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
How was your race?
“My team did an amazing job. Our strategy was working out pretty well and we had the track position there and then a little dumb driver was speeding on the pit road. We push the limits and sometimes a little bit too hard and today was one of those days, my bad. I feel like we were a little bit better car than a fifth-place but it is what we have and looking at the situation that we had with 25 laps to go or whatever we were in 20th wasn’t horrible but I feel like we were a little bit better.”
How do you recover and focus after making a mistake, like speeding on pit road?
“That’s one of the tough parts, just move on and try again. Tomorrow we will be pushing the limits just as hard as today because that’s what you have to do to be running competitive – everyone does. That’s part of racing.”
How important was running laps in the XFINITY race to get ready for the Cup race?
“It is definitely important. This is one of those places where I don’t have the most experience at and it’s always helpful to grab some extra laps.”
MATT TIFFT, No. 19 Tunity Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 10th
How does it feel to get another top-10 with your team?
“I think the biggest thing is when you start as far back as we did, you have to play some strategy calls there. We were able to come up from 31st to 15th at the end of the first stage. At the beginning of the second stage, people were playing a lot of different strategies there and we kind of made our decision to come and just do stage two pit deal there and came in and I thought we made the car better. I thought we were free earlier so we got it tightened up and everybody else was pitting and we pitted a little bit off sequence and it ended up working out. The only thing is we had a great restart the last restart and were up to third and everybody else was on new tires and just kind of a sitting duck there and clinging on, just kind of got tighter as the tires wore on. Another good top-10, we just need to finish in the top-10 every week and build consistency. We had struggles today and we fought back as a team and we were able to get back in the top-10, so I think that shows signs of improvement from where we were at the first part of the year. We’ve done that two weeks in a row now, so hopefully we will keep that up at Michigan, too.”
KYLE BENJAMIN, No. 20 Hisense Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 16th
How did you feel about your second career NXS start?
“We had a great car all day and got a lot of experience out there, got to race around a lot of people and learn the aero a little better. The Hisense Camry was really good, we just got some damage a little bit on the left side on the last restart and it made it to where I was wrecking loose at the end the balance was out of whack and just didn’t have anything for them there.”
How did it feel to earn your first career NXS pole in only your second series start?
“It means a lot to get the pole here at Pocono. Gives us a lot of confidence and I already had a lot of confidence in the team. They’ve done great things and we’ve had fast Camrys all year. It just really helps you build on things and take some momentum to Iowa, which is my next race with JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing).”
