Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Michigan International Speedway
Race 15 of 36 – 400 miles, 200 laps
June 18, 2017
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Kyle Larson*
2nd, Chase Elliott*
3rd, Joey Logano*
4th, DENNY HAMLIN
5th, Jamie McMurray
6th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
7th, KYLE BUSCH
11th, MATT KENSETH
13th, ERIK JONES
24th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
30th, COREY LAJOIE
33rd, RYAN SIEG
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, Kyle Larson* 640 points
2nd, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 635 points
3rd, KYLE BUSCH 510 points
9th, DENNY HAMLIN 430 points
11th, MATT KENSETH 398 points
16th, ERIK JONES 346 points
19th, DANIEL SUÁREZ 313 points
34th, COREY LAJOIE 98 points
35th, GRAY GAULDING 82 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
· Camry driver Denny Hamlin (fourth) had the highest-finishing Toyota in Sunday afternoon’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Michigan International Speedway.
· Hamlin’s finish marked his third top-10 result in the last four MENCS events.
· Toyota’s Martin Truex Jr. won the first two stages of the race before finishing sixth. Truex leads the MENCS with 10 stage wins in 2017 and 20 playoff points.
· Truex led the field three times for 62 laps (of 200), while Kyle Busch (seventh) led the field thrice for 40 laps on the two-mile speedway.
· Toyota drivers have now won 17 (of 31) MENCS stages this season – more than any other manufacturer.
TOYOTA QUOTES
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
How was your race?
“Really good car. You know, everything we needed to do we did. Had one little hiccup on pit road, but for the most part we ran really well all day, had good speed in our Camry and pretty happy.”
Were you in a bad position on the last restart?
“Yeah, I knew I was going to have a tough time on the bottom. Everyone did have a tough time on the bottom, so I tried to do my best and that’s all I had.”
Is it tough when you’re not in the right place on the restart?
“Yeah, it definitely is, you know? The biggest thing is you try to minimize how many spots you lose versus how much you gain, but when you’re sitting there side-by-side for the lead, you’re going to try to do everything you can. I tried to carry speed in there and obviously got sucked around there and you just try to minimize your losses at that point.”
Why are the Toyota Camrys looking faster?
“Yeah, they’re fast, but it’s circumstances – cautions falling at the right time and all that stuff matters. We just hadn’t had the breaks we needed, but overall we’re making improvements.”
Does being up front mean you’re close to winning?
“Yeah, definitely. I mean, you keep battling in the top-five and eventually you’ll have your chance. Cautions will fall just perfectly for you and pit stops – we know we can gain spots on pit road. We didn’t do that really today, but good effort nonetheless.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR, No. 78 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
How was your race?
“We had the best car out there without a doubt – just inside lane restarts at the end killed us, so just stinks when you have to race like that, you know? You get just in a bad spot and there’s nothing you can do about it. We seen it the last couple restarts, so just wrong place. Probably should have took two tires that last time we pitted – we took four. That killed us. Just wrong lane on the restart every single time all day long and couldn’t use the best car to win.”
ERIK JONES, No. 77 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 13th
How was your race?
“Yeah, just a long day overall. Just never quite had the car to – I think we really needed – we were fighting just being free and as the day went on we never really fixed that issue and that loose wheel early kind of got us pinned in a strategy we didn’t want to be in. Had a lot of laps – I think we had 86 laps on our left side tires – and just couldn’t quite get it there at the end.”
Was the bottom a disadvantage on restarts?
“Yeah, I think the bottom was tough and I think we restarted every one down there except one, so we had a lot of tough restarts and it’s just tough to get going you know? Guys can pin you down, get you free and really hard to get some good momentum off of 2 and you get kind of freight trained by the top, so just a bummer we didn’t have – we had our tire disadvantage and we had to restart on the bottom, so it costs us some spots. We ended up 13th and that’s where we were probably going to be anyway, so it is what it is and just get a little better for next time.”
Was today emotional being Father’s Day?
“Yeah, definitely thought about it a few times. I tried to kind of not think about it too much, but definitely comes into your head and you think about it and it was really just over a year ago that he passed away, so always kind of thinking about that at this time of year and especially being home and everything. Hope he was watching down. Hope he was proud and had fun watching.”
