Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Sonoma Raceway
218.9 Miles, 110 Laps
June 25, 2017
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Kevin Harvick*
4th, DENNY HAMLIN
5th, KYLE BUSCH
16th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
20th, MATT KENSETH
25th, ERIK JONES
32nd, ALON DAY
37th, MARTIN TRUEX JR
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
Kyle Larson 659 points*
2nd, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 646 points
4th, KYLE BUSCH 542 points
9th, DENNY HAMLIN 476 points
12th, MATT KENSETH 423 points
16th, ERIK JONES 358 points
19th, DANIEL SUÁREZ 334 points
34th, COREY LaJOIE 98 points
35th, GRAY GAULDING 82 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
· Camry driver Denny Hamlin (fourth) was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in Sunday’s Toyota SaveMart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
· Camry driver Kyle Busch (fifth) also captured a top-five finish for Toyota and led three laps.
· Martin Truex Jr. captured Stage 1 and led a race-high 25 laps (of 110), but finished 37th following a mechanical failure.
TOYOTA QUOTES
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Third-place finish, how was your day?
“It was good, definitely had a great car. We didn’t have quite enough at the end. We did have real short run speed. We didn’t’ really have great long run speed. We had just had good middle speed and that worked out for us. We had good pit strategy and really passed a lot of cars today and that’s about what we had.”
ERIK JONES, No. 77 5-hour Energy Extra Strength Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 25th
How did your first race at Sonoma go today?
“It was a long day. You know, learning all day and come home with a top 25 is all we really wanted to do. You know not really sure how to get around there, so got to go back and look – figure out how to be faster, better for next time and hopefully come back with a little more speed.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 Furniture Row / Denver Mattress Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 37th
How disappointing is this after having a dominant car?
“It’s very disappointing, I mean, sitting there running second on seven cylinders and stayed right with the leader. I mean this Toyota was so good today. Everyone at Furniture Row (Racing) did an awesome job with it. Everybody back in Denver, thank you for guys for just crazy fast cars. TRD (Toyota Racing Development) stuff has been really good for the past year and a half. You know sometimes these things happen, so appreciate all their effort out there at TRD. Make good power, it’s just this one wasn’t ready to go the whole distance today.”
At what point did you get any type of warning that something was wrong with the car?
“For about the past 20 laps, I’ve been on seven cylinders. After we made that last pit stop, when we lost the lead to (Kevin) Harvick, soon as I left pit road, I lost a cylinder. I was surprised we were able to keep up with them as well as we could on seven, but just shows how strong the car was. Just wasn’t meant to be today.”
