Toyota Post-Race Recap
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Daytona International Speedway
Race 17 of 36 – 400 miles, 160 laps
July 1, 2017
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.*
2nd,Clint Bowyer*
3rd, Paul Menard*
4th, Michael McDowell*
5th, Ryan Newman*
9th, ERIK JONES
11th, COREY LAJOIE
17th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
20th, KYLE BUSCH
24th, DENNY HAMLIN
27th, MATT KENSETH
30th, REED SORENSON
34th, MARTIN TRUEX JR
38th, DJ KENNINGTON
40th, RYAN SIEG
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, Kyle Larson 667 points*
2nd, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 649 points
3rd, KYLE BUSCH 559 points
9th, DENNY HAMLIN 498 points
11th, MATT KENSETH 445 points
17th, ERIK JONES 386 points
18th, DANIEL SUÁREZ 354 points
34th, COREY LaJOIE 124 points
35th, GRAY GAULDING 82 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
· Rookie Erik Jones (ninth) was the highest-finishing Toyota Camry driver in Saturday’s race at Daytona International Speedway.
· Matt Kenseth led 21 laps and won Stage 2, his second stage win this season and Toyota’s 19th stage win.
· Denny Hamlin (16 laps), rookies Daniel Suárez (11) and Erik Jones (9) also led laps throughout the night.
TOYOTA QUOTES
ERIK JONES, No. 77 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
How was the race tonight?
“It was an up and down night. We were up front at a few points and back at a few points – just learning and trying to figure everything out. I don’t know exactly what happened when we got spun around. I think I got up inside of somebody or somebody came down on me and just got spun around unfortunately. Still got a decent finish out of it – top-10 at a superspeedway so that’s a good finish and some momentum for next week.”
Was it difficult to get teamed up with other Toyotas during the race?
“Just passing seemed really tough all night. It seemed like wherever you got to, you had to stay there and made it kind of tough to move forward or backwards. It seemed like up until the end of the race you couldn’t do a whole lot. Just made it tough all night to get teamed up with everyone else.”
DANIEL SUÁREZ, No. 19 Subway Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 17th
How was the race overall?
“The race was good and we ran definitely much better than where we finished. Just all the starts and restarts, those last two restarts we were on the bottom and it wasn’t going anywhere. Just a little bad luck there at the end of the race.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dewalt Flexvolt Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 27th
Not how you wanted the night to end, did picking up that stage win have any consolation.
“No, not really. It’s been pretty disappointing. It’s been really hard to get a finish. Jason (Ratcliff) had a great strategy tonight and had us out front. Obviously I should’ve got down in front of the 17 (Ricky Stenhouse). He made up a lot more ground through three and four than I thought. I should’ve got to the bottom and tried to get by the 5 (Kasey Kahne) there. I thought we were still in okay shape and then the 5 got real loose into one and something happened and it checked our whole lane up and then as luck would have it as soon as we lost those 10 spots the wreck happened. Just nowhere to go. Disappointing end.”
Talk us through those last few laps.
“I don’t really know what happened in this wreck, but lap before that I thought we were in a pretty good position and the 5 (Kasey Kahne) got real sideways getting into one and checked our whole row up real bad. I had to lift. I didn’t have anywhere to go and that got us behind and luck would have the other wreck the next lap.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 34th
What happened to take you out of the race?
“I just tried to slow down, but you know you get hit from behind, you hit the guy in front of you – there’s nothing you can do. When you’re going 190 something and everybody stops in front of you, it’s kind of hard to do anything. Unfortunate night for sure for our Bass Pro Toyota. This July race, man, I don’t think I’ve finished it in like five years. It’s just – it’s been a tough one every time. Every time we feel like we’re doing something okay we get in a big wreck, so it’s been a tough one for sure but rebound and go to Kentucky and hopefully go for some more wins.”
Can you put your finger on why the second Daytona race doesn’t work out?
“I’m always in the wreck. I’ve never caused them either, so that’s the part that hurts the most. It’s the toughest part to deal with. It’s just plate racing. It’s not been good to us. Especially in July for whatever reason. It is what it is. We’ll go home and go to work. Look forward to some really good tracks coming up for us.”
