Toyota Racing Post-Qualifying Recap
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Dover International Speedway
September 29, 2017
TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
2nd, KYLE BUSCH
4th, MATT KENSETH
5th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
6th, DENNY HAMLIN
10th, ERIK JONES
34th, BRETT MOFFITT
37th, COREY LaJOIE
39th, REED SORENSON
TOYOTA QUOTES
MARTIN TRUEX Jr., No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Starting Position: 1st
How is this weekly battle with Kyle Busch going?
“Welp, I’m glad for once we’re first and he’s not. I’ve been second to him a lot in qualifying, so it’s cool to – for us to get a pole. I think he was second, am I correct? Yeah, so it’s – we’ve been on the front row quite a few times together, so feels good that we’re the one in first this time, so it’s pretty cool.”
Was there ever a time where you wondered what it would be like to be the guy and does it mean more now?
“Yeah, for sure and I actually think I’ve talked to Jimmie (Johnson) about this before, you know, years ago at Champion’s Week or something. It’s definitely – I think every driver thinks about it at this level when you get here. It takes so many things to come together to be in a position that I’ve been in the past few years really, so, yeah, I’m very thankful and I’m definitely enjoying it. I’m trying to enjoy every single week one at a time. At the same time, there’s that chance at a championship out there, so you can’t lose focus and say, ‘Well, this is going great. We’re just going to show up to the track and everything is going to be fine.’ You still have to work hard. It’s still difficult, so I think we’ve done a good job of just staying focused and getting through all that stuff and continuing to come to the race track and perform, because you never know when it’s going to end or when things could change. So just try to take advantage of the opportunities right now and it’s certainly been a lot of fun, but, you know, I think the more you win, the more success you have, the more you want it I feel like and so we’re going after it every week.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Caramel Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 2nd
How was your lap in the final round of qualifying?
“Hate it that we didn’t come out of here with our ninth pole of the season, but we’ll take it. It’s a front row starting spot, but hopefully it’ll be a good enough pit selection. Obviously, there’s no better position than number one. We’ve been on a really good roll here as of late with qualifying and everything like that for this year. The M&M’s Carmel Camry has got some good speed in it. I was a little worried that I wasn’t going to have the speed that we needed to contend for a pole, but obviously we had it here right now when it mattered. We’ll go back to the drawing board and work on race stuff for tomorrow.”
Do you have nothing to lose this weekend?
“Nothing to lose. Biggest thing that you focus on here is just getting that good starting spot which will allow us to race for stage points up there, but we know who the stage point king is this year, so we’ve got to out race him for those (points). I’m sure there early on, but anything can happen here. We saw last weekend that anything can happen. You can’t expect to not have anything come up out of the next corner you’re in. Dover tends to bite you in the least susceptible moment, so we’ll just keep fighting it out and race hard.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 DeWalt FLEXVOLT Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 4th
Did you get the lap you were looking for?
“No. We got three quarters of it though. We just got tight off (Turn) 4. I got into the wall a little bit – had to lift to coming to the finish line – but we had a real fast car in practice. Just were a little off in qualifying. The track’s changed a little bit. Just missed it just a little bit.”
Do you think you can get your first win of the year here?
“Man, I don’t know. I mean, every week really when this team is at its best I feel like we have a shot to win, so we just haven’t been able to make it happen yet, so it’s certainly been a track I really enjoy – one we’ve had kind of feast or famine at. We’ve had some problems here, but typically we run decent if we finish, so hopefully we can run up front and be in the mix here on Sunday.”
DANIEL SUÁREZ, Comcast/ARRIS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 5th
How was your lap in the final round of qualifying?
“I’m really proud of this Comcast Business team and all the hard work they put into making our Toyota Camry go fast. I had a really good one and two, but was just off a little bit getting into Turn 3. Overall, it was a good day for our team and I’m looking forward to getting this Comcast Business dialed in for Sunday.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight, Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 6th
How happy were you with your lap in the final round?
“It was okay. We ran a little faster than we did in the first couple rounds. It was a tenth off or so. I need to find where that speed is at. I sensed a little bit with that lap the way the car was handling. We could have gotten a little more out of it. Overall, a decent starting spot. We can definitely race them from there. We’ll pick a good pit stall and see where we end up.”
How do you better your best-career finish of fourth at Dover International Speedway?
“It’s just been one of those tracks where I’ve just been average. I’d like to finish better at this race track – definitely my worst track of the Playoffs. We just need a good finish. Like I said last week, I’d rather run great and finish bad than I would run terrible and finish good. We’re in that type of situation, we want to win some races and get more stage points.”
ERIK JONES, SiriusXM Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Starting Position: 10th
How was your Camry during qualifying?
“We just kind of struggled the first two rounds in getting a decent balance. Then when we got it off the splitter – it was a little bit different than the first two. Just struggled a little bit all day in qualifying trim and couldn’t find the balance that we exactly needed. Hopefully, we’ll work on race trim tomorrow. It’s still a top-10 starting spot so it somewhere to work from, we just got to get a little better.”
