Toyota Racing Post-Qualifying Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
ISM Raceway (Phoenix) – March 9, 2018
TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
2nd, Kyle Larson*
3rd, Chase Elliott*
4th, Alex Bowman*
5th, Joey Logano*
6th, DENNY HAMLIN
7th, KYLE BUSCH
9th, ERIK JONES
15th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
32nd, GRAY GAULDING
34th, DJ KENNINGTON
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 5-hour ENERGY/Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Starting Position: 1st
What was that qualifying run like to get the pole?
“It was a good run. We worked really hard coming here, knowing what we’ve done here in the past. We’ve run well, but we never could quite get it just right to go for the pole. I think we were fifth here last fall. We had a good game plan coming here and I had to adjust my driving a little bit and then adjusted the way they set the car up and it all played into our hands. Just really proud of everybody on this 5-hour ENERGY/Bass Pro Toyota and definitely a good starting spot.”
Did you do any race runs in today’s practice session or just focus on qualifying?
“That practice was so short today, we just stuck with qualifying trim. We actually were on one set of the tires the whole time as well so we have plenty of tires to practice on tomorrow and get ready for Sunday.”
Take us through your pole-winning lap.
“Well it was a good day overall for us. We’ve qualified okay here in the past but we always felt like we were just missing a little bit of something in Turns 3 and 4. We really came here concentrating on trying to fix that and had a game plan not only with the car set up but the driving style and what I needed to do to be better and just worked on that throughout practice. And here are. Just a really good job by everyone on our team to understand what we needed to do to get better and execute.”
Were you saving your car for that final round?
“I think it was a little bit of everything. I wouldn’t say I held back that much the first two runs. But we really worked on our car in practice to try to be best in that third run and to understand what we needed to do for balance-wise throughout those three runs. Honestly, sometimes you just hit it right and today all the stars lined up and here we are. So many little things come in to play when you’re talking about how to pick up half of a tenth of the racetrack. Just a lot of little things and details that were done properly and that’s what’s so fun about our team. We work together so well. They can tell me I am not driving right and I can tell them they’re not setting up the car right and we can meet in the middle. And things to seem to more than not work out. So that’s a lot of fun. It’s neat to come to racetrack and do these types of things.”
What do you think about the trend of social media and the role its played lately?
“I don’t know. Everyone is going to have their own opinion on it. Certainly Twitter especially is a huge knee-jerk reaction. Not only from people reacting to it but just talk on there in general. It’s everyone’s thoughts as they’re fired up about something. It’s their initial thoughts and they can say them to the world. I think you have to understand how to take those comments and those kind of things that come out. I don’t know how all this stuff is going to change in the future or not change. I think right now NASCAR is kind of in a tough spot to police certain things as we’ve seen in the past week. I don’t know, I leave it up to them. They seem to be doing an okay job with it. Social media is pretty crazy in general.”
By coming here twice can you use the previous race as a setup for this race?
“I would say that from year to year you kind of work around the same type of setup you’ve run good. If you didn’t run good last time, you’re going to change it up totally. But I think consistently if you run good, you stick with the same basic thoughts and tweak things from there based on the tire difference, track changing a little bit, the weather conditions or the rules we’re running that will affect the balance of the racecar. I’d say you use a similar thought process especially if you run good but you make quite a bit of changes here and there to try to optimize everything.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 6th
How was your qualifying run today?
“We were pretty happy with it through the first two rounds. It just didn’t quite catch up with where we needed to be for the third round. Overall, a good starting spot. Hopefully we can make up some spots early and keep track position. Here in the fall that was key in keeping our car upfront all day. So that’s what we’ll try to do again.”
ERIK JONES, No. 20 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 9th
How was your qualifying run today?
“It was okay. I think we just didn’t free it up on the final round. The Sport Clips Camry is all right. We wanted to start a little bit better than that but a top-10 starting spot is good enough to race from. We’ll just work through it tomorrow and get ourselves good in race trim and go after it on Sunday.”
