Toyota Racing Post-Qualifying Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Sonoma Raceway – June 23, 2018
TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, Kyle Larson*
2nd, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
3rd, Chase Elliott*
4th, Jamie McMurray*
5th, AJ Allmendinger*
9th, KYLE BUSCH
21st, DENNY HAMLIN
16th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
20th, ERIK JONES
29th, GRAY GAULDING
34th, PARKER KLIGERMAN
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
MARTIN TRUEX JR, No. 78 5-hour ENERGY/Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Qualifying Position: 2nd
How does it feel to start on the front row?
“I missed a little bit in turn two, I think. I missed my line a little bit and bumped the corner a little bit more than I would have liked to and I was a little late getting back to the gas there. I think I lost some time exiting two. Overall it was a really good lap. Really good weekend so far aside from the little bit of front end damage. Our 5-hour ENERGY Bass Pro Shops Camry has been really fast. I feel like we have a really good race car, better than we do qualifying – that’s off to a good start for us tomorrow. Excited to race here, I love this place and hopefully we can get it done tomorrow.”
Did you experience any issues from the oil down on the track earlier in the day before your qualifying?
“It didn’t affect me, it affected the way the qualifying session went, without a question. You could see that nobody wanted to be the first on the track. You could see that the guys that went out early were really slow. It’s really unfortunate when those things happen in a 25 minute session. You get down to 15 minutes to go, or something like that and everybody starts to get really antsy. You don’t want to jump the gun and go too early or you’ll be too slow which we have seen some guys do. It’s just one of those things. It’s really difficult, I wish they would have done a better job cleaning the track up. It appeared they didn’t have the equipment needed for it. The only way to really get the rest of it off is to run cars on it, unfortunately it was qualifying.”
Do you expect veterans to have the advantage in Sunday’s race over the younger drivers?
“It’s hard to say, you never know who will surprise you. We’ve seen it before where a guy can take to this place really well early on. Typically it’s the guys who have been doing it a while. I felt like I was a pretty good road racer when I came to the Cup Series and it took me probably three years to really figure this place out. It’s definitely tricky, these cars are a different animal with all the horsepower and this track with the way it eats tires up. There’s a chance for a few guys to surprise I think. The track will be a lot more challenging than it was yesterday and that’s where it will be surprising to a lot of guys.”
What did you have to master to get the win here at Sonoma?
“How to get the most out of the car without abusing the tires. That was really the key. Just really figuring out what it takes to be better throughout the race. You can do certain things in practice and think your car is pretty good and then you go to the race and you’re 30 laps into a run and you learn it wasn’t as good as you thought. A lot of it is experience and knowing what to feel, but experience with your team and knowing what to need setup-wise. I think for us, being together as a group it’s really paid off for us I feel like. Last year, I felt like we had the car to beat and lost an engine late. We’ve just been strong here the last three, four years and we’ve been able to play off those notes and experience. Not only me, but also the crew.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Caramel Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Qualifying Position: 9th
How was your qualifying run and what will that mean for track position at the start of the race?
“Our qualifying run was okay. For some reason we’ve kind of been lacking here this weekend. We haven’t been able to find that fast lap. We keep trying to work on the car and on the driver and have certainly made improvements to both, just not enough of them. Qualified ninth, that’s okay. Certainly we’d like to be more in the top five spots, but it’s kind of what we got, so it’s what we’ll have for tomorrow.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Qualifying Position: 21st
How were the track conditions?
“Track was dirty there. No one wanted to be the first one out there to give it a try. Definitely disappointed with our effort, should be a lot faster than that. Our car is a lot better in race trim. I felt like even in qualifying and race trim yesterday we were really fast. It’s off on speed there, definitely didn’t feel like the track hampered us at all. I felt like I blew turn four the first time I tried to run, then I didn’t come in and cool off. We didn’t have time so I just waited until there was another gap and tried to make another lap, which was a half second faster. By that time, the tires were all blown up and the engine is hot, so we’ll have to come from 21st, as good as our car was yesterday it shouldn’t be a problem.”
