Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Kentucky Speedway
Race 19 of 36 – 400.5 miles, 267 laps
July 14, 2018
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
2nd, Ryan Blaney*
3rd, Brad Keselowski *
4th, KYLE BUSCH
5th, Kevin Harvick*
7th, ERIK JONES
15th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
16th, DENNY HAMLIN
34th, TIMMY HILL
38th, JJ YELEY
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, KYLE BUSCH 799 points
2nd, Kevin Harvick* 740 points
3rd, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 689 points
4th, Joey Logano* 648 points
5th, Brad Keselowski* 630 points
9th, DENNY HAMLIN 559 points
13th, ERIK JONES 480 points
20th, DANIEL SUÁREZ 344 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
- Camry driver Martin Truex Jr. was victorious at Kentucky Speedway in Saturday night’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race.
- Truex led the field five times for a race-high 174 laps (of 267) and won the first two stages before taking the checkered flag.
- The victory marked the second in a row for Truex on the 1.5-mile track. In two years of stage racing in Kentucky, Truex has won each stage at the facility.
- Truex started from the pole position for the Kentucky race, while his Toyota teammate Erik Jones, who finished seventh, started second.
- Camry driver Kyle Busch also tallied a top-10 finish at Kentucky with a result of fourth.
TOYOTA QUOTES
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How was your trip to victory lane?
“How long ago was that out there? The NASCAR official took me down the wrong turn. He disappeared. I couldn’t see anything I was overheating so bad – dang windshield was fogged up and I couldn’t see anything, but finally made it here and, man, what an awesome night. I mean, what a race car. Cole (Pearn, crew chief) and Jazzy and James and Pete and all the guys came up with one hell of a setup for here and we thought we were good yesterday and we tweaked on it for today and my goodness this thing was good, so get tired of thanking everybody, but I don’t. I mean, there’s a lot of people we couldn’t do this without – all of my partners, all the guys at TRD (Toyota Racing Development). I think I hurt your engine a little bit – it smells bad and I never had one overheat that bad, but what can I say about the team and Barney (Visser, team owner) and everybody that gives us the things we need. JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) chassis shop and body shop for their collaboration making this possible and just this is one hell of a race team. I’m so lucky to be out for them just enjoying myself and say hi to Sherry (Pollex) at home, say hi to everybody back home in Jersey and Bass Pro – Johnny (Morris) wasn’t here tonight. John Paul (Morris) was here, so we’re going to drink a cold beer, but Auto-Owners Insurance, 5-Hour, Furniture Row – again, just everybody that helps us out. This is so much fun I can’t even tell you.”
How does it feel to win like this?
“It feels good, you know? You never know how these races are going to play out. You never know quite what is going to happen and we had such a strong Toyota tonight they weren’t going to beat us. You never know how they’re going to turn out, so we just keep our heads down. We don’t get too excited. We keep working on the race car and trying to stay calm and not get ahead of ourselves, so we had to make a lot of adjustments tonight on the car and had to battle back a from a few times getting passed for the lead and coming out of the pits second or third, but this Auto-Owners Toyota was amazing tonight, so just thanks to everybody for their support and making all this possible – Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), Bass Pro, 5-Hour, Auto-Owners of course being our primary tonight and so many people make this possible. I’m just the lucky guy who gets to drive them, so pretty exciting night for us and two in a row at a race track is pretty cool, so hell yeah.”
What has it been like to have this success in recent years?
“Well, yeah, really the last three years have been just having the time of my life and just lucky to have great people around us, a great car owner. Barney Visser (team owner) gives us all the tools we need and great partners throughout the years to continue to build this team up. Just feel really lucky. I’ve been on the other side of it before where teams were struggling and struggled to get in position to win races and having a lot of things kind of going against you and kind of fighting that uphill battle, so it’s amazing to be on this side of it. I can’t tell you how proud I am of all the guys on our team and what they’ve done and I honestly just enjoy every single one of these wins like it’s my first because you never know when they’re going to come to an end. You never know when you’re going to have your last one. You never know what’s going to happen next. Just trying to ride the wave of momentum and enjoy it all and my team is just so badass, I can’t even explain it. They’re amazing. Really lucky to be a part of that. All our partners the last couple years, you look at Bass Pro and Johnny Morris and the support he’s given me throughout my career – without guys like him I wouldn’t be here. This year having 5-Hour and Auto-Owners and everybody at Toyota and TRD (Toyota Racing Development) – Salisbury and Costa Mesa – as part of our team, JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) chassis shop and all those guys that we work with, with Toyota, it’s just a dream come true to be part of all of it and definitely feel lucky right now and hopefully we can continue this wave of momentum and go after another championship.”
Was there any point tonight you were concerned?
“Yeah, I mean, you’re always concerned. You never know how these things are going to go. You can have the best car and lose – I mean, we’ve done it 10, 15 times the last four years, so you just – you keep your head down, you keep digging and you try to be ready for whatever they can throw at you and tonight we were.”
Are you ready to keep rolling?
“Yeah, man, that’s the plan. Get our mile-and-a-half stuff figured out – we’re going to need it for the Playoffs, so it’s good to get this one under the hat and keep working for the Playoffs and we’ll see what we can do.”
Did you think two tires might work for some teams?
“I wouldn’t say I was worried. I knew that in 10 laps or so I’d be able to chase them down. Passing them was definitely difficult, but I was able to make it happen each and every time. I think the only time you get worried is if you have maybe a guy take two and before you pass him you get another caution and you have a couple more guys take two and you kind of fall back in the order and maybe lose that track position. You get back fifth or sixth, it’s going to be really difficult to get back to the lead. I think the furthest back we ran all night without green flag pit stops was third and was able to recover from third, but really much further back than that, it would have been difficult. It would have taken a while, not just because it’s hard to pass, but it’s hard to be that much faster than everybody else to run them down. I mean, it’s even as dominant as we were and how big of a lead we could get at the end of the race, we were still only a tenth or two faster than the guy in second. So you look at that, I mean, it’s small. It’s a small advantage and you get back too far, then you’re going to be in bad shape.”
COLE PEARN, crew chief, No. 78 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Do you feel like you guys are continuing to take steps forward?
“Yeah, we’ve just been continuing to gain on it. There’s been the rule changes this year has forced us to work on it and find a balance that we’re happier with and really we’ve just been plugging away and Martin (Truex Jr.) has got a really good feel for this track, so definitely plays into his wheelhouse for sure. Really right off the truck we had good speed even though the balance wasn’t perfect and we just were able to work on it. It was a smooth, just good feeling weekend. Never hair on fire, just steady as she goes and it was a good one. We definitely haven’t had a lot of those this year, so it was nice to get one.”
What has changed to make your team stronger in the middle of the season?
“I don’t know. I mean, I think just a lot of rule changes over the off-season that changed the balance for us and that’s just been a steady progression, trying to understand it. It’s so easy when you have success to fall into your old traps and the things you do and we’ve kind of had to just throw that to the wind a little bit and just continue to work on the new problem that we have and try and find the best solution. As we’ve gained that mindset and through a lot of hard work, we’ve started to make ground on it.”
BARNEY VISSER, owner, No. 78 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
How has your team been able to build so much momentum in recent years?
“Yeah, well, it goes back a little bit to the parity question. Five years ago you never heard of these guys and you didn’t think that much of Martin (Truex Jr.), but the truth is he was that good and they’re showing it. The team comes together and I think that’s part of the sport. It can happen. If you just keep working, it can happen.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Snickers Intense Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Did you ever find enough grip tonight to feel like you could contend?
“I mean, I thought we were a second-place car for much of the night and then the 12 (Ryan Blaney) kind of strong as the night went and I think we became a third-place car, but, you know, I just could never get by the 2 (Brad Keselowski) there those last 30 laps. But, you know, the restart is what really messed me up. I just got off into Turn 1 and the rear tires just shattered from out from underneath me and I got really, really loose and just had to stop to keep it under control and that made everybody else behind me have to suffer, but, you know, it just had to – that’s what we had going on, so that’s what we had to do to protect our positions or as many as we could right there. So it allowed that outside lane to get rolling, but overall just Snickers Camry was okay and, you know, we just made up a couple points on the 4 (Kevin Harvick). We lost some to the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) and we’ve just got to keep this points lead, try to move on into next week.”
