Toyota Racing Post-Qualifying Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Pocono Raceway – July 28, 2018
TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, Kevin Harvick*
2nd, KYLE BUSCH
3rd, DANIEL SUÁREZ
4th, Kyle Larson*
5th, Joey Logano*
7th, DENNY HAMLIN
8th, ERIK JONES
32nd, JEFFREY EARNHARDT
33rd, JJ YELEY
40th, TIMMY HILL
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
KYLE BUSCH, No 18 M&M’s Caramel Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 2nd
Did you get really loose there in the second round?
“Yeah, it was a handful. I just can’t get a feel for what we got going on here this weekend. I’m not sure what exactly I’m missing, but I’m hoping that going to bed tonight and waking up at a different day is going to help things out, so, you know, we got – I think we overachieved there in qualifying and got a good starting spot – certainly more than what we had anticipated going into the day, but then I mean we’ve got to race what we got right now for tomorrow, so we’ll see what we’ve got tomorrow.”
How valuable is the extra track time in a double duty weekend?
“It’s a value to get out there and have the track time as long as you can correlate to each vehicle correctly, so, you know, a lot of guys would say that they don’t take anything from either one or the other, but you still can. You’ve just got to figure out how to do that, so the trucks – they don’t drive anything at all similar to a Cup car and vice versa and even an Xfinity car. You’ve just got to kind of take the good with the bad on all that sort of stuff, but obviously just getting out there and running laps and being in that Truck race today, did it help me at all really for qualifying? Eh, maybe, ‘cause I was trying to widen out the entries with my truck in order to be more comfortable for my Cup car, so there were some things that you try to work on and do and get ready for.”
DANIEL SUÁREZ, No. 19 STANLEY Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 3rd
How was your Camry in qualifying?
“I thought the STANLEY Camry was pretty good. Very happy with this and for my team, my guys. Really they’ve been working very hard and the results haven’t showed up, so happy to have a good practice day, a good qualifying effort and hopefully we transfer that to a good race tomorrow.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 7th
How was qualifying?
“You know, we got a little bit better every round and we got about two to three tenths faster every round, so that was part was really encouraging. We just didn’t have quite enough speed there on the last part – the last round there to compete for the pole. Got a little – we got a decent starting spot. Hopefully, we can just build on that to have a good race.”
ERIK JONES, No. 20 Reser’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 8th
How was the qualifying run?
“It was good. We had a really good car and the Reser’s Camry probably had speed to have – I don’t know a shot at the pole, but definitely second or third. I pushed it a little bit too hard and got myself in trouble in the tunnel turn, but good effort for us. A lot better effort than what we’ve had here in the past, so we can start from eighth and work from there and hopefully have a good run.”
Has today been a longer and more tiring day than expected?
“Yeah, it was a little longer than I expected, but it was fun. I feel alright after a short truck race – no big deal – but definitely fun. I enjoyed it a lot and hopefully do it again soon.”
