Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Watkins Glen International
Race 23 of 36 – 220.5 miles, 90 laps
August 5, 2018
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Chase Elliott*
2nd, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
3rd, KYLE BUSCH
4th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
5th, ERIK JONES
13th, DENNY HAMLIN
24th, PARKER KLIGERMAN
35th, SPENCER GALLAGHER
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, KYLE BUSCH 934 points
2nd, Kevin Harvick* 864 points
3rd, MARTIN TRUEX JR 813 points
4th, Kurt Busch 705 points
5th, Clint Bowyer 703 points
9th, DENNY HAMLIN 650 points
13th, ERIK JONES 572 points
18th, DANIEL SUÁREZ 434 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
· Toyota drivers captured four of the top-five finishing positions in Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race – the eighth time since joining series competition in 2007 and for the second-consecutive MENCS event at Watkins Glen International.
· Camry driver Martin Truex Jr. was the highest-finishing Toyota driver, scoring a runner-up finish.
· Camry drivers Daniel Suárez (fourth) and Erik Jones (fifth) rounded out the top-five, scoring their second-consecutive top-five finishes following last weekend’s event at Pocono Raceway.
· Kyle Busch led 31 (of 90 laps) and raced his Camry through the field to finish third after a fueling issue on pit road put him at the tail end of the field on a restart in the final stage.
· After starting from the pole, Toyota driver Denny Hamlin finished 13th and lead two laps.
TOYOTA QUOTES
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
Did you almost have him?
“I gave it everything I had for our guys at Bass Pro Shops, 5-hour ENERGY and Toyota, and all of our partners. I gave it everything I had every single lap. I could catch him but right when I got close, I’d get loose and fall back. I was too loose all day. Traffic made it worse for sure. He had the upper hand there at the end. We were a little faster but hats off to him. He did a great job. He put his car exactly where I needed mine to be. I couldn’t get it and I was sideways. Congrats to him on his first win. We ran out of gas the last lap anyway, so I guess it wouldn’t have mattered. I’m proud of my guys. I am proud of the effort. I love coming to these road courses.
How was it on the last lap where you couldn’t quite get there?
“I got sideways and about went through the grass, and then lost five car-lengths. That’s how far back I was there. If I hadn’t slipped there, I might have been able to take advantage for sure and got by him but I ran out of gas, so he would have won regardless. Good job by those guys.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Flavor Vote Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
Talk about this team and being able to come back through the field to come away with a top-three finish.
“Yeah, it’s great. I had a fast race car and did a good job behind the wheel I guess. It doesn’t show anything for the result that we wanted to get. Two years in a row here, we had pit road miscues and guess it’s just called bad luck. It’s kind of frustrating when you know you come here every year with a vengeance to go out here and win this race and you’re the fastest car and you’re arguably the fastest car or arguably the fastest guy and not able to perform or execute I should say. The performance was awesome. Can’t say enough about Chase Elliott and the 9 team. They had a great race car. I told everybody pre-race, told everybody yesterday in the media center to look out for the 9 and I was right. I wish that we could have raced with him a little bit there. Obviously, congratulations for his first win. That’s pretty cool. He passed me there in the mid-point of the race. He had me under pressure – had me loose and I had a couple bad exits, so gave way to him – let him have it and tried to hang with him and he drove away from me. Then on the next restart, we got in front of him and drove away from him, so I think we were pretty equally matched.”
Talk about some of that battle with Chase Elliott. Could you have beat him in the end and what impressed you about his composure?
“I think what impressed me the most was just that he was hammer down and elbows up and flying – loose here, loose there and going through everything and doing everything right and really attacking the race course and not putting the wheel too far out of shape. He did a really good and he was really hustling it and keeping the car under him. He looked like a pro. That was cool to see. It’s pretty early for him – like what third year – to be able to come out here and run like that at Watkins Glen and to be able to win, so pretty impressive. Overall, wish we could’ve raced with him and certainly think we would’ve had a shot for him.”
Describe your day and the comeback you had here today.
“Sounds like every other year. Just pit road mistakes two years in a row. Not sure what happened. Part failure or something, but not what we needed there to be able to run upfront with the 9 (Chase Elliott) and the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) and put pressure on them. I thought we were as good as the 9 there that time that he got a run on me, I let him go and then he drove away from me surprisingly. Then on the next restart, I had enough to hold him off, so I felt like we were equal to him if not maybe a tick better than him, but doesn’t matter. We had to restart in the back and drove our ass off with no cautions all the way up to third.”
DANIEL SUÁREZ, No. 19 Stanley Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Talk about your top-five finish today.
“It was a decent race. I felt like we had a top-five, top-seven car or so. The car was good, but not extremely good. Definitely the 18 (Kyle Busch) and the 20 (Erik Jones) were better, but it was a good race. Solid effort for my team. We’re getting close. This is what we need – to run top five every week and if we continue to do this, I’m going to be a happy boy.”
ERIK JONES, No. 20 buyatoyota.com Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
Did your finish at Sonoma help build confidence for you coming into Watkins Glen?
“It did a little bit. Ran the K&N race on Friday, I think that helped. A combination of things – having a little experience here and having a good Toyota Camry to get around here was the two things that you need. I don’t consider myself a road course racer and you know we’re working that way to get better on those things. I feel like I put in a lot of work on it. It’s rewarding when you can run well. That’s two top-fives in a row for us. I’m wore out – a little out of breath. Just a hard day. You’re running here. You’re hustling as hard as you can and it takes a toll on you.”
How do you build and continue the momentum you’ve had since Sonoma?
“That’s what we’ve got to keep doing. We’ve only had one bad race since Daytona and that was New Hampshire. Two top-fives in a row for us, so we need to keep going that way and hopefully we can contend for a win at Michigan. That’s the goal. We want to win another race. I know we can do it. If we’re this close on a road course, I know we can do it on an oval, so we’ll keep working on it.”
Describe the afternoon racing here today.
“Well, we never quite had a winning car. We thought we had a top-three, -four car and we ended up top-five, so that’s good. Buyatoyota.com Toyota Camry was good. Solid day for us here at a road course, but congrats to Chase (Elliott). Cool to finally see him get his first one. Other than that though, good day for us. Kind of keeping this streak going of good runs and hopefully can go grab a win next week at Michigan.”
