Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Dover International Speedway
Race 30 of 36 – 400 miles, 400 laps
October 7, 2018
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Chase Elliott*
2nd, DENNY HAMLIN
3rd, Joey Logano*
4th, ERIK JONES
5th, Kurt Busch*
8th, KYLE BUSCH
10th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
15th, MARTIN TRUEX JR
31st, JEFFREY EARNHARDT
32nd, JJ YELEY
39th, TIMMY HILL
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, Kevin Harvick* 3101 points
2nd, KYLE BUSCH 3096 points
3rd, MARTIN TRUEX JR 3069 points
15th, DENNY HAMLIN 2094 points
16th, ERIK JONES 2079 points
19th, DANIEL SUÁREZ 593 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
· Camry driver Denny Hamlin was the top-finishing Toyota driver in Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) Playoffs race at Dover International Speedway after placing second.
· The second-place showing was Hamlin’s best finish of the 2018 season.
· Toyota Playoffs drivers Kyle Busch (eighth) and Martin Truex Jr. (15th) both finished inside the top-15 after committing speeding violations on pit road in Sunday’s race at Dover.
· Camry driver Erik Jones placed fourth in Sunday’s event at Dover – his best finish in the last four races.
· Toyota driver Daniel Suárez scored his eighth top-10 of the 2018 season – placing 10th.
TOYOTA QUOTES
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
Did you think you’d get the No. 9 at the last restart?
“I didn’t think so. We ran a 23.70 on that last lap. On older tires, that’s amazing. I ran as hard as I could through 1 and 2. Then through 3 and 4, I couldn’t get beside him there. I am proud of the whole FedEx team. Definitely a good start in the right direction. We chipped away at it all day as we moved up through the field. This is where we deserved. I am proud of this finish and we’ll move on to the next race.”
How did those late restarts impact your race?
“These late restarts, really. That’s what makes for the crazy finishes and guys getting into big wrecks is the late race cautions. If you’re in their position, it sucks because you went from a good position to being crashed out. I’ve been on the other side of that where it’s been good or bad. You have to make sure you do the best you can to avoid it.”
Is it hard to run a race where there’s so much going there at the end?
“It is. There are different cars up front throughout the day. What I noticed is a lot of speeding penalties and that put guys in the back that hadn’t been accustomed to being there. That really changes the dynamic – especially on this track. Track position means so much, you can’t make mistakes on pit road. It’s impossible to win those races with mistakes.”
ERIK JONES, No. 20 Craftsman Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Did the race play in your hands like you expected it to?
“Yeah, we were about a ninth-place car all day. We had that big wreck and then were restarting fourth. The Craftsman Camry was gifted a couple of spots but we’ll take that. We stayed in and fought hard all day. We ran the best we probably ran here at Dover. We’ll need to figure out what we need to do to get up there and battle for the win but definitely a few steps forward.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 8th
How did those final restarts help you today?
“It worked in our favor a bit today with some other cars getting torn up. Which is unfortunate for them. Our day was not very good. Speeding on pit road took us out of the running for a top-10 and a solid finish. We got about what we deserved I guess.”
When you don’t have a track bar, how does that impact what you’re able to do?
“You use it a lot here because of the tire wear and tire build-up. Cars get loose over courses of the run. Not having that and not knowing where it was, I had no clue where it was throughout the whole day. We came in here poised to not run very well and that’s how we did.”
What was that the first time you had trouble with that?
“No, at Atlanta it came unplugged.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR, No. 78 5-hour ENERGY/Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 15th
How was your run today given everything?
“The 5-hour ENERGY Camry was good all day but the pit road issue put us in a place we didn’t need to be. Then we got caught up in someone else’s mess at the end. Frustrating for sure but all we can do is look ahead to next week.”
