HAMLIN DRIVES TO RUNNER-UP FINISH AT CHARLOTTE
Truex Jr. Joins Hamlin as Top-10 Finishers for Toyota
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (May 28, 2020) – Denny Hamlin (second) was the highest-finishing Camry in the Alsco Uniforms 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday evening.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Race 8 of 36 – 312 miles, 208 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Chase Elliott*
2nd, DENNY HAMLIN
3rd, Ryan Blaney*
4th, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
5th, Kurt Busch*
9th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
21st, CHRISTOPHER BELL
26th, ERIK JONES
28th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
29th, KYLE BUSCH
33rd, TIMMY HILL
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx #SupportSmall Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
How were you able to pull off the second-place finish tonight?
“Eventually the air pressure built up enough to where it got off the race track. The pit crew just did a phenomenal job picking up a bunch of spots. Our whole FedEx team prepared a good car. Every time we come back to a race track for the second time, our results are really, really good. We’re making good adjustments, I had a really good Camry, just needed to be a little better in the short run there.”
Did you have a chance for the win after restarting second?
“We started up front there when the pit crew got us out second there and ideally we would have stayed in front. I knew the 4 (Kevin Harvick), his car typically drops like a rock in the long run. We made a good run at it, but it was just too late.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
How challenging was the handling in your car throughout the race and how were you able to battle to a top-10 finish?
“It was quite a battle. We started the race and made a few little changes to try to be better. We tried to figure out what we needed to be a little better than the other night and we started the race and we were just crazy loose. Honestly, that’s really the whole story. It was undrivable sideways for the first two stages and we just kept taking big swings at it. Finally, I fired off for that long run in the third stage and the Bass Pro Shops Camry was pretty good. We started passing cars and making up some ground. We just continued to chug our way forward the whole time. We never gave up on it, we worked hard and salvaged something. I think we’re all a little baffled on how we could have been that far off after how good we were Sunday. We definitely need to go back to the shop and figure some things out.”
Are you looking forward to getting to Bristol with hopefully an improved weather forecast?
“Hopefully no rain. I’m about sick of getting in and out of that car and watching the radar. Sitting there thinking, ‘well we were going to go and now we’re not going.’ Then drive home, come back. We just haven’t been able to catch a break. Hopefully, all the bad luck is out of the way as far as that’s concerned and we can go have us a good race at Bristol.”
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