TRUEX DRIVES TO RUNNER-UP FINISH AT KENTUCKY
Martin Truex Jr. scores his third top-two finish at Kentucky in last four events
SPARTA, Ky. (July 12, 2020) – Martin Truex Jr. (second) and Christopher Bell (seventh) led Toyota with top-10 finishes at the Quaker State 400 at the Kentucky Speedway on Sunday afternoon.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Kentucky Speedway
Race 17 of 36 – 400.5 miles, 267 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Cole Custer*
2nd, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
3rd, Matt DiBenedetto*
4th, Kevin Harvick*
5th, Kurt Busch*
7th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
12th, DENNY HAMLIN
21st, KYLE BUSCH
22nd, ERIK JONES
26th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
37th, TIMMY HILL
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Auto Owners Insurance Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
You came from the back to a second-place finish and nearly the win, can you talk about the closing laps?
“It was fun. I can’t say enough about the guys on this Auto Owners Camry. Everybody back at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) really went to work this week to try to get back to what we used to do here. Just hats off to the guys – James (Small, crew chief) and everybody. Just an unbelievable race car. In the end there, just a bit unlucky losing the lead to (Ryan) Blaney on that first restart by a couple thousandths and then again to the 4 (Kevin Harvick) when the caution came out. We were side-by-side. That’s kind of the way these things go sometimes. I’m really proud of the effort. Super-fast race car and feel like we’re back in the game now.”
What happened on the final restart?
“Just trying to get in line behind the 4 (Kevin Harvick) off of (turn) two there and got into him a little bit. Then got outside him because I screwed that up and went into (turn) three and I knew he was going to run me up pretty high. I was up in the loose stuff pretty good there, but I was able to hang onto it. The 41 (Cole Custer) came with a big run and I didn’t see him coming. Unfortunate, but we had a hell of a battle today. This Auto Owners Camry was really strong today obviously and really proud of that. Sometimes you lose these things that way. It was unfortunate the way we lost the lead on the restart with the caution coming out and then we about had the lead again and caution came out again. I don’t know, I guess today we were meant to be second.”
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 95 Toyota Camry, Leavine Family Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
Another solid top-10 after starting from the back. Talk about the run through the pack at a track that is very difficult to pass on.
“It was a very confusing day. I have moments where I felt like my Camry was really fast and I could run really good lap times, and then I had moments where – I wasn’t very good in traffic today for whatever reason. Normally, that is our strong suit is being able to pass guys, and today I really struggled with that. Obviously, I’m happy with getting out of there with a seventh, but disappointed. I wish we could have been a little bit better when we had that track position.”
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