HAMLIN, TRUEX CONTINUES STRONG PERFORMANCE AT DAYTONA
Reigning Daytona 500 winner Hamlin scores top-three finish
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (August 29, 2020) – Denny Hamlin (third) and Martin Truex Jr. (fourth) drove to top-five finishes to lead Toyota in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at the Daytona International Speedway on Saturday evening.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Daytona International Speedway
Race 26 of 36 – 400 miles, 160 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, William Bryon*
2nd, Chase Elliott*
3rd, DENNY HAMLIN
4th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
5th, Bubba Wallace*
13th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
24th, TIMMY HILL
28th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
33rd, KYLE BUSCH
35th, ERIK JONES
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
What happened in those final laps of the race in overtime?
“Just disappointed. I didn’t do a good job. Lack of focus or whatever it is. Not executing. If you have control of a green-white-checkered on a speedway, most of the time the win is going to come from the front row and you have to just make sure you make the right moves and I just didn’t after I took the green. I don’t know what I was doing and I didn’t have a push from the 21 (Matt DiBenedetto) and I was clear of the 24 (William Byron) and just didn’t pull down. I don’t know what I was doing. Disappointing, but I guess we escaped some mayhem, we were in some mayhem. Just a crazy race. Just everyone kind of out there for themselves and all the pushing and shoving and body-slamming and what not. Decent finish, but I hate having control and not finishing.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
What were the final laps like tonight?
“We got ourselves in position there at the white flag and made a run through the tri-oval and got to the outside of the leader there. The 14 (Clint Bowyer) and those guys that were behind me, they were my pushers and they crashed. As soon as they wrecked behind me, I realized that I lost all my help and it was going to be tough from there on out. Then the 9 (Chase Elliott) just pushed the 24 (William Byron) back by us and ended up barely hanging onto fourth. Overall, it was a really good night. Our Bass Pro Toyota had a lot of speed and we passed a lot of cars at the end. We had to pit twice there at the end on those two cautions because we flat-spotted our tires and ran over all kinds of debris. To be able to come through the field in a short amount of laps was a lot of fun. Always nice when you leave here in one piece.”
Do you like where your team is heading into the Playoffs?
“I love where we’re at right now. I think we’re hitting on all eight cylinders, making good decisions. The pit crew is really doing a great job. We’re doing all the little things right and I think if we just keep carrying on this momentum, we’re going to be tough to handle. I think everybody has forgotten about us and that’s a cool spot to be in for us. We look forward to that.”
How do you feel heading into the Playoffs?
“I feel good about our team and where we’re at and what the guys are doing and the race cars they’re bringing me to the race track. I feel like we’ve been right there. I know we should probably have a couple more wins, but just running in the top-three, four, five every week, that’s what it takes to make it to the final four and then have a shot at the championship. That’s what we’ve been doing. Just hope we can keep it going and make everyone on our team proud. Thanks to Auto Owners, Bass Pro and just all our partners that make it happen. Toyota, TRD – hopefully we make them all proud the next 10 races.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 33rd
What happened that caused the accident and the big wreck?
“Slide job gone bad. I just hate it for these Interstate Batteries guys. We had a good Camry all night long and made our way to the front multiple times and we were leading a lot of laps there. Just waiting for the end, for business to pick-up and I guess business was starting to pick-up, but just not clear. I saw him coming and even checked up and we still ran into each other.”
What happened in the wreck from your vantage point?
“Just a slide job gone bad. (Tyler) Reddick threw it off into three and might have been clear, but wasn’t clear by much and started coming up the track and was losing momentum. I even had to check-up because I saw him coming and it wasn’t enough check-up and wrecked the field. I hate it for all my Interstate Batteries guys. They’ve worked so hard this year and done a great job. We put ourselves in a great spot again tonight and had a fast race car, a good driving race car and was just hoping we could maintain that position for the rest of the day and get a win, that’s what we’re trying to look for. Thought we had a shot to do that. Still 2020.”
ERIK JONES, No. 20 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 35th
You were very displeased with Tyler Reddick in the car for that move. What do you think he did wrong?
“I mean, he (Tyler Reddick) wasn’t clear. Kyle (Busch) let him in, number one, to not cause a wreck and then he ran into the wall and wrecked everybody behind him. It’s frustrating. He had way too much speed to try to make that move up the hill with the grip that is left in the tires. We had a lot of laps on them. It’s unfortunate. He wrecked us a Pocono, and then to have this happen, you know, two times making racing moves that were not going to work out. Unfortunately, it was to the determent of us today. The Auto Owners Camry was pretty fast. We were up front. I think we were running third when we got wrecked, so we had a shot. We needed to win — we were there, we just didn’t get it done.”
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