BUSCH STARTS SEASON WITH CLASH WIN
Camry drives to victory in the Clash for the second straight season
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (February 9, 2021) – Kyle Busch earns his second Clash win at Daytona International Speedway on Tuesday evening with a last lap pass. Busch only led the final lap to score the second consecutive Clash win for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR).
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway Road Course
126.35 miles, 35 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, KYLE BUSCH
2nd, Chase Elliott*
3rd, Joey Logano*
4th, Tyler Reddick*
5th, William Bryon*
6th, DENNY HAMLIN
18th, TY DILLON
21st, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
What did you think when you saw what happened on the last corner there?
“I knew to keep my head down and keep focus ahead and see if I could keep hitting my marks to get close enough to have a shot like that – if something like that were to materialize. Fortunately it did for us. I can’t say enough about Ben Beshore (crew chief) and this whole M&M’s team – this new M&M’s team. I appreciate what they do for me, everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota, TRD. It’s awesome to start off the year with a win a non-points win, but I would love nothing more than to be right here this Sunday.”
First race with Ben Beshore as your Cup crew chief. It seems like a pretty good start there.
“Not too bad. I’ve been through a couple crew chiefs, and it always seems to go well for a little while and then it kind of fizzles out. It is what it is in the sport of racing, but we had a great car here tonight. We worked a lot of time over the wintertime focusing on what we could do for this race to know we needed to get better for race number two in two weeks.”
How would you describe the last set of turns?
“I didn’t know how it was going to play out or what was going to happen there, but I saw those guys go in there two-wide and I was like, I don’t know if they’re going to come out two-wide. Certainly, it was a tough battle between those two. They were really good. The 9 (Chase Elliott) was fast, I don’t know if he was the class of the field, but the 12 (Ryan Blaney) was definitely just fast and made aggressive moves and was doing a good job all night getting himself back up to the front each time. Those two coulda, shoulda, woulda been the two to race it out for the win and maybe the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.). Just interesting how that plays out sometimes and what dynamic will push you into victory lane. Here we are with our M&M’s Toyota. Thanks to TRD, Interstate Batteries and Rowdy Energy Drink and everybody that gets us here. Appreciate Ben Beshore (crew chief) and all my new 18 guys for this year.”
How important is it to get to victory lane and get a good start to the season with a new team?
“It’s nice to have good runs. Obviously, winning cures all. I’m not sure that we’re mature enough or we’re ready enough in order to win as a group, but I feel like this is a good start anyways. Obviously, winning never hurts anything, but there is some stuff for us to get a little bit better on, for us to grow on. This is a good start. Doing the work that we did to prepare for this event and getting us in the right spot to be able to win tonight was what its all about. Good all around.”
Are there things you can apply in two weeks from tonight’s race?
“Yeah, that was definitely the focus on this race. It’s like a test session, it’s like our practice. Definitely, I feel like we have a strong car and I think we have a strong program and balance right here. There’s still some things that could be a little bit better. The 9 (Chase Elliott) was definitely beating me on the brakes, getting into the turns and just being able to out-brake me. I just didn’t quite have enough for that.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 DeWalt Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 21st
What happened out there?
“I just overshot the bus stop a little bit and hit that mud that was there. It was worse than the laps before, so just caught me off guard. I actually slowed down from the lap before going through there and once it got in the bus stop turned back to the right, it was gone. It’s been a tough night with that mud there, but I made a big mistake early on and it cost us the lead and we had to come from the back. Honestly, I beat the car to pieces trying to get there. It was fun; it was a lot of fun getting through the field, just wish we could have closed it out for DeWalt, coming on for the first time.”
Outside of the mud, how were the track conditions?
“The track is awesome. It’s a blast to race on, a blast to drive on with these cars. It’s really tough. They don’t do anything you want them to do, in that you just see guys sliding all over the track and that makes it a lot of fun. The only thing we’ve got to work on if figuring out how to keep the mud off of the track in the chicane. What happens is you get behind somebody real close, and you go in there and you can’t see where you are going, so if they get into the mud, you follow them and if there is four cars in line, everybody’s trying to cut the chicane a little tighter, a little tighter and it just blows mud everywhere. We’ve got to figure that out a little bit, but outside of that – the track is a blast.”
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