HEMRIC, JONES CONTINUE STRONG STARTS IN LAS VEGAS
Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones score their third consecutive top-five finishes
LAS VEGAS (March 6, 2021) – Daniel Hemric (second) and Brandon Jones (third) drove their Toyota Supras to top-five finishes in the Alsco Uniforms 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday evening.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Race 4 of 33 – 300 miles, 200 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, AJ Allmendinger*
2nd, DANIEL HEMRIC
3rd, BRANDON JONES
4th, Austin Cindric*
5th, Noah Gragson*
9th, HARRISON BURTON
13h, SANTINO FERRUCCI
26th, JESSE LITTLE
28th, CHAD FINCHUM
31st, TY DILLON
36th, STEFAN PARSONS
37th, TIMMY HILL
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
DANIEL HEMRIC, No. 18 Poppy Bank Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
You were so close again. How was your race today?
“First off, so proud of the rebound for my pit crew this week. I’m so proud of everyone on this Poppy Bank Toyota Supra. The JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) Supras were so fast. You hate to have one get away like that, but we wanted to come here and lead laps and win stages and we did that today. We wound up with a shot and just got beat. Congratulations to AJ (Allmendinger) — just got beat.”
How strong was your race car today?
“This was probably, there’s no probably about it, this was the best Poppy Bank Toyota Supra we’ve had all year. We’ve had good finishes, but by far the most speed we’ve had. We come here to win these races for sure. Disappointed to have one get away like that and get beat, but AJ (Allmendinger) did an incredible job. Felt like our cars were fairly equal. I would be a little better than him on one part of the run and he would be better than me at one part of the run. I just took off on the splitter there on the last couple short runs. I’ll tell you, we came a long way. Dave (Rogers, crew chief) wasn’t very thrilled and I wasn’t very thrilled last week after we left Homestead, but we did the right things this week. Close and if we keep doing that, we’ll win plenty this year.”
BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Menards/Turtle Wax Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
Where would you have wanted to be better in today’s race?
“I think we’re bringing incredible Supras to the race track every week and it’s showing. This is the most consistent that we’ve started out a year with a lot of top-fives already to kick it off. It’s a ton of momentum to keep leading into these mile-and-a-halves. We all know how well this car runs in Phoenix so I’m looking forward to getting back to that race track next week. I think I was missing a little bit of both front turn and rear grip. I’m so good on those restarts and the 16 (AJ Allmendinger), he just threw a huge block and kind of upset our air a little bit. All in all, this was a fabulous weekend. Got good stage points and a good ending position. On to our best track.”
HARRISON BURTON, No. 20 DEX Imaging Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
Can you talk about what happened between yourself and Austin Cindric?
“Not really, I don’t know. I made a block that I thought I had plenty of time on and apparently not. I don’t know, it’s hard to say. I literally just got out of the car. I would like to see it. It happened so fast and I don’t really know. Just really disappointing because we had so many issues and fought through them and got to where I thought we were a third-place car at the end. Then just had an unfortunate deal there. I’ll look at it and see, I’m not real sure what happened. I do know that I’m proud of our team for working really hard and getting better as the race went on.”
SANTINO FERRUCCI, No. 26 HydraVes Technologies Toyota Supra, Sam Hunt Racing
Finishing Position: 13th
Great finish today, Santino. How was the race as a whole?
“We rolled out of the trailer and took the green and we started really strong, but then we started to get really loose, like super-duper scary loose and we just held on to it until the end of stage one. Andrew (Abbott, crew chief) on the box just put like six turns of wedge into the thing, completely reset the balance of the car for stage two and we just turned into a rocket ship. The HydraVes Supra was so quick, so, so quick and we just held on, ran our race to stage three and finished out strong racing some JR Motorsports cars.”
Two races down headed into Phoenix this weekend, what did you learn today that you can translate over to that track?
“You just learn that these races are so long. It doesn’t really matter what happens in stage one or two. It’s just important to keep the car clean and to listen and work with everybody and get it set right. Once you get it set right, you can come from anywhere to do well. I think our communication as a team, as a whole, from Homestead to Vegas was just miles different. I’m just looking forward to more of that.”
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