HAMLIN, BUSCH SCORE TOP-FIVE FINISHES IN ATLANTA
Denny Hamlin continues strong start to the season with a fourth-place finish
ATLANTA (March 21, 2021) – Denny Hamlin (fourth) and Kyle Busch (fifth) drove their Camrys to top-five finishes in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday evening.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Race 6 of 36 – 500.5 miles, 325 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Ryan Blaney*
2nd, Kyle Larson*
3rd, Alex Bowman*
4th, DENNY HAMLIN
5th, KYLE BUSCH
9th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
16th, BUBBA WALLACE
21st, CHRISTOPHER BELL
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
What more did you need to break into the top-three for the finish today?
“Just not fast enough. It’s kind of the story so far. We’re getting our balance decently close, but just not enough speed, not enough balance, handling – not enough grip. Just need more speed. We’ll go to work on it. Just trying to gather a notebook. I just hate that we’re having these clean races and everything, but there’s always just one or two cars that are a little bit faster.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Messaging Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
Did your race car come back to life as the temperatures cooled off late in the race?
“I thought we were good all day. The M&M’s Messages Camry was fast. Every time I would log my way and claw my way up to the front, we would have a problem. I had a restart issue that sent us back seven spots. Got back up to third and then we sped on pit road. Got back up to fifth. That’s all it is, all day long is just a claw and that’s all you can do. There’s not enough separation in speed between cars and fall-off and all that sort of stuff. Great job by the guys. We definitely improved our car. It was good in the early stages and even better in the late stages, but everybody else was better too. That’s all we had.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
What did you struggle with throughout the race with the handling of the car?
“For us, we struggled a bit all day honestly with the Bass Pro Camry. Never could get it to do what I wanted and needed it to do. Really fought not having good front grip and then really losing the front tires on the long runs. We couldn’t really loosen the car up because I was sliding the backend all over the place at the same time. Just not a good setup, not a good day. Battled all day and came home with a top-10, which is okay, but nothing like we would normally run here. Have to go back and figure out where we messed up and what we changed that made it so much worse than what we’ve had here the last two trips.”
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