Toyota Racing NCS Post-Race Recap — Martinsville 4.11.21

TRUEX SCORES SECOND VICTORY OF THE SEASON
Martin Truex Jr. earns third Martinsville win in the last four events

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (April 11, 2021) – Martin Truex Jr. became the first driver to score his second victory of the season as he drove by teammate Denny Hamlin with 16 laps to go to score the win. Hamlin, who led a race high 276 laps, retains the points lead. It’s Toyota’s third victory of the season and sixth victory at Martinsville since 2015.

Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Martinsville Speedway
Race 8 of 36 – 263 miles, 500 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
2nd, Chase Elliott.*
3rd, DENNY HAMLIN
4th, William Bryon*
5th, Kyle Larson*
7th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
10th, KYLE BUSCH
16th, BUBBA WALLACE
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st

You were strong all day, but at the end of the race that car came to life. How did you score the win?

“It was pretty incredible there at the end. The Bass Pro Toyota – James (Small, crew chief) and the guys really hung with me all day. We never could get quite where we wanted it. It started getting dark and she came to life. Thankful to Reser’s Fine Foods, Bass Pro Shops, all of these great fans. Thank y’all for coming out. I hope y’all enjoyed it. We love seeing you. Just thanks to all of the partners – Auto Owners, Toyota, TRD, Sherwin Williams, Textron Aviation, Noble Airspace. We got so many people that help us out. I can’t believe we won here again after not having the dominate car here today for sure. That was a lot of fun there racing at the end with Denny (Hamlin). We raced clean and we were able to come out on top.”

How difficult is it to race a teammate for a win?

“It’s definitely difficult. We try to race hard, race clean. He was making it difficult on me. I was loose coming off of the corners and his car got tight, so we kind of had opposite things going on and it made it difficult to pass, but we played nice and Coach (Joe Gibbs, team owner) will be happy. It will be a cordial meeting tomorrow.”

Is it hard to believe that you have now won for the third time at Martinsville?

“This is unbelievable. This place has become a playground for us I guess. We didn’t have the best car all day, but we just kept working on it and never quit on it. Proud of James (Small, crew chief) and all the guys. This Bass Pro/Tracker Toyota Camry came on at the end and that’s when it counts. There’s something about when the lights come on here, we’re really good so that was cool.”

What was the battle like in the closing laps with Denny Hamlin?

“It was good, hard, clean hard racing. He (Denny Hamlin) was getting tight. I couldn’t get the power down so we kind of had opposite things going on there. I could get inside of him, but I couldn’t clear him, he could get the power down on me. It was a fun battle and it was a clean battle. Coach (Joe Gibbs, team owner) will be happy tomorrow. We didn’t make each other mad or do anything stupid.”

What has changed in recent years with your wins now coming at more short tracks?

“Just continuing to work with my team on the cars and the setups. They’ve been able to make the cars do what I need them to do and that was something I’ve been missing for a long time. Great race cars. Thanks to JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and everyone back at the shop and everyone on this No. 19 Bass Pro Camry team. They do an awesome job. We keep tweaking on it and tweaking on it. For awhile there, I’m like, man, maybe we shouldn’t have done a few of the thing that we did, but here we are. Like I said, when the lights come on for some reason our cars get really fast.”

Are you shocked to think you’re about to go receive your third Grandfather clock?

“There was a time when I thought there was no chance in hell I’d have a clock so to have three and to have a shot at even more than that has been amazing. Thank you all.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx OfficeToyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd

In a perfect scenario, what would you have done differently to hold off your teammate?
“That’s just the cards we were dealt. We had a really good short run car. We just didn’t have a good long run car. We saved a set of tires – we had the tire advantage – but we couldn’t get the car to turn on the long run. That was the bugaboo, you could say, but overall, the FedEx Camry team performed well. We had a really fast car for 20 laps or so, and then it would just kind of go away. Fortunate for us, we had a great day and had ourselves a shot at it, but just wasn’t quite good enough.”

You were strong on short runs all day, but was the run at the end just too long?

“Yeah, basically. We had a fast car for 20 or 25 laps especially, but after that our car just faded and didn’t have the grip that the 12 (Ryan Blaney) or certainly the 9 (Chase Elliott) and the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) had there at the end. Gave ourselves a shot by getting that restart and getting around them, but inevitably we just didn’t have a fast enough car after 30 laps.”

How do you make your peace with a third-place finish after dominating most of the day?

“We just continue to run top-three every single week. Every stage, every finish – we’re right there. We just need to get a little better. We’re barely missing it. We led a lot of laps and that’s because our competitors that we were racing against, had some issues. We had a good short run car that could keep us up front on the restarts. Overall, a lot to learn.”

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Toyota Racing Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 7th

Solid top-10 run and big improvement over last season. How was your race overall?

“I’m happy with the top-10 in our Camry. It was a very hard-fought race for us. We went from the back to the front to the back to the front – it felt like 20 times. We had moments where our car was a top-10 car and we had moments where our car was a 20th-place car. We hit there at the end and we were able to keep going.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 38 million cars and trucks in North America, where we have 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama (10 in the U.S.), and directly employ more than 47,000 people (over 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold 2.8 million cars and trucks (2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2018.

Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit ToyotaNewsroom.com

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

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