JOE GIBBS RACING XFINITY DRIVERS HAVE SOLID START TO PLAYOFFS
Hemric leads Toyota with a top-five finish
LAS VEGAS (September 25, 2021) – Daniel Hemric (fifth), Brandon Jones (sixth) and Harrison Burton (10th) all started the Playoffs with strong top-10 finishes at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday evening.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Race 27 of 33 – 302 miles, 201 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Josh Berry*
2nd, Justin Allgaier*
3rd, Noah Gragson*
4th, Austin Cindric *
5th, DANIEL HEMRIC
6th, BRANDON JONES
10th, HARRISON BURTON
11th, TY GIBBS
21st, DAVID STARR
23rd, MASON MASSEY
27th, MATT JASKOL
31st, CARSON WARE
35th, DYLAN LUPTON
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
DANIEL HEMRIC, No. 18 Poppy Bank Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
How was your race overall tonight?
“Very strong car. We were probably better earlier when the sun was out and the track was the hottest. We had made pretty big strides on our No. 18 Poppy Bank Toyota Supra from the spring race in those conditions. We just lost it some whenever the track went to that weird stage of half shade, half not. I was tight on one end and loose in the other. I was elbows up and almost busted my tail a couple times trying to get too much and had to settle in and let Dave Rogers (crew chief) tune on it. Once we got completely dark there, I thought the balance came to me and we would be good for two or three laps and I would have to settle in for 10 to 15 and that cost me too much time to the leader. I feel like I could take off and turn better at the end of the run than most of the guys, just always struggled with a little bit of rear grip no matter what. Good, strong first Playoff showing for us.”
How do you feel after the first Playoff race for NXS?
“You never know what’s going to happen so we just have to keep grinding it out. You have to maximize your day and let the cards fall how they’re going to. We have really fast Supras and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, first of all thanks for getting us here to the Playoffs. Hopefully, we can keep running well here and get some checkers before the end of the season.”
BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Menards/Jeld-Wen Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
Solid top-10 finish for you, Brandon. How was the race today?
“I was optimistic coming in. This is probably maybe going to be our best track in the first round. I mean, we’ve gotten really good at road courses. We were all just debriefing about how much our road course program has stepped up this year. Talladega, you never know. We’ve done a lot better as teammates here to work with each other. I think we really realize that is the key to do pretty good at superspeedway races. We will all put our heads together on that and try to make a decent run out of Talladega, but this was good. We came in a little bit under the cut line, and now I think we are 10 to the good. Solid points. Hated the stage two. You kind of want to gamble and you want to stay out, but it’s not worth the risk in not finishing the race or having something go wrong. We made the right call – thinking we had a loose wheel there. All-in-all, everyone did a really good job. We optimized a lot of things. Got some things to work on as well when we come back, so that’s always good to check yourself and see what you can be better on. Menards, Jeld-Wen, everybody thanks a lot for being on our Supra. I look forward to these next two.”
TY GIBBS, No. 54 Interstate Batteries Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 11th
How was your race tonight?
“I feel like we had a really good Interstate Batteries Toyota Supra. We kind of chased the balance and got it really good at the end. Just wheel-hopped and came into pit road on my green flag stop and totally blew it. It was 100 percent my fault. Just my fault and frustrating and I completely own it. We wouldn’t be here without everybody at Toyota and Interstate Batteries. Going to TRD helps my team out so much, just getting sim work done to prepare for these races. It really shows and I probably need to go more.”
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