Toyota NXS Darlington Post-Race Notes & Quotes

TOYOTA NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS)
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Darlington Raceway – September 5, 2015​​

• Camry driver Denny Hamlin was victorious in Saturday’s NASCAR XFINTY Series (NXS) race at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway.
• Hamlin started from the pole in the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) No. 20 Camry and led the field four times for 117 laps (of 147) to capture the victory.
• Hamlin’s JGR teammates, Kyle Busch (second) and Daniel Suarez (third), joined Hamlin with top-three finishes on the 1.366-mile track to sweep the podium.
• Suarez led the field once for 14 laps before Hamlin took the lead for the final three circuits to the checkered flag.
• With his finish, Suarez won the fourth round of XFINITY ‘Dash 4 Cash’ at Darlington – his second ‘Dash 4 Cash’ victory after winning the contest at Bristol Motor Speedway in August.
• In addition to the JGR trio of finishes, Camry drivers JJ Yeley (16th) and Cale Conley (19th) also finished in the top-20 overall.
• Six Camry drivers are currently in the top-20 in the unofficial NXS point standings –Suarez (seventh), JJ Yeley (12th), David Starr (16th), Blake Koch (17th), Cale Conley (19th) and Eric McClure (20th).

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 20 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How dominate was your winning Camry today?
“Yeah, it was – great car, great Sport Clips Toyota by Mark Wheeler (crew chief) and those guys. Can’t thank them enough obviously – Hisense also for sponsoring these XFINITY races. We had a great run at it and we’ve won with all of our sponsors now – SunEnergy1 we won with at Loudon (New Hampshire Motor Speedway) – Toyota, XFINITY, Coke, the Jordan Brand, the Greenbrier. Thanks to all them. You can’t do it – you can’t have performances like that without a dominate race car and obviously Mike Wheeler and these guys have done that for me.”

Were you concerned when your crew didn’t get the second can of fuel in the Camry?
“I’m almost glad we didn’t. We didn’t want a caution to fall and trap us there, but we were – I had scraped the wall and kind of misjudged my line one time and got a little right side damage and the car just stopped turning, so I don’t know if my right front would have made it or not. Awful proud of this team – the pit crew did an amazing job today keeping all of our track position. Fun to run here in the XFINITY Series and going to enjoy it.”

What happened with the missed fuel can during the pit stop?
“We didn’t get the car full on the last stop, which is maybe a blessing in disguise actually because we had to short pit there and with that short pit I scraped the wall 10 laps before we pitted. I thought I had significant damage and almost a cut tire, so it forced us to pit road early and then the only thing that kind of burns you there is getting caught on the race track when a caution comes out, so we were able to get through that. I didn’t think anyone could make it fuel and then I saw those guys stretching it and the pace that we were running I knew it would be close, but it looked like the 18 (Daniel Suarez) picked up speed with about eight (laps ) to go and I didn’t think – still with eight laps to go, I couldn’t see him. He was so far ahead and evidently he had some contact with the wall and it damaged his car enough to where it slowed him down to where we were able to get to him, so it was obviously high drama, but Joe Gibbs Racing obviously had pretty good odds there at the end of the race.”

Did you think you had a tire going down late?
“Yeah, it was probably some of the right side damage from where I got into the wall, but just I didn’t want to put a mark on the car, but just I had one instance where I missed my line slightly and my line was right at the wall anyway and it just sucked me in there. Proud of this whole team. You can’t have race wins like I’ve had here without dominate cars and we had another one here tonight.”

Did you learn anything you can apply to tomorrow?
“Well, there’s some line things I learned. The track changes quite a bit and learned a little bit with the track changes, so we’ll just take that information, I’ll download it with my crew chief over there (Dave Rogers) and we’ll see if we can’t get a race winner tomorrow night.”

MIKE WHEELER, crew chief, No. 20 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What was your strategy with the short pit?
“I knew pretty quick that we were actually shy on fuel right before we went back to green. Just had a fumble on a pit stop – human error – but at the some point, the guys are always really good, so I can’t blame them. It just happens in sports and we overcame it. He (Denny Hamlin) got me nervous for sure when he started screaming how bad the car was with about 15 laps before we pitted. Fortunately, he was able to keep the lead still and keep track position and I short pitted him by about five laps from what we could go just to make sure we weren’t too much in trouble and honestly the tires looked fine, so it was really just the track changing and the car and time of day type of thing. Honestly, once we got back on the race track and we were about a second, second and a half faster than the leader, I realized how quickly we could make up a 15-second lead or break it down to be within five seconds. Then with 10 to go, I was like, ‘Oh, we can actually catch this guy.’ Knowing Daniel (Suarez) and the 18 guys were running for the ‘Dash 4 Cash,’ I knew we could – kind of knew they weren’t racing them for a win, but they were racing for something bigger than just a trophy, so it kind of worked out in the end and I’m glad we could bring another trophy back to JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing).”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
How was your race?
“It was fine. Just the 20 (Denny Hamlin) was really good in final practice yesterday and they showed it today – they were just a little bit better than us. We just didn’t quite have enough, so we got second.”

Why was your car stronger in the first half of the race?
“I don’t know. We just weren’t good enough, you know? The 20 car (Denny Hamlin) was really, really good there and really fast. They showed some good speed yesterday in final practice and I really didn’t notice it at first, but then when I looked at the sheets again I noticed that they were fast and I thought we had everybody covered, but obviously they were a little bit better than us. There that middle part of the race, we got a little bit too tight and we’re just trying to bid our time and see how they race was going to progress and play out and I started running those guys back down. I got within a second of them, but then pit strategy there at the end – Denny being short on fuel – it won them the race. Getting those tires way earlier than everybody else just gave them such a big cushion that it was too much to overcome, so the Monster Energy Camry comes second.”

Did you learn anything from Darlington today?
“It’s not the same old Darlington. Darlington was repaved in ’08 and it’s definitely on its way back for sure. It’s a handful. There for a long run, you definitely have your hands cut out for you and that’s the fun part of racing. You don’t have to worry about aero – you just have to worry about mechanical grip and making sure you’ve got more mechanical grip than the next guy and that obviously makes your job a lot easier.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 18 ARRIS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
How does it feel to finish third at such a tough track?
“I can’t thank enough everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. They are doing just an amazing job. I feel like I learned a lot from this weekend. This race track was something brand new for me, something very different than everything I have raced before and I feel like I leave this historic place with a third-place finish and the Dash 4 Cash – this is just really good. I feel like this is really good for everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, Bob, Ron and Sandy at ARRIS – they’ve been supporting this project the whole time. I’m just very thankful with everyone and happy right now to be in this position.”

Has this year been a whirlwind?
“Yeah, this 2015 has been one of the biggest years of my racing career. Last year, I remember I was racing in Mexico some races, some races in the K&N Series and now racing full-time for one of the best organizations – the best organization – like Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Truck Series. Hopefully we can keep it up.”
What was it like leading and then winning the Dash 4 Cash in Darlington?
“That was great. I’ll take it. We’ll take it, right? It’s always – I give all the credit to my team, to my crew chief (Eric Phillips). I feel like we had a pretty strong ARRIS Toyota Camry – we had a top-10 car – and we were able to challenge for a top-three which is great. We fought all race long and like I said it was tough. It was tough racing. It was somewhat – in my first time here, it’s unbelievable how hard the tires fall off. I wasn’t expecting that. Actually, at one point, I was thinking that I had a flat or something, but everyone else was running at the same pace, so, ‘Okay,’ so I start thinking, ‘Well, maybe this is how it works,’ but all in all very, very thankful with everyone who put this program together.”

How important was the NASCAR Drive For Diversity in your career?
“Everything, I remember it like it was yesterday three years ago I came here to the United States without speaking English, without friends, without sponsors and we were just looking for an opportunity. I tried to do it by myself and things didn’t work out. I was pretty much ready to go back to my country, to Mexico, just to try to make my racing career down in Mexico and I had the opportunity with Drive For Diversity and I said, ‘Why? Well, why not? It can be a pretty good opportunity,’ and everything started from there. My first year in the Drive For Diversity program we won a race and finished top-three in the championship and it was great. After that, things just started to work out better and better and I felt like thanks to that opportunity that NASCAR gave me I decided to give another chance to myself and stay here in the United States and thank to that here we are.”

JJ YELEY, No. 28 Toyota Camry, JGL Racing
Finishing Position: 16th

CALE CONLEY, No. 14 IAVA Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 19th

DAVID STARR, No. 44 Zachry Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 22nd

BLAKE KOCH, No. 8 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 27th

ERIC MCCLURE, No. 24 Reynolds Wrap Toyota Camry, JBL Racing
Finishing Position: 28th

TJ BELL, No. 26 Straight Outta Compton Toyota Camry, JGL Racing
Finishing Position: 36th

JEFF GREEN, No. 19 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 38th