Toyota NCWTS Chicagoland Post-Race Notes & Quotes
· Tundra driver Timothy Peters (third) was the top-finishing Toyota driver in Saturday’s rain-postponed NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Chicagoland Speedway. John Hunter Nemechek won the postponed event, rescheduled from Friday night due to rain.
· Tundra drivers Daniel Suarez (fourth), Johnny Sauter (fifth), Erik Jones (sixth) and Matt Tifft (ninth) also recorded top-10 results at Chicagoland.
· Tundra drivers led 96 laps (of 150) at the 1.5-mile oval with Peters (41 laps), Suarez (3 laps) and Sauter (52 laps) all taking turns in the front of the field.
· Jones currently leads the unofficial NCWTS point standings by 10 points over second-place Tyler Reddick following Chicagoland. Tundra drivers Matt Crafton (third), Sauter (fourth), Cameron Hayley (sixth), Peters (seventh) and Ben Kennedy (10th) are also in the top-10 in the point standings after 16 of the 23 events in 2015.
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
How strong was the truck today?
“Definitely a great Red Horse Tundra here today. When we came down pit road under the green flag and the caution came out, it was the right call to go through so we didn’t get caught a lap down. This is what this team is about right here, we’ve really worked hard and we’re coming into our own right now. Just proud of Marcus (Richmond, crew chief) and all the guys on this crew did an awesome job. Not a bad day for us.”
What was going through your mind when the team wanted you to conserve fuel?
“It’s just the way the trucks are built. You can’t change it unless a caution comes out. I saw rain – whatever I could see I was radioing back in. It was a great run for our Tundra today. Thanks to the guys back at the shop and Triad motors and all the guys here – pit road was awesome. This is what this team is all about. We’ve been hit or miss but I feel like we came into our zone. We’ll get on a roll and we have seven more opportunities to go to victory lane.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 51 ARRIS Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 4th
How difficult is it to conserve fuel in the closing laps when you’re so close to your first career NASCAR win?
“It was a difficult race overall. Too many issues with the radio and communication. Everyone did a great job to come back and fix everything, all the problems. For me, it’s pretty crazy that we started with the race with one helmet and we finished with another one. The same situation with the radio. My truck, I feel like I had the fastest truck out there. We made more passes than everyone else. We had a lot of fun. We led some laps and we were strong. That’s the most important thing. In the end, I wish we could have gambled a little bit more with the fuel, but when they were telling me to save, I wasn’t saving because we didn’t have perfect communication right there because of the radio. I feel like Jerry (Baxter, crew chief) made the right call and we survived with a top-five.”
How will you prepare for the XFINITY race later this afternoon?
“Eat, I think that is the most important thing is to try to get some food. Try to get a little rest if I can and if I can do that then I will be fine. I really feel like we are going to be good if I can take care of my food time and get a little bit of rest. Everything is good. I feel like I have an advantage actually because now I know how everything is going to work out with the NASCAR XFINITY race. Let’s see how everything happens and hopefully it can work out to our advantage.”
What did you learn from today’s race that you can use for the XFINITY race?
“My XFINITY car is really good – I’m very happy with the way that my team has been working on my ARRIS Toyota Camry. It’s strong and it’s fast on the short run and the long runs so hopefully we can keep it up. I thought the same thing about my truck and I felt like we did a pretty good job. We were fast and we were running in the front and it was good. I felt like we learned some good stuff about the race track and how it’s going to change during the race, which line is going to work out better, how you’re going to be able to make some passes. Let’s see how everything works out and for now, take some food and move forward for qualifying.”
What happened on pit road with so many penalties today?
“We were too fast I guess. We’re just trying to push the limits so hard and when you play the game sometimes you can lose. That’s exactly what happened a couple times for us. The first time we came to pit road I was pretty much at the limit and I saw the 00 (Kyle Larson), he was a little faster than me so I felt like I was safe and he should be speeding and looks like we were both speeding. Definitely wasn’t what we wanted, but after that we had some issues and we had to come back to pit road to fix some communication. Overall, we were very lucky that we had a super-fast truck, maybe the fastest one I believe. We were able to make some ground back.”
JOHNNY SAUTER, No. 98 Smokey Mountain/Curb Records Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
How wild of a race was it out there?
“The race track was eventful as always and the groove moved around. This place has obviously developed a lot of character over the years. What a great Nextant Aerospace Toyota today. I’m so proud of these guys at ThorSport. Just a great truck. We ran out of fuel on pit road about halfway down on caution and we obviously lost a lot of track position and just couldn’t get it back. We got back to second and lost a little bit, I got a little bit too tight. Shame on me for not trying to keep up with the race I guess. It was a solid day and I’m proud of these guys. It’s an okay thing with a top-five finish, but I felt like we had the truck to beat yesterday after practice and tried to manage expectations and it just didn’t go our way today. We just have to be a little bit sharper.”
ERIK JONES, No. 4 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 6th
What made it so difficult to pass in the race?
“It’s just this tire. We struggled with it and it’s a shame, it just doesn’t put on a great show. You saw that if you got out front, it was kind of that you stayed there and ran out front. It’s just a product of the tire and what it did at Texas earlier this year. Our Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra was good, we just missed it a little bit. We just missed that piece that would have made us better – just a little bit out of the race track all day and never could quite get it to where we wanted it to be. It’s interesting when it’s fuel mileage. It takes a lot of fuel and a lot of luck to win one of these things. I’m happy for John Hunter (Nemechek), that’s pretty cool to see for him. We’ll go on to the next one.”
How frustrating was it to have to pit for fuel knowing how strong the truck was in the closing laps?
“It was just an interesting day to say the least. Kind of went back and forth on setup stuff and ended up getting a speeding penalty there, obviously my fault and we went to the back. I fought back from that and ended up sixth today so that’s a decent day for us. Need to keep running top-10, top-five and we’ll be alright. It’s a shame we weren’t a little bit better, wish we could have contended there. I think if we had one more stop where we could have put tires on and been up front on that restart then we might have been able to get a little bit better. Just the way it played out and we’ll go onto the next one.”
MATT TIFFT, No. 54 NASCAR ’15 Victory Edition Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 9th
How was the race overall today?
“Had to go to the back because we changed a motor – we wanted to be precautious with the water in there that we found last night so that was a good call. Had to start from the back and there on that first run, we had some communication problems with the radio, but we got that fixed by the first caution and came in and made some really good adjustments. The second run, the long run we picked up a lot of spots. We got to the end and it was just kind of weird pit strategy going on and fuel mileage strategy. Worked out to get a top-10 – just a very strange strategy ending there for sure.”
BEN KENNEDY, No. 11 Local Motors Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 12th
MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Slim Jim/Menards Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 14th
CAMERON HAYLEY, No. 13 Carolina Nut Company/Curb Records Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 16th
JESSE LITTLE, No. 97 ProtectTheHarvest.com Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 30th
