Camry driver Kasey Kahne (fourth) was the highest finishing Toyota in Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway.
Kahne started from the pole in tonight’s race, marking the first pole for Toyota in NSCS competition this season.
Denny Hamlin (sixth) and Martin Truex Jr. (10th) also earned top-10 results for Toyota in tonight’s 500-mile race.
Other Camry drivers in the field included Kyle Busch (11th), David Reutimann (16th), Bobby Labonte (18th), Casey Mears (30th), Brian Vickers (34th), Joey Logano (35th), T.J. Bell (38th), Mike Skinner (40th), Joe Nemechek (42nd) and Michael McDowell (43rd).
Busch remains third in the unofficial NSCS point standings following Darlington, and is now 39 points behind leader Carl Edwards. Other Toyota drivers in the top-20 in the unofficial NSCS point standings after 10 of 36 races include Kahne (15th), Hamlin (16th) and Truex (20th).
KASEY KAHNE, No. 4 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Finishing Position: 4th Are you disappointed you didn’t win the race tonight? “It’s good for — I hit the wall once and I hit it really hard so I screwed up the right side and we had to work on it after that. The guys did a good job of keeping me upfront with pit stops and kept working on the car to make it as good as we could. I’m a little disappointed with fourth, disappointed with myself, but other than that the Red Bull team was awesome. The car was great. Qualifying first helped a ton tonight — having that first pit stall tonight.”
What happened to your race car? “When I was leading I hit the wall and killed the crush panels in the back. It ruined the rear of the car and then it didn’t turn as good either so that killed us for a while. The team did a great job with pit stops and just kept working on our Red Bull Toyota to get it better. I think we were a top two car probably minus the strategy there at the end. That was pretty good for as hard as it hit — that was pretty good.”
How much momentum does this finish give your team? “We started pretty decent this year and then it seemed like these last couple we’ve been really good again. We have Dover and Charlotte and some good tracks for us so we should be capitalizing on some points and get back to where we need to be.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 6th How was your race tonight? “We had a bad car at the beginning and we fought. I pounded the wall on the second lap. We fought to get it back. We got the car pretty good there at the end. We finished sixth and that’s about what car we had most of the day. We’ll take that. Still trying to build points right now so we have to be a little bit conservative.”
Are you disappointed with your finish? “To finish sixth and be disappointed
