TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Sprint All-Star Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Non-Points Race – 50 Laps/50 Laps/13 Laps (Segment Races)
Saturday, May 21, 2016
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS — at Charlotte Motor Speedway
1st, Joey Logano*
2nd, Brad Keselowski*
3rd, Dale Earnhardt Jr.*
4th, CARL EDWARDS
5th, Kurt Busch*
9th, DENNY HAMLIN
10th, KYLE BUSCH
14th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
18th, MATT KENSETH
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA NOTES
· Camry driver Carl Edwards (fourth) was the top-finishing Toyota driver in Saturday night’s non-points Sprint All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
· Edwards’ Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) teammates, Denny Hamlin (ninth) and Kyle Busch (10th) also captured top-10 finishes in the three-segment race at the mile-and-a-half speedway.
TOYOTA QUOTES
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 ARRIS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
How was the race tonight?
“I put my guys in a box by missing pit road. I tried to come to pit road with the 2 (Brad Keselowski) and the 42 (Kyle Larson) and it just didn’t look right to me so I thought, I’m going to go by and then I put us in that box where my pit crew had to do a really fast pit stop and one lug nut just wasn’t pulled all the way up. Then as it stood we got back up to fourth position and if we would have had a caution there at the end, I think we had a shot at it. We were the top-finishing Toyota and I had forgotten about the video game cover so the top-finishing Toyota gets the cover of NASCAR Heat Evolution, which is pretty cool. We got something out of the night and really I had fun on those restarts. That was wild. I don’t know what it looked like on television.”
Did you find the race format confusing and how did the car handle?
“We had the ARRIS Surf Board colors and ARRIS makes the fastest modems period and we didn’t really have the fastest car and we tried to screw it up about four different times. I missed pit road, I put my guys in a box and they had to do the fastest pit stop basically you could ever do and one lug nut was not all the way up so we went to the back and then we made it back up to fourth. Really after all the dust settled, if we had one more caution I think we would have had a shot at it. It’s crazy and just a crazy night. I wouldn’t call it confusing because I kind of understood what was going on, but it took most of my brain power to keep up.”
What did you think of the aero package in this race?
“From what I could see, the 42 (Kyle Larson) and the 22 (Joey Logano) had a pretty good race going there. I couldn’t see all of it, but just like it’s been the story all year – NASCAR has done a good job with the aero package, they’re working in the right direction and the 600 should be good. I think with the long runs in the 600, you’ll see guys moving around a little more and maybe a little more racing.”
Did Dave Rogers keep you updated on other team strategies?
“Dave (Rogers, crew chief) was trying to keep me up to speed and at one point I asked something about somebody and he said, ‘Just don’t worry about that.’ I think he was basically saying, ‘I’m not sure, but just focus on what we’re doing.’ I kind of quit worrying about the other people. Really kind of a neat night for us as a team even though we made some mistakes, we really pride ourselves for sticking together as a team. I think we all screwed up just a little bit and we were able to smile about it.”
Did you find the race confusing at all?
“I think there were some unforeseen things. With all those guys going a lap down, I didn’t expect that. That wasn’t in our game plan. We didn’t know that could happen and also didn’t know that a guy could get stuck like Matt (Kenseth) did at the beginning. I didn’t know that was a possibility so in a way, there were some things that happened and circumstances that maybe nobody fore saw.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
Did this race format cause too much confusion?
“I think when you start to set rules on you can pit at this time, but you have to do it before this or that and then the caution comes that you don’t expect like we saw then it puts cars laps down. I don’t know. How do you keep up at home to be honest with you? I knew when it took about 10 minutes to explain the rules in the driver’s meeting that it was going to be a complicated night. All this is to give the fans a great finish and we’re trying to fabricate something for them to look at this All-Star race and say that it’s exciting. You want to create a last lap pass every race you can, but you also don’t want to get too goofy trying to create it.”
What was your confusion on the starting line-up and did NASCAR give you an answer?
“He (Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR) answered me, but I don’t know if it was correct. Here’s the thing, it says per rule book and rule book says – they’ve always told us that as long as everyone has an opportunity to get on the race track then it’s official and to me, here’s what they did, they went to all of us during that break, during the rain and said just so everyone knows, none of these laps when you practice your pitting, count towards your practice speeds. Why do they care about practice speeds if they’re not going to line us up by our practice speeds? It was total mixed messages from my standpoint. Maybe we should have asked more questions, but I can assure you everything we read online from Jayski to the entry blank and everything says you line up based on the rule book and the rule book says that if you have a practice then it’s official. I thought that we had enough practice. We’ve seen it in qualifying, if you have a 20-minute session and they run eight minutes, they say if everyone hits the track then it’s official. We had 14 minutes in practice so I thought it was official. It had no bearing on us tonight, that’s a moot point, but I think it’s just more of the confusion. There’s so many rules nowadays and gosh, it’s frustrating that it’s so confusing at times. I’m in the sport and we’re confused so how does the race fan keep up at times? I don’t know, you better watch it every week, that’s for sure.”
How can this race format be improved?
“I don’t know, I don’t know how to do it. I’m not smart enough to figure it out. Short of just saying this race is going to end under a green-white-checkered, let the race just run out and say, ‘Guys, we’re going to throw a caution with five (laps) to go and you’re going to race to a green-white-checkered. That would create a fun finish, but I don’t know. It’s tough to say what to do, but we’re doing this to try to make it exciting for the fans that’s what it’s about. It’s a fun race and we’re all having fun doing it, we just don’t want to get confused when we’re doing it.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 75 Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 10th
Was it confusing to keep up with the race format?
“I have no idea what the race looked like on TV so I can’t really comment on what it was.”
What did you think of your team’s strategy for the race?
“I thought our strategy was perfect – poor execution on the driver.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 Furniture Row Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 14th
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 18th
Did you get bumped from behind and pushed into the accident?
“I got more than bumped from behind, I got rolled over. I saw them checking up and wrecking in front of me and I slowed up just a little bit and somebody just drove right over top of me wide open. I don’t think they’d seen the wreck yet. I hope everybody understands this race more than I did from the cockpit because ever since the first car pitted in that firsts segment, I have no idea what was going on, none.”
What happened in the accident?
“Something happened on that restart and then when I got down into (turn) three everything was okay and I came off of four and they were kind of checking up and there was somebody way on the bottom and maybe wrecking to get to pit road. I tried slowing up a little bit and just got hit from behind and got the car out of control. Then I think somebody got outside of me and I got hit from behind and just got collected together.”
How confusing has this race format been for drivers?
“I still don’t understand. I’ve never been this confused in a race car in my entire life. I hope everybody watching understands because I have no idea what happened ever since the first car pitted until right now.”
Do you not like this format for the All-Star race?
“I can’t say I don’t like it, I don’t know what’s going on. From the driver’s seat, I don’t know what’s going on, but maybe if I was on the pit box or watching on TV I would understand. I just don’t know what happened there. I knew that we had to pit before a certain lap and that was the wrong lap and the caution happened to come out, but I don’t really know what happened from there to be totally honest with you. I just don’t know.”
Were you trying to stay out as long as possible in the first segment?
“That’s a great question for Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief). I don’t know. We have to pit before whatever that lap is – 47 or whatever. We were coming that time, which would have been coming to lap 47 and then try to get two tires and keep your track position. That was his plan and we just caught the caution on the wrong lap.”
Is it difficult to be confused as a driver during a race like this?
“It depends if it’s working for you or not. It’s always frustrating as a driver not to know what’s going on and nobody could give me an answer if we were on the lead lap or not on the lead lap – nobody could give me an answer as to what was going on and that’s always frustrating as a driver. It’s easiest when you can just get in and go as fast as you can every lap and not worry about the rest. We weren’t running that great anyway and got a lap behind and got in the back and never came back from it.”
Could you tell a difference with the new package tonight?
“A little bit. This is a very finicky race track. During the day it seems like it’s easier to pass than the night sometimes, but this morning I thought that was the best race at Charlotte I’ve seen in years and years and years. That was exciting, cars coming from the back and passing. It seems like the package and the tire is definitely better to pass with than what we had before.”
