Toyota NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Watkins Glen International
Race 20 of 33 – 200.9 miles, 82 laps
Saturday, August 6, 2016
TOYOTA NXS DRIVER FINISHING POSITIONS at Watkins Glen International
1st, Joey Logano
4th, DANIEL SUAREZ
12th, ERIK JONES
15th, JJ YELEY
18th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG
33rd, JEFF GREEN
36th, TOMY DRISSI
37th, KYLE BUSCH
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA NXS DRIVER POINT STANDINGS following Watkins Glen International (race 20 of 33)*
1st, Elliott Sadler 668 points
2nd, DANIEL SUAREZ 657 points
4th, ERIK JONES 613 points
14th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG 428 points
16th, JJ YELEY 399 points
*unofficial point standings
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA NOTES
· Daniel Suarez was the top-finishing Toyota driver with a fourth-place result in Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) race at Watkins Glen International.
· Suarez started sixth in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Camry and led three times for six laps (of 82) at the upstate New York road course.
· Suarez currently ranks second in the unofficial NXS points standings, 11 points behind series leader Elliott Sadler, after recording his ninth top-five finish and 16th top-10 result of the season at Watkins Glen on Saturday.
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 19 ARRIS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Did you feel like you had a car that was capable of winning the race today?
“I think the car was fine. I think the whole team did a really good job. I had a top-five car. I felt more strong with the first set of tires than the second set of tires. With the first set of tires actually I felt like we had a top-three car and maybe to have a shot for the win but for some reason with the second set of tires I never got the grip back. On the restart the car was kind of greasy and it never came to me and when it came to me it wasn’t great. I don’t know. I just never felt comfortable on the second set compared to the first set.”
How was your race today?
“I think it was a good race. Everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing has been doing a really good job not just on ovals but pretty much everywhere we go we have fast race cars and that’s always fun. I felt like we had a top-three, top-five car. For some reason I felt more strongly the first half of the race than the second half. The second set of tires wasn’t as good, but anyway it was a good result. Last year in all three road course races I felt like we were pretty strong and then just things happened. And, to get the first top-five on these race tracks is pretty good for me.”
How is your wrist feeling today and what is your outlook for Mid-Ohio next week?
“I’m feeling good. I think we needed something like this to build some momentum for next week. We have had two rough weekends the last couple and were really not happy about those situations but that’s part of racing. Hopefully we can keep getting these results and hopefully we can get our next victory at a road course race track. That would be definitely very special for me and for my team. The wrist is fine. It’s a little sore right now, but I was expecting it to be sore. I guess that’s part of racing. We knew that this was going to happen on these races with a lot of shifting, but I feel good. I feel like tomorrow it’s going to be pretty sore but hopefully we can be just fine for next weekend.”
What is the greatest thing today that can help you with remaining two road course races?
“Well, definitely racing with these guys. These guys have a lot of experience – the Cup guys – and I believe that I spent every single lap racing with them. Every single one. And, something that I learned as well and something that Paul (Menard) just mentioned with the tires, I’m not sure what kind of tire that we’re going to bring next week to Mid-Ohio but my car was really good actually to have a shot to win in the first half of the race. We put the stickers and we went to the back. The balance never came to me again. It was tight and then loose – greasy for some reason. It slowly came to me but never quite there so I don’t know. We have to go back home, we have some homework to do. Hopefully we can learn something from this race and move to the next one.”
Did it take a few laps for the tires to come in?
“I don’t really blame Goodyear because after what happened in Kentucky they wanted to be safe so I think that’s normal.”
ERIK JONES, No. 20 GameStop/Rock Band Rivals Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 12th
JJ YELEY, No. 44 Zachry Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 15th
DAKODA ARMSTRONG, No. 28 WinField Toyota Camry, JGL Racing
Finishing Position: 18th
JEFF GREEN, No. 10 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 33rd
TOMY DRISSI, No. 14 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 36th
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 37th
CHRIS GAYLE, crew chief, No. 18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What happened to end your day early at Watkins Glen?
“This is really unfortunate. When you know you have as fast of a car as we did, and to not have the opportunity to complete the race, it’s just really disappointing. Not sure yet what happened with the front splitter, if we just hit the point of one of the new higher corners just right, but it pushed the whole front piece down about three inches. We did a good job to secure it but we weren’t sure if that fix was going to hold for long, and we made a decision to make a larger brace to ensure the splitter didn’t drop again later in the race. That extra time on pit road unfortunately put us back in the part of the field where we’d rather not be. Kyle (Busch) just got caught up in something that we never should have been around and it’s unfortunate. I hate it for Kyle, and for this race team — we had a really fast car today, one that could win and unfortunately we’ll have to learn from it and regroup to tackle Watkins Glen another time.”
