TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Talladega Superspeedway
Race 32 of 36 – 192 laps
Sunday, October 23, 2016
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS — at Talladega Superspeedway
1st, Joey Logano*
2nd, Brian Scott*
3rd, DENNY HAMLIN
4th, Kurt Busch*
5th, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.*
24th, DAVID RAGAN
27th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
28th, MATT KENSETH
29th, CARL EDWARDS
30th, KYLE BUSCH
34th, JEFFREY EARNHARDT
37th, REED SORENSON
40th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER IN NSCS POINT STANDINGS – following Talladega Superspeedway*
4th, MATT KENSETH 4,000 points#
5th, CARL EDWARDS 4,000 points#
6th, DENNY HAMLIN 4,000 points#
8th, KYLE BUSCH 4,000 points#
9th, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 3,060 points
33rd, DAVID RAGAN 420 points
35th, MATT DiBENEDETTO 347 points
#competing in the 2016 Chase for the Sprint Cup championship
*unofficial point standings
TOYOTA NOTES
· Camry driver Denny Hamlin (third) was the top-finishing Toyota driver in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
· With his finish in Alabama, Hamlin advanced into the ‘Round of 8’ in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship along with fellow Camry drivers Matt Kenseth (28th), Carl Edwards (29th) and Kyle Busch (30th).
· Hamlin crossed the finish line 0.006 second ahead of fourth-place Kurt Busch to tie for the eighth-and-final position prior to the ‘Round of 8’ with Austin Dillon. Hamlin continued in the title hunt by virtue of finishing ahead of Dillon, who was ninth on Sunday.
· Hamlin led the field on four occasions for 12 laps (of 192) en route to his finish, while Busch led the field twice for two circuits and both Edwards and Kenseth paced a single lap.
· Camry driver Martin Truex Jr. (40th) led the field once for two laps, but he failed to advance into the ‘Round of 8’ after his engine expired early in the contest.
TOYOTA QUOTES
JOE GIBBS, team owner, Joe Gibbs Racing
What does it mean to have all four of your cars moving to the ‘Round of 8’ in the Chase?
“All day everybody was so uptight. I think that was about as nervous as I’ve been because you were just counting it on the board with Denny (Hamlin). At the end there, on our board it flipped and went the other way – it put the 3 (Austin Dillon) in front of us. I hit the panic switch. Just really proud of all of our guys. Everybody has worked so hard this year and I’m just excited to get four into that next round. It’s going to be a tough deal from here on out. You have to win from here on out.”
How do you feel about the coming Chase round?
“Well, I think that as you go, this round was – we lost two of our cars last year in this round. This round is kind of a little bit got to win, but you’ve got to be up front. Next round, you’ve got to win, so the farther you go on in this format, now everybody’s geared up. You’re going to have to try and win a race.”
Is it difficult to strategize to ride in the back?
“Yeah, I think really guys would rather be in the situation where they feel like they’ve got to go win. I think the drivers kind of all feel that way, but at the same time it’s a playoff and you’ve got to say what is smart and so you certainly don’t want to make a big mistakes of some kind and cost your sponsor and everybody that’s wrapped into this. It’s a huge deal for us today to – the Lord’s blessed us with a lot of great people and to be able to get in here with all four is a thrill, but I think now it gets easier for all of us.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
How stressful was today’s race?
“It was crazy. I mean, it was very tough in there not having any teammates, but there were a lot of guys that acted like teammates today to me and can’t thank enough for that. They know who they are. I don’t want to get them in trouble with their race teams because they’re probably a different team, different manufacturer, but thank those guys for that. 4 (Kevin Harvick) cut me a break at the tri-oval. I mean, just – we had something go our way for crying out loud. One time, we had something go our way and we just battled at the line right there with the 41 (Kurt Busch), so just – I’m just so happy.”
Does your advancing via a tiebreaker say anything about this format?
“Well, any time you have a small sample size, the points are always going to be tight, so you’ve got to get all you can get. I’m glad we – with the misfortunate that we had, we were able to battle back and contend for the win there and somehow advance to the next round and obviously next week we’ve got pretty big things ahead for that.”
Did you know your teammates were going to the back?
“Yeah, I knew they were, but they had to do what they had to do to get in. You can’t sacrifice those three cars to try to get the last one in. You’ve got to know you’ve got in your hand three aces. You can’t try to get the fourth and risk it, so I knew I was going to be out there alone, but I found the guys that I worked with and stuck with them and it all worked out.”
Did you think you were in trouble after the early penalty?
“I wasn’t worried about it. It was so soon, but I just – I knew if I got on and off pit road pretty fast that I was going to come out in front of the pack, which we did, but I overshot the entry a little bit, so still with all of that being able to come back, man, I’m really, really happy.”
What information did you want from your team at the end of the race?
“I didn’t want any. Even on the last lap, I’m sure they had information. I told them I was going to try finishing the best I could and if it wasn’t enough, it wasn’t enough.”
Was it difficult to survive?
“It was hard. I mean, it’s hard to kind of race like that, but knowing what you have to do makes it so much easier. If we were one of those guys plus 13, plus 10, I mean it’s just so hard to figure out how to race. I just had to do what I had to do to get a good finish, so I mean coming down to the end it just – I was in the middle of Stewart Haas (Racing) cars and I really committed to the bottom and the 4 (Kevin Harvick) cut me a break there and he did that twice on superspeedways, so I just – I don’t know what to say other than thanks to FedEx and Toyota. Obviously, very unfortunate for Martin (Truex Jr.) today to have bad luck, but still we got all four (Joe) Gibbs (Racing) cars in there and we’re going to try to go for it.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 23 Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 24th
MATT DiBENEDETTO, No. 93 Dustless Blasting Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 27th
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 DEWALT FLEXVOLT Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 28th
Will anything change with four Joe Gibbs Racing Camrys moving on?
“You know, you hope that the racing doesn’t change. I wish the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) would have made it in too. I mean, he’s one of us as well, so I felt bad he had problems, but I think it’s just business as usual. I think we’ve got this far by working together really closely for me the last four years that I’ve been there and Denny (Hamlin) was at Homestead one year racing for the championship with Kyle (Busch). The next year, Kyle won one – Denny almost won it. We all pitched in and worked together to try to make it happen, so I don’t see that changing. Obviously, if you get more than one of us to Homestead, obviously you’ve got to figure out how to beat that guy, but I don’t think the stuff during the week changes.”
Was it difficult being so patient in the back today?
“Yeah, that’s for sure. It goes against everything you ever want to do as a race car driver. You want to go try to win races, so I think it’s just kind of an unintended consequence of the way – being the cutoff race and the way the Chase works. You can’t afford to go up there and get wrecked and not have a chance to race for a championship, so it was just kind of the cards we were dealt and we had to play them. I don’t think any of us had any fun and none of us enjoyed, but it was just what we had to do to make sure we got to Martinsville and trying to race four more weeks and hopefully have a shot at the four of us trying to race for a championship.”
How do you feel about the next round?
“Man, good race cars, good race car drivers, good teams – I think all eight of them are very capable, you know? So nobody knows what’s going to happen. That’s why you’ve got to tune in to NBC and watch cause it’s just – or better yet, buy a ticket and come and watch – but you just don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s very unpredictable. I feel like certainly our team, we have the hardware need to get it done, but we’ve got to be able to do all the right things throughout the weekend. I don’t think you can have any more mistakes for the rest of the year with only eight cars.”
What is your outlook for Martinsville Speedway?
“Well, we just need to go race hard next week, so I’m looking forward to going to Martinsville. It’s been a tough place for me for a lot of year, but the last four years since I got with Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing), we’ve been pretty competitive there. It’s certainly one that I’ve always wanted to go win. We’ve come up short, we’ve had problems there – things like that – but typically we run good, so I’m really looking forward to getting to Martinsville and hopefully we can perform well and get a good finish and kick off the next round in a positive way.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Snicker’s Halloween Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 30th
What is it like racing at the back of the pack today?
“It’s frustrating, but to have a dull day today it’s certainly going to make for a heck of a lot more exciting days down the road. You have to look at it as you have to take the good with the bad sometimes, no different in that sort of scenario. Today was one of those having to ride around bad type days, but the reward is being able to race on and go into the next round and have a chance to race for another championship. I feel really good about the next round too. We won Martinsville in the spring and Texas we did – going to Phoenix we’ve gotten a lot better as well too over the years and have been able to finish in the top-10. We’ll reset our goals in what we need to do and what we need to accomplish from here on out. From where we ran today, it didn’t show anything about our Joe Gibbs Racing Snickers Camry. We had a really good car, it just wasn’t the day that we needed to be out there racing anybody or some of the things that those other guys were doing. We made the most of our day with what we needed to do.”
Were you at all concerned about what was going on in front of you in the closing laps?
“A little bit. Those last couple restarts at least having to try to maintain a couple spots and pass a couple guys and yet having all those guys racing up front for everything that it’s worth and if somebody got crossed up in front of us and not being able to finish that way. Everyone did a really good job relatively and we were able to make it to the end there. We did all that we needed to do today, that’s all that matters.”
What was it like to race under this strategy with your teammates today?
“It’s certainly not the way we want to do things, but in this situation that was the hand that we were dealt so we tried to play it right and do the right things that we could there. Our Snickers Camry was really good, we knew that and we qualified decent and we felt like we had a really good race car if it came down to crunch time and we needed to do something. We didn’t need to today. It was a dull day and it was a frustrating day to have to run like that, but you know what, it rewards us here going forward being able to have a chance to race for a championship.”
How stressful were the closing laps and the restarts?
“Anything could have happened, especially there at the end in those last few restarts with everybody going for it and racing for everything they had. Any little mistake could have happened and could have wiped out half the field, us included anyways for being back where we were at and us having to race at least a little bit there at the end to try to keep some people behind us and not just fall back. We didn’t have that much of a cushion to give away.”
Does this format force your hand to race like you had to today?
“Looking at it, there is no reward to go race and get wrecked so you try to be smart and do what you can do. If you’re guaranteed racing and everybody along with yourself is all crashed out then the points would stay the same, but you can’t guarantee that. You have to be smart and you have to try to survive and do what you can. We’ve made it through doing this and we’ve also been knocked out doing this. Today was just where everything was right for us. I think next year it will be a way better race and I think we’ll have way more entertainment for the fans and everyone with the schedule change putting Talladega back before Kansas. You’ll know what you have before you go into Kansas so I feel like everyone is going to have to race and you’re going to have to get as many points as you can through this track in order to have a safe day at Kansas.”
Was this plan discussed in Tuesday’s competition meeting at Joe Gibbs Racing?
“It certainly was something that was discussed at Joe Gibbs Racing with Joe (Gibbs) with all three of our cars that were kind of on the safer side. Then again we talked about it after qualifying seeing where we ended up and where we all qualified at to know what we should do at the race. Do we want to drop to the back or do we want to run a little bit and try to stay up front, but we all felt the safest to do was to do what we did.”
How do you feel about the race next week at Martinsville?
“We’ve run well there the last couple times at Martinsville and definitely pumped about getting back there. I’m hoping we can have a really good car there again this time around like we did last time. We led a lot of laps and we were really fast. Hoping that some of those things that we were able to push through there at Martinsville we’ll be able to do this time around.”
Are you looking forward to the next round?
“I look forward to the next round – we’ve got Martinsville, we’ve got Texas and we’ve got Phoenix. Those are all three really strong tracks for us. Honestly, I don’t know that there are tracks on the schedule that are weak points for us. Obviously unless there are crap shoot type races like Talladega or Daytona. We lived through today so we get to move on.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Subway Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 29th
What was it like to run towards the back of the pack with two of your teammates today?
“Stressful, stressful, stressful – that was the other word of the day. We don’t like to race like that, but it’s like Matt (Kenseth) said, it’s the hand your dealt. You don’t want to give it up and we played it right. I’m going to go get a rotisserie chicken sandwich and move on to Martinsville. I’m really excited to go there. Awesome that Denny (Hamlin) made it in too, he really raced his guts out too. I don’t know if he’ll give me as much advice as he did last time, but hopefully we can talk with him and I really want to get that win at Martinsville and advance.”
How conscious were you about what others in front of you were doing?
“Absolutely. I knew that Austin Dillon has one of the best records at these tracks and that’s what we were watching. He really did a good job there at the end. He drove really hard, made some positions up. Jason Hedlesky (spotter) did a great job telling me what to do, but you’re really at the mercy of everyone. I’m just really happy everyone drove those last couple laps really smart.”
What was this race like today?
“Pretty nerve-wracking. That’s not the way you want to race, but you have to be smart. All four of our JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) Toyota’s made it and it’s a real credit to everyone on the team and the teamwork is amazing. Jason Hedlesky, my spotter did a great job. We’re going to go get ready for Martinsville and try to win that race and just advance to Homestead. We feel like we have a great team here.”
JEFFREY EARNHARDT, No. 83 Starter Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 34th
REED SORENSON, No. 55 Toyota Camry
Finishing Position: 37th
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 40th
What happened that took you out of the race?
“Just developed a vibration and started to lose a little bit of power. Originally I thought it could have been a tire because it was shaking worse and worse and worse until it was time to pit. I slowed down to hit pit road and felt the vibration still there and knew it was the engine. Definitely not the way we wanted today to go – it’s a tough way to go out, but proud of the effort and proud of all the guys. The engines have been great all year and every once in a while you’ll have a failure and it’s unfortunate that it was with everything on the line. I don’t know, it is what it is and it’s racing. It’s part of it and we’ll move on. We’re going to go try to win the last five races or whatever is left and have a good end to our season.”
How difficult is it to walk away with this as the end to your championship hopes this season?
“It will be real hard when we win the next four races.”
What did you see when you were under the car in the garage and what happened?
“Got a big hole in the oil pan. It was a catastrophic engine failure, but all in all it’s just a tough way to go out for us. We really thought we were going to have a good day. We had a fast Toyota and it’s just a shame. We didn’t really get to see what we had or see if we could make it through the big wrecks. I wish we could have raced all day at least and see how it shakes out. It’s part of racing and that’s the way it goes some days and unfortunately today wasn’t our day.”
How would you sum up your team’s Chase this year?
“It’s been a roller coaster that’s for sure. I wish we could have done a better job at Kansas and Charlotte and maybe had a free pass coming here. That certainly would have been big knowing the circumstances, but we did the best we could. We have a great team and we’ve had a great season and we’re going to go out and try to win the rest of the races and see what we can do.”
How disappointing is this outcome after how strong your Chase has been?
“It’s definitely disappointing, but what else can you say. We had a team capable of competing for the championship and unfortunately we’re not going to be able to show that. I guess there’s still a chance of a miracle, but I don’t see it happening. Just have to wait and see how it all plays out today. Just disappointed, but all in all proud of my team for the effort. It’s been a really good season for us. We’ve still got four more races we can go out and win and we plan on doing that. We’ll hold our heads high, it’s been a good year and it’s disappointing knowing the possibilities, but all in all you can’t do anything about it and that’s racing some days.”
How is your team handling this situation?
“I’m sure they’re devastated. They’ve worked so hard this year to put us in the position to battle for a championship and we felt like we could do it. This year and this sport is tough and we didn’t perform at Kansas and Charlotte the way we were capable and we had some issues there and that put us in the hole and if we could have went there and done better and maybe got a win then we wouldn’t be talking about this right now. We didn’t get the job done, but we’ve got a great team and we’ve got four more races to go out there and try to get a win and I know we can win all four of them and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
What were your thoughts when you realized it was the engine?
“Just damn, it just hurts to go out like that. We could have raced all day, got in a big wreck and still not made it – there’s no telling, but it sure would have been nice to at least find out and at least play the whole game so to speak and see what would have happened. To barely make it to the first pit stop hurts. It’s the way it goes some days. Some things you just can’t explain. TRD (Toyota Racing Development) has done a great job with our engines all year long with no failures and our plate tracks engines have been great, no failures. I’m sure it was a part failure or some unforeseen circumstance and that makes it hurt a little bit worse even. All in all, we can’t hang our heads and we have a lot to be proud of. This is going to make us stronger.”
