TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes
Martinsville Speedway
263 miles, 500 laps
October 28, 2016
TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
7th, CARL EDWARDS
8th, DENNY HAMLIN
9th, KYLE BUSCH
12th, DAVID RAGAN
17th, MATT KENSETH
27th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
37th, DYLAN LUPTON
TOYOTA QUOTES
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., No. 78 Auto Owner’s Insurance Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Starting Position: 1st
Are you more excited to get the pole at Martinsville or redemption after being eliminated from the Chase last week?
“Mostly because it’s Martinsville – I’ve been second here a few times. This place is just so tough and that first pit stall is just so critical to having a shot at winning here. I would love to get my first grandfather clock. And a little bit after last week, this helps a little bit. All in all, just proud of the guys for coming here with a game plan and executing.”
How big is it to have the pole and the first pit stall?
“It’s no guarantee that we’ll race well on Sunday, but it’s definitely a nice advantage if you have a good race car to be able to make up stops on pit road and not have to worry about getting blocked in and all those things. It’s a definite advantage and hopefully we can have a good car to take advantage of it.”
How does it feel to get the pole here at Martinsville?
“I’m feeling good, it’s definitely a good day. It’s fun to be back at the race track with some positive things happening. First pole here at Martinsville so it feels good, it’s a cool accomplishment and this track is so difficult and so tough. The history here and it’s just a place that everybody wants to be good at. Really proud of my guys after the week we had last week. Obviously to come here, perform and get it done – I’m excited to see what we can do the rest of the weekend.”
What has this week been like for you and what is your mentality moving forward?
“Mentality really is just to go out and try to win the next four races, that’s all we can do. As soon as we got together in the garage in Talladega – I literally pulled in there, got out and we all got together and said, ‘Let’s go win Martinsville, what do we have to do to win Martinsville?’ I think our attitude just instantly changed to, okay, we’re out of it, there’s nothing we can do about it now. Let’s not focus on this or rip us apart or pull us down or hold us back. It’s not easy to do so I’m really proud of our guys, road guys and guys at the shop – they put a lot of effort into this car, it’s brand new, to try to come here and be better than we were in the spring. Obviously it’s paying off today. As bad as last week was and as bad as it hurt to get that ripped out from under us feeling, there’s nothing we could do about it. It was tough. You have to move on and you have to look forward and try to be better the next week. I’m proud of everyone for sticking it out and keeping the faith and there is no quit in this team and it showed today.”
Is your team’s focus to prove that you should still be in the championship by winning these last four races?
“We haven’t done it yet, let’s do it first. Let’s get it done and worry about it later, that’s the mindset. I don’t know, again there’s nothing you can do. You can’t turn back time, you can’t change the past, I wish we could. I feel like and I felt all year like this was a championship caliber team I feel like we should be there. Winning is important, we won two races in the Chase, but we’re not in it anymore and we have to face that reality. The rules are the rules and that’s the way it was setup when it started. All we can do now is do the best we can in the next four and if we win Homestead it will be a big ‘shoulda, coulda, woulda,’ but you can’t change it. I think we’re just going to go out and try to prove to all our fans and our followers that there’s a possibility to show that we could have been champions even if we don’t get to take that Cup home.”
Do you expect drivers not in the Chase to play a large role in the next four races?
“I think there’s a possibility of it, especially at a place like Martinsville with what could happen in short track racing – beating and banging, fenders cut a guy’s tire or exhaust cut a guy’s tire or something like that. Of course you never want to see that happen, but that’s short track racing and it happens here so I don’t know if it matters much if you’re in the Chase or not, this place can be volatile no matter what the situation is with points and Chase and what not. I think for the most part guys in the Chase get a little more respect than maybe a guy that’s not. You certainly don’t want to hurt a guy’s championship chances. For me, I think you race hard like you do every other week. I’m not going to race harder than I did last week or I did three weeks ago when I was in the Chase. I’m going to race as hard as I can and as clean as I normally do and see what happens. There’s always that chance that somebody gets in trouble here especially, it’s not Talladega by any means, but it can be pretty volatile.”
Do you feel you would have reacted the same earlier in your career to what happened last weekend?
“I can’t answer that, I probably would have. I don’t know. There’s a lot of things – just seeing my team afterwards and talking to them and the confidence I have in them that we could come out and win more races this year. With the season we’ve had, we’ve got a lot to be proud of. I think the way that the Chase format is, it’s definitely tough. I think that had we done a better job at Charlotte and Kansas, maybe we could have kind of secured our own fate, but we didn’t. We’ll just do the best job we can do and that’s all we can do. I thought about it every day and every night and I just kept telling myself to just go win Martinsville and I would feel a little bit better. This is the first step in that direction, but honestly I’ve just enjoyed this year and even if it doesn’t turn out the way we wanted it to, I’ve enjoyed it with the team I have and this is something we’re going to build on for years to come and content for more championships.”
What is the current attitude of the race team?
“I think the vibe is everybody kind of has a little chip on their shoulder and I think everybody wants to make sure that they show the other teams in the garage that we were for real and we just want to show them that we think we should still be going, but things happen and that’s the way things go. It’s racing. Guys are just working hard, they want to win races no matter where we’re at, no matter what the situation is and I kind of share that mindset with them moving forward.”
Do you believe your team is still the strongest this season?
“I think that’s the most disappointing part for us is that we’ve probably been the strongest team all year long. The flip side from that is that we haven’t been as consistent as we needed to be and I think we understand that as well. Going forward, that will be something we focus on. For us again, we want to go out and we want to win races, that’s just what we want to do and I think this is a golden opportunity for us to do that because the way this season has gone, the cars we’ve had, the job everybody has done, the communication we’ve had, the confidence we have – it’s just that we have everything going for us right now is what I’m saying and you always want to take advantage of that in this sport and you never know when it’s going to change. As bad as it hurts that we’re not in the Chase anymore and we aren’t going to win our first championship, we want to go out on a high note, we want to go out with momentum and we want to go out with a lot of confidence for next year.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 7th
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 8th
How was the car in qualifying?
“We just struggled a little in qualifying. We needed a little more grip and lost the balance a little bit in qualifying from practice and with truck practice and then to our real deal in qualifying. Had nothing to do with our race setup, we’ll change that over tonight and see what we have tomorrow.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Halloween Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 9th
DAVID RAGAN, No. 23 Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 12th
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 17th
Did you struggle with setup on the car in the final round of qualifying?
“We got a little bit better, but we had to make a second run in the second round there. The tires might have been more worn out and we just weren’t fast enough. We qualified pretty well here the last few years. We went out in that first round and just never could get it out of it to get through the center like we needed to get that fast lap.”
How will you approach practice tomorrow?
“It’s usually the morning it typically a lot different and the second practice usually gets more like race conditions. The trucks qualify and then we have second practice so really just try to run through some stuff in the morning, make some changes and get a good feel and direction on things to try to get the balance right in happy hour before the track gets rubbered up.”
Is this a race you look forward to on Sunday?
“I look forward to Martinsville, it’s been a good track for us – this is my fourth year over here and we’ve performed pretty well. We don’t have all the finishes to show for it, but we’ve done pretty well. I always look forward to the challenge, hopefully we can put together a perfect race and work our way toward the front and have a shot.”
MATT DiBENEDETTO, No. 93 Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 27th
DYLAN LUPTON, No. 83 Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 37th
