Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS)
Texas Motor Speedway
Race 6 of 33 – 300 miles, 200 laps
April 8, 2017
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, ERIK JONES
2nd, Ryan Blaney*
3rd, Kevin Harvick*
4th, Austin Dillon*
5th, Cole Custer*
9th, MATT TIFFT
12th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
17th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG
22nd, JJ YELEY
29th, JEB BURTON
39th, CARL LONG
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, Elliott Sadler* 225 points*
6th, MATT TIFFT 139 points
11th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG 121 points
16th, JJ YELEY 85 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
· Camry driver Erik Jones was victorious in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) at Texas Motor Speedway.
· Jones led the field for a race-high 112 laps (of 200) over three stints out front, and also won the race’s first stage that ended at the 45-lap mark.
· The Toyota driver now has two wins and five top-five finishes in just five starts on the 1.5-mile track.
· Joe Gibbs Racing’s Matt Tifft finished ninth in his Camry, marking his best result of 2017.
· Camry driver Daniel Suárez (12th) led the field twice for three laps.
TOYOTA QUOTES
ERIK JONES, No. 20 Game Stop/GAEMS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How were you able to have such a dominant race car today?
“I think we just had to look at what the track was doing over the race and kind of how the track changed what our car did. We really didn’t make many adjustments. (Chris) Gabehart (crew chief) did a great job last night trying to get the car freed up for today. The track was definitely a lot tighter. Just cool to get the Game Stop Camry to victory lane. Just an awesome day and couldn’t do it without Game Stop, Reser’s, Hisense, Interstate Batteries, Toyota, JGR Engines and NASCAR and the fans. Just an awesome day to get back to victory lane.”
Why are you so strong at this speedway even with the repave?
“The first time I came here, it’s funny, it really wasn’t that good to me, but after that it just kind of clicked and I felt really good here ever since. The repave was really treacherous to start the weekend and this is a nice way to bounce back for myself after going to a backup the other day in the Cup car. Hopefully this is a good start for tomorrow. We have a long ways to go, but great win today and nice to get this Camry to victory lane.”
How careful were you in the first two segments?
“I tiptoed a lot there in the segments and ended up letting the 22 (Ryan Blaney) catch us and pass us, but then I was just super aggressive the whole time in traffic just trying to make passes as quick as I could and get as many cars as I could between myself and Ryan and it paid off. I think we were probably a little slower than him for the last few laps – he had so many lapped cars to get around that there was no way he was going to get to us.”
What does this win say about the strength of Joe Gibbs Racing?
“It says a lot, we started off the year and I don’t think our stuff was where we needed it to be and they came a long ways from last week at Fontana or two weeks ago – we were way off of the 22 (Ryan Blaney) and we came here this week and we were right there with him and had a dominant car I think. Pretty proud of these guys to be able to take that and make it that much better in a short period of time.”
Did you ever expect to be so strong at this track?
“It’s been a good track for me and the first time I came here was my graduation and that wasn’t really a great day. I didn’t think this would be a track that I would enjoy and then ever since then it’s just clicked. I always felt really comfortable on the old track and really felt like I knew what I needed the car to do and was able to communicate that well and honestly even with the new surface here, felt like I was able to get back what the car needed. Definitely more challenging on the new surface than the old surface, but a good day of learning and a good day from JGR of getting our cars a lot better. We came a long way from a couple weeks ago at Fontana where I felt like we didn’t have anything for the 22 (Ryan Blaney) car and then now we’ve come here and really feel that we had the dominant car all day that was better than the 22.”
Which surface do you prefer?
“How can I say I don’t like this one, we’ve won a race on it now. I like both of them so far. This is definitely more challenging, especially since the weekend started getting it worked in and I got too aggressive on Friday and took out our primary car so it’s a nice bounce back of getting a win today. We have a long ways to go tomorrow, but it’s hard to say I don’t like this track so far, it’s been alright for me.”
How important will the top lane be tomorrow in the Cup race?
“It’s going to be a big deal, you kind of saw as the day went on, I know we didn’t have a ton of restarts there and we ran the race out under green, but that last restart there we were fourth and I believe we cycled out fifth so the top was kind of coming around. You’re not going to get up there and pass people, but you could maintain. I started passing some lapped cars up there as the race went on. It came around and it’s only going to get better tonight. Hopefully they drag the top lane, but got a lot better today and with Cup cars running on it tomorrow its only going to continue to get better and better, but it will be important.”
CHRIS GABEHART, crew chief, No. 20 Game Stop Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How important was that final green flag pit stop?
“So often the last green flag pit stop can determine the running order and a lot of times the finish – Erik’s (Jones) worked really hard over the last year or two getting on pit road hard and off pit road hard and in the box hard. All the things that are kind of behind the scenes of driving a race car fast so it was pretty neat to watch him overtake (Ryan) Blaney during that pit sequence and then from there it’s just a matter of riding it out and not making mistakes and he did a great job of that.”
JOE GIBBS, owner, Joe Gibbs Racing
What does this victory say about the team?
“It was pretty stout. First of all, I just want to say thanks to Game Stop – they’re such a great partner and this couldn’t have happened at a better time. For us, it’s just a huge deal and they’ve been such a great partner. Our XFINITY program is so important to us at Joe Gibbs Racing and obviously Erik came up through there and our young guys get a chance to come race here and Chris (Gabehart, crew chief) has done a great job today and our crew chiefs have all stepped up from XFINITY so that program to us and to a lot of our sponsors is key. I can’t say enough about Erik this year whether it’s the Cup car or over here in XFINITY, he’s killing it right now and just thrilled to be a part of it and it means a lot to us I just called J.D. (Gibbs) and thanked him and everybody back there – J.D. started the program out – and we’ve got a lot of people at home that are really proud today.”
MATT TIFFT, No. 19 SiriusXM Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
How does it feel to get your first top-10 result this year?
“It feels good. I didn’t think it would be this late in the season. I think we’ve had really good runs similar to these today. I think you could flip flop the top – fifth place to 12th –and you could put anybody anywhere just depending all on track positions, so it’s crazy though because like catching traffic you would catch somebody and it was like an accordion effect, you know? Kind of getting sucked up by the air and get pushed back and the car behind you could get around and you had to follow them around, so it was just a weird accordion deal, but we made really good adjustments on the SiriusXM Camry. The last two runs we were pretty stout and we were just tight that last run. I just couldn’t keep the momentum rolling to get a few more spots there, but it feels good. It’s something to build off of. We definitely needed it to build some momentum heading into Bristol.”
How did the repaved track feel?
“I raced here two times last year in the XFINITY Series and once in the truck and the old place was move around as much as you want and wide open go anywhere, but the interesting part about the old track was you got very bottom or very top – there was no in between – so today it was very bottom or nothing. You know, it’s hard with a repave when you get stuck on the outside. That’s probably the biggest difference is a restart you could roll a lot better in the past year on the top. This time, I had one good restart where I could maintain my spot, but pretty much everybody else just all fell back every time, so if you’re stuck in that train on the outside, you’re going back like Martinsville pretty much.”
