Toyota Racing Post-Qualifying Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Michigan International Speedway
Friday, June 16, 2017
TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, Kyle Larson*
2nd, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
4th, KYLE BUSCH
5th, DENNY HAMLIN
9th, MATT KENSETH
14th, ERIK JONES
20th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
32nd, RYAN SIEG
33rd, COREY LAJOIE
*Non-Toyota Driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
MARTIN TRUEX JR, No. 78 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Starting Position: 2nd
How was your final qualifying round?
“Little bit disappointed there, but Kyle (Larson) went out late and got us, so it was a good day. Excited to have Auto-Owners back on the car this weekend. They’ve been a really good luck charm for us – we’ve won two out of four races running this blue car, so we’re excited about that. We’ll see what we can do. Staying in qualifying trim all day just seems to suit us – we stay focused on one thing and we can get it right and tomorrow we’ll switch over and do race stuff, so looking forward to it. Love racing here at Michigan and hopefully have a good weekend.”
What will you focus on tomorrow?
“Yeah, you know, I think here like anywhere else this year it seems like you need to just find a way to balance it – short run speed with the long run speed. You kind of have to have long run speed to put yourself in position to win and then seems to always come down to short runs and cautions towards the end of the race and you need to be able to go on short runs, so just try to balance those two things out and get as much speed out of the car as we can and these guys do a great job of that, so looking forward to it and seeing what we can do.”
Would it be special to you to win on Father’s Day weekend?
“Well, I won on Mother’s Day weekend and that was really, really awesome – my mom was pretty stoked about it. She was very excited, so I’d love to win on Father’s Day weekend as well. That’d be great. My dad (Martin Truex Sr.) won’t be here, but I’m sure he’ll be watching and have his friends over to the house. My dad has been a huge part of my career obviously as you know and, yeah, it’d be great to win anytime, but Father’s Day would be extra special for sure.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Red, White & Blue Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 4th
How was your qualifying effort?
“Not too bad. We normally don’t qualifying very well here, so this is a decent starting spot for us for Sunday and Michigan is not one of our best tracks or favorite tracks, but we try to get it better here each and every time and right now I feel pretty good about it. The M&M’s Camry showed some good speed – right off the truck it did as well in race trim – so looking forward to that tomorrow and getting back after it for Sunday, but qualifying today just missed the balance a little bit there in that final round. It was just a little too free, a little too tight – just different areas of the race track – so we’ve got to fine tune that balance and make that balance better all the way around.”
Is starting fourth a good thing here at Michigan?
“Yeah, it definitely is to have track position, but you’ve got to keep track position as well too and do the right things during the day to hold onto it. Being able to be up front and not in the hornet’s nest if you will – probably 16th to 18th on back – that definitely makes things a little better.”
ERIK JONES
Starting Position:
What was the difference that kept you from making the final qualifying round?
“I don’t know. I have to really see the data – I don’t know where the speed was. I thought it was a pretty good lap. I don’t really know how to run a 70 like those guys are. I just not sure where the speed is, so have to go back, check it out and be better in race trim tomorrow. Just never could quite find that speed. Wish we could have had one more mock run in practice to really get tuned in. We needed one more, so we’ll work on it more tomorrow.”
