Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS)
Richmond Raceway
Race 25 of 33 – 187.5 miles, 250 laps
September 8, 2017
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Brad Keselowski*
2nd, KYLE BUSCH
3rd, Ty Dillon*
4th, Daniel Hemric*
5th, Elliott Sadler*
6th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
13th, MATT TIFFT
18th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG
20th, JJ YELEY
24th, DYLAN LUPTON
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, Elliott Sadler* 894 points*
7th, MATT TIFFT 582 points
12th, DAKODA ARMSTRONG 486 points
13th, JJ YELEY 446 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
· Camry driver Kyle Busch finished second with the top-Toyota entry in Friday night’s NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) contest at Richmond Raceway.
· Busch led the field five times for a race-high 182 laps (of 250) from the pole.
· Camry driver Christopher Bell made his fourth NXS start and finished sixth, marking his second-career top-10 result in the XFINTIY Series with Joe Gibbs Racing.
TOYOTA QUOTES
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
What did you lack to keep you from winning at the end?
“Just center turn, right rear grip – all of it, you know? He just had a better long run car every time. Every run we had, he was able to get by us there after about 50 – 45, 50 laps or whatever it was – so I was just trying to get out there a little bit and we were working each other pretty hard there early in the run. I thought I beat his tires up and he was just able to come back through, so oh well, you know? NOS Energy Drink Camry was good – just not good enough and need a little bit more.”
Did you find anything running the high line?
“No, that was just desperation. Nothing there. It’s too slow – too far around. So right front was way too beat up. Maybe if I would have done that a lot sooner in the run, I might not have wore our right front out because I could have been easier on the steering wheel, but all in all just it is what it is.”
Anything in the long run you could have done to hold off Brad Keselowski?
“No, it was inevitable. I even felt like if I would have just gave way to him and let him had the lead and tried to save my stuff for longer in the run that it would have just let him save his stuff even more and he would have just drove away farther, you know? So did everything I thought we needed to do. I thought I burned his tires up a little bit there when we were racing earlier in the run and he fell back a little bit, but obviously he was just saving and we were just kind of – I was running 95, 90 percent, whatever it was and, you know, just trying to bide my time and pick off lap cars as good as I could. I got screwed up by the 40 (Bobby Earnhardt) about 60 times out there tonight – that was pathetic – but all in all good run for us I guess. Come home second – it sucks to be second, but it’s what we had.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued)
What happened in the last few laps?
“Just didn’t have long run speed. All night long we kind of saw the 22 (Brad Keselowski) and over and over again he would pass us on the long-haul, so we just didn’t quite have it the way we needed it. I thought we had a really good car in practice – thought we were better than that but obviously not. Just tough to finish second, especially in the last go-round for this year, but guess there’s more races to come.”
Did the lapped traffic give Keselowski more of an advantage in overtaking you at the end?
“I mean when we had clean track when we were – I don’t know, 15 laps before that, catching traffic, we had clean track – he was still gaining on me a little bit, so our stuff was wore out by then actually. I was a little surprised it took him that long to get to me. I thought he was going to pass us a lot sooner, but he must have just been waiting and biding his time a little bit more and waiting for that traffic to get there. He just had more tire and had everything where he needed it to get us at the end.”
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 TOYOTA.com Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
How would you asses your first start at Richmond?
“I don’t know man, it was kind of an up and down day. Overall I’m just kind of disappointed right now. I felt like we had a better car than that, but to turn out sixth was really – honestly it was a pretty good day for me. To be able to run top 10 and close to the top five – brought the car home in one piece and finished all the laps, that was the main goal for today. I felt like our Toyota Camry was really good on the long runs and we got it good on the short runs there, just frustrated that I did a bad job on the restart and got us put back. My crew chief, Chris Gabehart, did an excellent job making the call to put tires on and get us in track position. Unfortunately I just didn’t do a good job on the restart and fell all the way back and lost all of our track position.”
Does tonight’s finish give you some momentum for the XFINTIY Series?
“Yeah it does, but I just want to win man. After going to the Charlotte and running fourth in my first race and then I went to Iowa and led a bunch of it and I just had a really strong Toyota Camry today and I felt like we were in position to have a really good finish if I didn’t screw up the restart.”
