Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Texas Motor Speedway
Race 34 of 36 – 334 miles, 501 laps
November 4, 2018
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Kevin Harvick*
2nd, Ryan Blaney*
3rd, Joey Logano*
4th, ERIK JONES
5th, Kyle Larson*
9th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
17th, KYLE BUSCH
28th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
30th, DENNY HAMLIN
31st, PARKER KLIGERMAN
36th, JJ YELEY
39th, DAVID STARR
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
3rd, KYLE BUSCH 4128 points
4th, MARTIN TRUEX JR 4125 points
11th, DENNY HAMLIN 2220 points
13th, ERIK JONES 2204 points
20th, DANIEL SUÁREZ 666 points
**unofficial point standings
· Camry driver Erik Jones was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Texas Motor Speedway after finishing fourth.
· Toyota MENCS Playoffs drivers Martin Truex Jr. (ninth) and Kyle Busch (17th) finished inside the top-20 after overcoming pit road issues throughout the race at Texas.
· Both Toyota drivers remain above the MENCS Playoffs cutoff line heading into next week’s elimination race at ISM Raceway in Phoenix.
TOYOTA QUOTES
ERIK JONES, No. 20 SportClips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
How do you feel about your solid race today?
“It was good. Our SportClips Camry was pretty fast and had okay speed. Just didn’t have the fire-off speed that we needed to contend there the last short runs, but a good day for us. Running top-five, top-10 – we kind of know what we need to work on to get a little bit more to get up there with the 4 (Kevin Harvick), the 12 (Ryan Blaney) and those guys. We’ll go to work. Texas has been a good place so hopefully we can come back in the spring and get a win.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR, No. 78 Bass Pro Shops / 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
How difficult was the race today?
“I’m telling you, God is testing us. There’s no question. Had to start at the back, got to the front, hung around there for a while and then had a loose wheel there again. Just a tough day. Overall, a good day. Luckily we were able to get up front and get some stage points in the first two stages and then we had trouble, but we had it at least in time to recover. Proud of everybody on this Bass Pro/5-hour ENERGY Toyota and feel like we’re in decent shape going to Phoenix. We’ll go there and race hard again and see what we can do.”
How do you feel heading to Phoenix with Kevin Harvick winning tonight?
“(Kevin) Harvick or Kyle (Busch) winning is a perfect scenario – the guys that are ahead of you in points. That was good. I feel okay about where we are. I think we need a little more speed to run with the Fords – they’re clearly really, really fast right now. If this is last year, they would all be complaining that we’re too fast so I don’t know if I should do a (Brad) Keselowski and start whining about it or not. They’re really fast and if we’re off just a little bit we can’t run with them. We were off a little bit today. On the short run, they were really fast, but on the long run I thought we were as good as anybody, but just never got to show it. Track position was so, so hard to get.”
How difficult was it to pass today?
“Just traffic was so bad and so hard to pass. It was bad. We lapped the same lap cars every three laps. You would lap the same guys and they would run – they don’t understand how hard it is to drive 20 mph faster than them on their left side getting in the corner. It gets you loose and it’s a handful. It was hard, this track is tough and it was really, really hard to pass, but we passed a lot of cars so it’s possible.”
ADAM STEVENS, Crew Chief, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Kyle Busch Finishing Position: 17th
What happened in today’s race and how frustrating was it not to get back on the lead lap?
“We had a fast car. You speed on pit road, you go to the back and you have a loose wheel under green then lose a couple laps and we just couldn’t get back on the lead lap. Obviously at the very end we did, but it didn’t matter at that point with only a green-white-checkered to finish. Felt like we had something we could have raced for. We didn’t make many adjustments, but nothing to show for it.”
