Consumers Energy 400 at Michigan International Speedway
No. 95 Toyota Express Maintenance Camry Notes:
· DIBENEDETTO BY THE NUMBERS: In nine Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career starts at Michigan, Matt DiBenedetto has an average start of 31.6, an average finish of 30.0, and he’s completed 1,645 of 1,676 (98.2 percent) career laps
at the 2.0-mile track in Brooklyn, Michigan. DiBenedetto’s best finish at the track is 21st which he achieved in June’s event earlier this season.
· THE TOYOTA EXPRESS MAINTENANCE DIFFERENCE: When your Toyota needs factory-scheduled service, Toyota Express Maintenance (TXM) helps keep our guests moving with quality, speed and value. Toyota Express Maintenance provides precision service that’s precisely timed to fit within the busy schedules of Toyota owners. The pit crew-inspired approach helps get our guests in and out quickly, all at the right price with the quality they expect from a Toyota dealer. Toyota Express Maintenance emphasizes quality workmanship, competitive pricing and fast service. Services performed under Toyota Express Maintenance include oil and filter change, brake inspection, tire rotation, fluid inspection/replenishment and multipoint vehicle inspection. Additional expedited services are available.
· RACE INFO: The Consumers Energy 400 at Michigan International Speedway (2.0-mile) begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 11th. The race will be broadcast live on NBCSN, Sirius XM Channel 90 and MRN Radio.
From the Driver’s Seat:
Matt DiBenedetto: “I think that we’ve had a bit more speed lately at tracks that were our weakness starting off the year, so I this this weekend going back to Michigan will be a good test for us since I feel that Michigan was our weakest track when we raced there a few months ago.
The challenges that we faced there in June were speed in general as well as the aero balance of the car. I held it wide-open, and unfortunately, we just didn’t have the speed to be able to catch up. In traffic at Michigan, it’s really hard to pass and that’s what makes it a tough track for us since I’m not controlling a lot in our Camry like I am at the tracks that we’ve run better at lately.
This weekend we’ll be dependent on the speed of our car and our track position.
I think that for the stability of the car, everything’s about aero, especially with high downforce since it’s super sensitive to that. Trying to get the aero balance of the car to feel right and make it feel stable is something that we’ve been working on learning and will be important this coming weekend.
The speed of our Camry and how much we need to have it as trimmed out as possible in order to go faster will be another focus.
When you trim a car out, the worse they handle technically, so finding that balance of speed versus handling will be important.
You need to have a lot of speed in your car at Michigan to try and get the spoiler out of the air since it’s all about aero.”
From the Pit Box:
Mike Wheeler: “I would say that going back to Michigan this weekend, it is nice to return to a track that you have notes from even if your performance wasn’t that great. You can still learn a lot from that race as well as races after to be better for the next event, which is what is hopefully the case for Michigan this weekend.
Michigan is still a very fast and flat track, and while you can be pretty much wide open by yourself, once you get into traffic it becomes a much bigger challenge.
We haven’t learned enough yet to really correct everything that we want to at this point.
Hopefully with the gains we’ve made with the 550 spec package, we can perform better than we did in June, but keeping track position, qualifying well and executing all day will be the keys to finishing up front.
The 750 spec package is quite a bit different than the 550 spec package, so a lot of our good runs with the 750 package don’t apply to tracks like Michigan.
There’s no doubt that going to Pocono twice, we had learned more and performed better, but we still face some uphill challenges that we don’t have all the answers for yet.”
No. 95 Toyota Express Maintenance Camry Team:
Driver: Matt DiBenedetto
Crew Chief: Mike Wheeler
Car Chief: Greg Emmer
Spotter: Doug Campbell
Engineer: J.R. Houston
Engineer: Etienne Cliche
Mechanic: Bill Mares
Mechanic: Matt Kimball
Shock Specialist: Sean Studer
Mechanic: Zach Marquardt
Tire Specialist: Tony Ramirez
Jackman: Charles Thacker
Fueler: Brian Eastland
Rear Changer: Deven Youker
Front Changer: Adam Hartman
Tire Carrier: Chris Hall
Hauler Driver: Damon Lopez
About Toyota:
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