MENCS Post-Qualifying Report – Texas Motor Speedway
Jones starts on the front row for the first time this season
FORT WORTH, Texas (November 1, 2019) – Erik Jones starts a season-best second for tomorrow’s Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Jones leads three Toyotas qualified inside the top 10.
Toyota Racing Post-Qualifying Report
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Texas Motor Speedway – November 1, 2019
TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, Kevin Harvick*
2nd, ERIK JONES
3rd, DENNY HAMLIN
4th, Kurt Busch*
5th, Alex Bowman *
10th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
12th, KYLE BUSCH
17th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
30th, PARKER KLIGERMAN
40th, TIMMY HILL
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
ERIK JONES, No. 20 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 2nd
Solid qualifying effort for your team.
“I was definitely surprised. I didn’t think that we’d be that fast. Also didn’t think we would be the best of our JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) cars. It was really good. I’m really proud of the effort obviously. Going into qualifying day, sometimes anymore this package doesn’t rely on the driver, it relies on having a good race car. We definitely have that. The Sport Clips Camry has been fast. Yesterday, it felt really good in practice. I’m definitely happy with the qualifying effort and starting up front.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 3rd
Talk about your qualifying lap and how you apply it to the race.
“Yeah, a good qualifying effort for us. Definitely is going to be better than we’ve been on the mile-and-a-halves. The team brought a fast car and we were really happy with it yesterday. I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow.”
MATT DiBENEDETTO, No. 95 Procore Toyota Camry, Leavine Family Racing
Starting Position: 10th
How was your lap?
“I held it wide open, but it will be our best mile-and-a-half qualifying effort of the year so that’s good. The car has shown more speed. We’ve gotten better on the mile-and-a-halves and have been learning as a team. In Kansas, we had a fast car and just had some unfortunate things happen toward the end. We still got a top-15 or something, but we had a better car than that.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 17th
How do you feel about your qualifying lap?
“It’s just qualifying. I don’t think we expected anything great, and it looks like it isn’t going to be that great, so we are ready to go race tomorrow.”
How about the race?
“A lot of question marks and yeah, we will just see. We’ve never had this in Texas – the PJ1 – and nobody has really run in it yet. It has been too cold. It’s going to take the race I think and restarts to get it going. We will see if it comes in and how it plays out. I’m looking forward to it with this Bass Pro Toyota. We will see if get her dialed in and go get another trophy.”
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