HAMLIN CLINCHES HIS SPOT IN THE NEXT ROUND WITH CLUTCH LAS VEGAS WIN
Toyota Camrys Claim Three of the Top-Four Spots in Vegas
LAS VEGAS (September 26, 2021) – Denny Hamlin won the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday evening. With the win, Hamlin has clinched his spot in the Round of 8. Hamlin was joined inside the top-five by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch (third) and Martin Truex Jr. (fourth).
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Race 30 of 36 – 267 laps, 400.5 miles
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, DENNY HAMLIN
2nd, Chase Elliott*
3rd, KYLE BUSCH
4th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
5th, Ryan Blaney*
16th, BUBBA WALLACE
24th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
38th, JJ YELEY
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How excited are you to score this win and move on to the round of 8?
“So happy for our FedEx Office Toyota team. Joe Gibbs Racing just gives us great race cars. That’s what I’m so proud of is to drive for those guys. Can’t thank them enough for everything they do. It feels so good to win in Vegas. Last couple times I’ve been so close, just didn’t have the right breaks. They dialed the car in great. Great to hold those guys off.”
Do you feel a sense of relief to move on into the next round?
“It does. Especially with this crazy round coming up. We’ve just done a great job on this race track and getting it a lot better for me over the course of my career. 14 years of not really being that good. Chris (Gabehart, crew chief) and the whole FedEx team have been great – great ride with them. We’ve added another trophy to the trophy case and now we get to go and worry about the next round.”
How much were you working on this car?
“The last few laps it faded a little bit – getting a little tight, but overall I thought in the long run it was pretty good. It’s something that we really studied and worked on it, and glad all that hard work is paying off.”
How good do you feel going into Talladega?
“I feel so good. I can’t tell you how good these next two weeks are going to be.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Ethel M Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
Was tonight a night where you did what you needed to do or a frustrating night?
“Certainly you want to win, but we maximized today the best we had. The 11 (Denny Hamlin) was better than us. I thought early when the sun was out we were better than him, but once the lights turned on we kind of lost a little bit and we got ran into the wall twice off of turn two, that doesn’t help things. Guys did a great job. Thanks to Ben (Beshore, crew chief) and all the guys on our M&M’s Toyota Camry, we were fast, we were front runners all night long. Just wasn’t able to get everything we needed today to for a win. Thanks to Rowdy Energy, TRD, Interstate Batteries, Ethel M here from Las Vegas. See what happens next week.”
What will be your mood leaving Las Vegas tonight?
“We got all we could. I felt like during the daytime, we were a little bit better than the 11 (Denny Hamlin). We could race with him. I felt like I was looking forward to the lights coming on and us picking up speed and being able to rip the wall a little bit faster. When we got hit into the fence there off of (turn) two the first time, it definitely knocked speed out of our car. We helped it a little bit coming to pit road putting the last set of tires on it and then I got into the fence again trying to get by a lapped car. Not enough room over there I guess. Overall, great job by Ben (Beshore, crew chief) and my guys on this M&M’s Camry. They gave me a good piece. We moved forward all day long so that was good and just appreciate TRD and Interstate Batteries, Rowdy Energy and Ethel M for being here from Las Vegas and all of those guys were here today. Good showing.”
What does it do for you mentally to be above the cut line going to Talladega next week?
“I don’t know. I’ve said it and I’ll say it all the time, if you can go to Talladega and you can come out of there with a 12th place finish with no stage points, that’s a successful day. I’ll take that right now if I could skip it.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Did you have anything for the top-three in the closing laps?
“No, that was all we could do. Just missed it. Our Bass Pro Camry was off just a little bit all day. We could never get turn four to do what I needed it to do and then the long runs I’d get really, really tight and it would quit turning. I feel like we kind of overachieved. I don’t know that we were the fourth-best car and we got fourth, so overall, happy with the execution. We did everything right. We just didn’t quite have the speed we needed.”
Where were you off compared to your teammates?
“We just could never get the balance quite right. We were really struggling off of turn four, no matter what we did. Not sure exactly why. It’s not something that we’ve had here in the past. Defintiely something going on there that we couldn’t fix. We tried a lot. We made a lot of adjustments. James (Small, crew chief) and the guys did a really good job executing and we got all we could out of it. The Bass Pro Toyota was a little bit off tonight. I wish we could have been a little bit better, but all-in-all to grind out a fourth with that car is a good effort.”
Did the adjustments James made to the car work?
“Yes and no. We made slight progresss on it. Our biggest problem was turn four. No matter what we did we were fighting the same thing. Just struggled there a bit. We are trying to figure out and see how we could be better. All-in-all, a good night. Nothing bad happened to us. Everybody did a good job. We will cross our fingers, cross our toes, do some praying this week and go to Talladega and see what happens.”
Do you have enough of a points cushion to sleep easy this week?
“Yeah, it is what it is. We are going to go there and race and whatever happens, happens. I’m going to sleep just fine. I’m going to go do some fishing this week – it should be fun, and we will be ready to go come Sunday.”
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