TOYOTA NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes Daytona International Speedway – February 24, 2012
13th, MIKE BLISS 26th, KENNY WALLACE 17th, DENNY HAMLIN 27th, JOE NEMECHEK 19th, BRIAN SCOTT 30th, JOHNNY SAUTER 22nd, JOEY LOGANO 33rd, BENNY GORDON 24th, KYLE BUSCH 41st, JEFF GREEN 25th, TAYLER MALSAM
MIKE BLISS, No. 44 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Starting Position: 13th How was your qualifying lap? “Our Toyota Camry was pretty good out of the trailer. We just nut and bolted and put a body on the thing and put a motor in there from PMP (Pro Motors Plus). That’s all we’ve done to get here, so we’re excited to be here. We had to get in on time and I hadn’t done any drafting, so that’s the next step. As far as being happy, I’m as happy as I get right now.”
Did the wind impact your lap? “The wind is blowing a lot harder than yesterday. Down the backstretch it helps you, but coming off of (turn) four it kind of stalls you out. I didn’t do any drafting yesterday, so I really can’t say a whole lot about what it’s going to be like, but what I’ve seen in the racing from practice it really doesn’t look any different from last year. You’ve got to find a partner and hang on.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 17th How was your car in qualifying? “We’re off — it just seems like we’re really fighting for speed. I’m not sure where the other Toyotas are, but we’re there with them. Just need some more speed, but once we get in the draft it doesn’t seem to really affect us too bad. It should draft better — we did in the Shootout and in the Duel yesterday. It was no issue at all. It seems like we need to get these RPMs higher for our stuff to really kick in.”
BRIAN SCOTT, No. 11 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 19th How was your qualifying lap? “The wind was really blowing, so you could feel the tail wing down the back really pick up your RPMs and when you came across it was like you were trying to drive through pudding or something — something slowing you down. The guys worked really hard all off-season and brought a really great Dollar General Toyota to the race track and qualifying is just a small step to win this race. A much bigger step is how you tandem draft. We feel like we draft really well with our teammate Denny Hamlin. We feel like we’ve got great speed and good handling and we’re just going to go out there and run our own race tomorrow and be smart and be there at the end. I think we’ve got a car that has enough speed to win this thing.”
Will engine temperatures come into play in the race? “Well, you’re going to have to watch temperatures. You’re definitely going to play it conservative leading up to the end of the race and then once the end of the race goes I think everyone is going to say, ‘Forget the temperatures.’ People will be spewing water out. People will push motors to 300 degrees — push them right to the ragged edge. JGR’s (Joe Gibbs Racing) Mark Cronquist and all the guys — they do a great job at out engine shop at Joe Gibbs Racing. We’ve got good horsepower and we’ve got really great engine life and we know that we can push them to edge and they’re going to survive and our Toyota is going to have a good shot at winning this race tomorrow.”
ERIC MCCLURE, No. 14 Hefty/Reynolds Wrap Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Starting Position: 20th
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 GameStop Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 22nd How was your qualifying lap? “It was okay. Really windy, so the back straightaway was going pretty fast, but the front straightaway was like hitting a wall. You just stop and slow down a lot. Nothing too exciting there for me, so it’s kind of a pretty average run. Not very fast though, so that’s kind of a bummer, but besides that we’ll be fine. She raced good yesterday in practice, so I’m not worried about it.”
How will the Nationwide race compare to the Cup race? “You’re going to be able to push a lot longer than the Cup cars, so you’ll see a lot more push. A little bit more of the old school, but we will have to switch more compared to what we used to have. Hopefully, everyone’s smart with the amount they push and how they push and all that, so we’ll see what happens.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Kyle Busch Motorsports Starting Position: 24th What were you struggling with in qualifying? “Speed — unfortunately. The wind was real heavy, but it’s heavy for everybody. We were just awfully slow. It’s unfortunate, but the Monster Energy Camry will be good in the draft so I’m feeling good about the race.”
How has the transition been for the team from the Truck Series to the Nationwide Series? “It’s been a growing experience with Kyle Busch Motorsports. The guys have really taken to the Truck Series stuff — we really run well there and we’ve built that into an organization that wins races every year. We’ll see how it does this year with Jason Leffler behind the wheel. Ultimately, now having the opportunity to run the Nationwide Series with Monster Energy — that’s essentially the reason why we’re in the boat that we’re in. Without them, we wouldn’t be here, but also we feel like we’re strong contenders and have a lot of good people behind us.”
TAYLER MALSAM, No. 19 G-Oil Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Starting Position: 25th
KENNY WALLACE, No. 09 Family Farmers Toyota Camry, RAB Racing Starting Position: 26th
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 D.A.B. Constructors Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Starting Position: 27th
JOHNNY SAUTER, No. 97 Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Starting Position: 30th
BENNY GORDON, No. 24 Kentucky Antler Company & VFI Toyota Camry Starting Position: 33rd
JEFF GREEN, No. 10 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Starting Position: 41st
