Toyota NNS Texas Post-Race Notes & Quotes

TOYOTA NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS)

Post-Race Notes & Quotes

Texas Motor Speedway – April 13, 2012

Denny Hamlin (fourth) was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in Friday night’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Camry drivers Joey Logano (15th), Mike Bliss (16th), Joe Nemechek (17th) and Jason Bowles (18th) also earned top-20 finishes.

Kurt Busch finished 30th in his first start in the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 54 Monster Energy Camry.  He was forced from the race early with engine issues.

Other Toyota drivers in the field included Tayler Malsam (25th), Ryan Truex (32nd), Brian Scott (37th), Eric McClure (40th) and Jeff Green (43rd).  Truex was making his first Nationwide Series start at Texas Motor Speedway.

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 18 SportClips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position:  4th Was the final restart your best chance at taking the lead? “It was really the only shot we had.  We were okay for a few laps. Our car just went real bad loose.  If I was going to do anything, I had to have a shootout.  Really, the 33 (Paul Menard) and the 6 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) had the best cars all day. We just faded at the end.  Just didn’t have quite the car that we needed to contend today.”

Did you pick up anything tonight that may help you in tomorrow’s race? “There are some adjustments to our car that we need to work on.  The track is a lot different than what it was during practice (today).  That is stuff we have to work on.  I’ll talk to Darian (Grubb, crew chief) about it for tomorrow.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 GameStop Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position:  15th

MIKE BLISS, No. 44 Bandit Chippers Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position:  16th

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 AM/FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position:  17th

JASON BOWLES, No. 81 American Majority Toyota Camry, MacDonald Motorsports Finishing Position:  18th

ERIC MCCLURE, No. 14 Hefty/Reynolds Wrap Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position:  24th

TAYLER MALSAM, No. 19 G-Oil Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position:  25th

KURT BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Kyle Busch Motorsports Finishing Position:  30th

RYAN TRUEX, No. 09 Grime Boss Toyota Camry, RAB Racing with Brack Maggard Finishing Position:  32nd How was working together with RAB Racing for the first time? “We learned a lot about each other — me and Scott (Zipadelli, crew chief) and the whole team.  We struggled the first practice, but we were able to rebound and get pretty good the second practice.  We ran top-10 today before our motor started laying down.  We could easily run top-10.  I think we had a car capable of finishing sixth or seventh.  I was driving to the limit there.  We were pretty free.  It seemed like with this tire — free was the way to go.  I was running 11th or 12th and the motor just gave up.”

Is any race experience valuable? “Seat time is seat time.  And, I’ve never been here (Texas Motor Speedway).  I learned a lot about here.  I learned how aero- sensitive it is and that’s something I can bring back next year when I hopefully go full-time.  Any new crew chief it takes you time to figure each other out.  We worked good together.  He’s been great.  He gave me a great car.  We just didn’t have any luck on our side.”

BRIAN SCOTT, No. 11 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position:  37th What forced you out of the race early? “Unfortunately we blew a motor.  It has been a frustrating 2012.  Not the way we wanted to get started.  Not sure what happened, but everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing — they build good stuff and their motor program is excellent.  I’m sure it’s a part or something like that.  We’ll just have to take it back and figure it out and move on.  That’s all we can really do.”

JEFF GREEN, No. 10 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports Finishing Position:  43rd