TRUEX BACK IN VICTORY LANE IN THE TOYOTA SAVE MART 350
Martin Truex Jr. earns second win of the season, fourth at Sonoma
SONOMA, Calif. (June 11, 2023) – Martin Truex Jr. earned his second victory of the season in dominating fashion at Sonoma Raceway. It is Martin’s fourth victory in the Toyota Save Mart 350. It is Toyota’s fifth victory of the season. With the victory, Truex has taken over the points lead for the first time this season.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Sonoma Raceway
Race 16 of 36 – 218.9 miles, 110 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
2nd, Kyle Busch*
3rd, Joey Logano*
4th, Chris Buescher*
5th, Chase Elliott*
9th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
17th, BUBBA WALLACE
18th, TY GIBBS
33rd, TYLER REDDICK
36th, DENNY HAMLIN
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
What made you so strong today?
“I felt like our Bass Pro Shops Camry TRD was really close yesterday in practice, if we could make a few adjustments, I thought we would be good. They definitely made the right adjustments. This place is all about rear traction, rear drive and being able to manage that and keep turning and keep momentum. We were able to do that today. The car was really, really good. Just a total team effort. Everybody works really, really hard. We were awful here last year, and at road course in general, so to come back here – this has kind of been a playground for us before, and to be able to get back here with this car and do it again feels really, really special. It’s really gratifying. We’ve worked hard for this one.”
Is working through the traffic when you have that good of a car nerve-wracking?
“Yeah, it is a little nerve-wracking. You get a restart, we restarted 10th in the middle the race after leading – just strategy got kind of jumbled up – with that weird caution the way it fell. You are always nervous that you are going to get banged up or get off course. This track is narrow and it is hard to pass. When you are racing around guys with older tires, it is easy for them to make a mistake and slide into us, but everybody raced clean, raced hard, and we were able to pull it out.”
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem/Resideo Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
Can you compare where you were a year ago to today?
“Yeah, tremendously better. The whole Toyota group was a lot stronger than last year. I’m proud of the effort from those guys and I’m proud of this 20 group. I felt like at times we deserved better than a ninth, and then at times we didn’t deserve ninth. We got some good stage points and a top-10 in our Rheem Camry, and we will move on to Nashville.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 36th
What happened at the start-finish line?
“I was really close behind the 24 (William Bryon) and I couldn’t really see where I was going and then I went to turn left to try to peak under him, and the wall was there.”
Can you take some solace in how well you performed compared to last season?
“Yeah, it was a good day. Certainly, that caution right before the end of the second stage hurt us as far as track position, but overall, I was happy having more speed.”
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