TOYOTA NASCAR NOTES & QUOTES
October 14 – 20, 2013
TOYOTA TIDBITS
CAMRY CHASERS: Halfway through the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup championship playoff, Toyota driver Matt Kenseth continues to lead the 13-driver field by four points ahead of second-place Jimmie Johnson. Kyle Busch ranks fifth in the standings — 37 points behind Kenseth. Clint Bowyer is eighth — 63 points from the leader. Kenseth leads all drivers with seven wins in 2013.
KYLE CLAIMS CHARLOTTE CHECKERS: Camry driver Busch captured the checkered flag in Friday night’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Charlotte Motor Speedway — his 11th NNS win this season and his eighth victory of the year from the pole. Busch passed race-leader Sam Hornish Jr., with eight laps remaining in the 200-circuit event and led 36 laps over three race segments. Busch’s win also marked the 13th NNS victory for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in 2013, including Busch’s 11 wins and two victories by Kenseth.
KENSETH COMES BACK TO DEGA: Chase leader Kenseth captured a victory at Talladega Superspeedway during the 2012 Chase, leading 33 laps (of 189) throughout the race en route to the checkered flag. In his first race at the track with JGR in a Camry earlier this year, Kenseth secured an eighth-place result. Kenseth has made 27 NSCS starts at Talladega and has led 436 laps, the third most among active drivers. Kenseth has nine top-10 results in Alabama.
WALTRIP RETURNS: Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) team owner and two-time Daytona 500 champion (2001, 2003) Michael Waltrip will take the wheel of the No. 55 Camry at Talladega Superspeedway. Waltrip, who is only running the four superspeedway races on the NSCS schedule this season, finished fourth at the track in May. In 54 career Talladega starts, Waltrip has earned one win (fall 2003), eight top-five finishes and 16 top-10 results. While it was announced this week that Brian Vickers, the primary driver of the No. 55 Camry, will miss the remainder of the 2013 season due to a blood clot, Waltrip was previously scheduled to compete at Talladega.
CRAFTON CRUISING: Tundra driver Matt Crafton continues to lead the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) standings by 41 points as the series moves to Talladega. Crafton enters the unpredictable track having finished in the top-10 in every race except one — an 11th-place result at Las Vegas Motor Speedway — including one win (Kansas) and six top-five finishes. In seven Talladega starts, Crafton has two top-10 results, including a fourth-place finish in 2010.
KYLE CAN AT DEGA: Making his ninth NCWTS start of 2013, Busch will compete at Talladega Superspeedway in the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 51 Tundra at a track where he has two wins (2009 and 2010) in five NCWTS starts. In addition to his two Talladega NCWTS victories, Busch has finished in the top-10 in four of his five starts at the track — and has the second best average result at the track (5.6) among active drivers. In 2013, Busch has captured four victories in eight starts in the No. 51 Tundra, and has finished in the top-five seven times this year.
TWEET RACE: During the final five NSCS races, @ToyotaRacing will host a Tweet Race where fans can register online (www.ToyotaRacing.com/TweetRace) and participate in a weekly virtual contest for a chance to win prizes. Fans will then use Twitter to post messages containing a hash tag with their favorite Toyota Racing driver’s name (i.e., #MattKenseth) and #TRTR to advance the driver around a virtual track. Propelled by the number of tweets received, the Toyota driver with the most tweets will be declared that week’s Tweet Race winner. Fans can tweet as many times as they’d like, but will only receive one entry into the sweepstakes drawing per week. Each week, three participants will be awarded a gift certificate for Toyota Racing gear and one grand prize winner will be chosen at the end of the Chase to receive two tickets to the 2014 Daytona 500.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Toyota’s third round of ‘100 Cars for Good’ recently kicked off voting with 250 nonprofit organizations eligible to win a new Toyota vehicle. Each day from Oct. 1 to Nov. 19, two of five finalists with the highest number of public votes will be able to choose between one of five Toyota vehicles. The remaining organizations will each receive a $1,000 grant from Toyota to support their work. Over the last two years, Toyota has awarded 200 vehicles to nonprofit organizations across the country. By casting votes at www.100carsforgood.com, people have the power to make a difference in the work of deserving nonprofits.
NOTES, QUOTES & NUMBERS
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS): Kyle Busch (April 2008) and former Toyota driver Tony Stewart (Oct. 2008) have guided Camrys to victory lane at Talladega Superspeedway … Camry driver Clint Bowyer has two career victories in Alabama (Oct. 2010, Oct. 2011) … Swan Racing and former driver David Stremme recorded their season-best finish of 12th at Talladega in May … JGR has totaled 11 wins in 2013, tied for the most in the team’s history … TRD, U.S.A. (Toyota Racing Development) leads all engine builders with 13 wins in 2013 … Kyle Busch leads all drivers with 15 top-five results.
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Home Depot “Let’s Do This” Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Are drivers nervous entering the Talladega Chase race?
“I think it all depends how you want to look at it. You can sit and be nervous and think about crashing and think about losing points or you can look at it as an opportunity and look forward to going there. Anything can happen, but go there and try to work hard and try to keep your car positioned up front somewhere and lead some laps and go try to win the thing. That’s kind of the attitude I go with. You never know what’s going to happen. You might be disappointed when the day is over, but to be nervous about it and disappointed about it and all that before you even go is probably a waste of time. So, I’ m just going to look at it as an opportunity to go there and hopefully we can be up front like we were in April and hopefully we can figure out how to do the right things at the end.”
How will you approach the Talladega race?
“The first Daytona and the first Talladega was really, really good for us. If we had the speed we had the first time at Talladega, I look forward to that because we led pretty much all day and I ended up figuring out how to mess it up on that last green-white-checkered there. Most people, if they have a legitimate shot and they are still in the mix , go there really tentative and make plans and try to hang in the back and try to do all this stuff and try to minimize the damage. I think that’s good because I really try to approach it the opposite — I try to approach it as an opportunity. If the guys we’re racing and are trying to beat are being real careful and want to ride in the back and all that, then I look at that as an opportunity to try to hopefully lead some laps, get some bonus points and be in the mix and if you do come out unscathed, maybe have a shot to win. That’s kind of how we’ll go there and approach it like another race.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Halloween Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Are you tense throughout the race at Talladega?
“If you’re in a pack certainly. I think if you’re riding out back and taking it easy then it’s a whole different feeling. Essentially you’re tensed up throughout much of the race just not knowing what can happen and anything can happen at any given point.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Does Talladega present an opportunity to make up ground on the leaders?
“Well, if they get much further out on us it won’t matter. You won’t catch them far enough at Talladega, but that’s certainly a track where you either get through it or you don’t, and if you don’t , it can cost you a championship. I like Talladega, but still it doesn’t mean you’re not going to get caught up in somebody else’s wreck or something like that. I’ve got to like it because it’s definitely a track where we can catch back up and get ourselves back in the race.”
NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS): After 30 races this season, Elliott Sadler (fifth), Brian Vickers (eighth) and Parker Kligerman (10th) rank in the top-10 in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) point standings … The NNS next races at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, Nov. 2.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS): After 17 races this year, Timothy Peters (sixth), Johnny Sauter (eighth) and Darrell Wallace Jr. (ninth) join points leader Matt Crafton in the top-10 in the standings … NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) driver Parker Kligerman won the 2012 NCWTS race at Talladega and Kligerman will compete at Talladega in the BRG Motorsports No. 20 Tundra for his first NCWTS start this year … Tundra drivers have claimed five victories at Talladega, including four consecutive wins between 2007 and 2010 … Former Tundra driver Todd Bodine won at the track in 2007 and 2008, while Kyle Busch was victorious in 2009 and 2010 … Part-time Tundra driver Erik Jones won the famed Winchester 400 ARCA/CRA race at Indiana’s Winchester Speedway … The 17-year-old driver is one of six drivers who have won both the Winchester 400 and Snowball Derby, joining team owner Kyle Busch as one of the few to achieve the feat.
PARKER KLIGERMAN, No. 20 Toyota Tundra, BRG Motorsports
How do you approach Talladega?
“You can get caught up in that whole deal of making a really fast truck and wreck in the first lap and it’s over. Anyone can win this race. If you start, you could win. There’s nothing to think about and there’s nothing to focus on other than just going out there and being smart about how you race and hopefully have the breaks come your way.”
What do you do to prepare for Talladega?
“I watch tape. I watch the Cup and Nationwide races from past years and a little bit of the Truck. There’s always something to be learned from tape and always something to be learned from history. History repeats itself. There’s definitely moves that you can learn for the last 10 laps, but I think all of this part of the weekend and for the first 80 laps just be safe.”
