· Kyle Busch (second) and Matt Kenseth (third) were the first two Toyota drivers to the finish line in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
· Busch and Kenseth finished behind race-winner Ty Dillon.
· Busch led the race once for a total of 10 laps (of 100) and Kenseth led eight laps during the race.
· Camry driver Elliott Sadler (15th) also recorded a top-15 finish at the 2.5-mile oval.
· Busch started from the pole. It was the 86th pole position for Camry drivers in NNS competition since 2007.
· Sadler is currently third in the unofficial NNS point standings, just 11 points behind leader Chase Elliott. Camry driver James Buescher (ninth) is also in the top-10 in the point standings.
KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
How was your race?
“Just not enough. It’s unfortunate that we weren’t as good as we were last year. I thought we were — but we weren’t. Maybe it was the cloud cover today — or whatever. I don’t know. Felt that we’d be better than that and we just weren’t. And there at the end I had a restart and couldn’t get through turn one. Just slipped — I don’t know what happened. He (Ty Dillon) just drove right by me. That was it. That was the race.”
What happened on the last restart?
“I slipped and he (Ty Dillon) got right by me. Just drove right underneath me. That was the race right there. I could maintain with him. If I could have been out front — I probably could have held him off.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Resers Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
How was your race?
“The strategy was good. The caution fell at the right time and we could make it on fuel. We were a little off from the best couple cars, but we got our track position there and got a decent finish.”
How was your Camry handling during the long green runs in the race?
“Mostly it would be too loose until about 12 laps until we were out of fuel and then it go massive slide. Just couldn’t keep the front tires turning the entire fuel run and that was end of the run. We had a decent car, our Resers Camry was okay, but it wasn’t as good as the top three to six cars, something like that. Kevin (Kidd, No. 20 crew chief) and Adam (Stevens, No. 54 crew chief) had a plan today and then we got the caution at the right time on top of that and we were able to get all our track position back there and hold on to a decent finish.”
ELLIOTT SADLER, No. 11 OneMain Financial Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 15th
JAMES BUESCHER, No. 99 Rheem Toyota Camry, RAB Racing
Finishing Position: 21st
MIKE BLISS, No. 19 Tweaker Energy Shot/Circle K Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 22nd
DAVID STARR, No. 44 Hard Hat Heroes/BYF.org Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 25th
JOHN WES TOWNLEY, No. 25 Zaxby’s/The Identical Movie Toyota Camry, Athenian Motorsports
Finishing Position: 28th
ERIC MCCLURE, No. 14 Hefty Ultimate/Reynolds Wrap Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 36th
BLAKE KOCH, No. 10 M&W Logistics Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 40th