TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Watkins Glen International – August 10, 2014
Matt Kenseth was the top-finishing Toyota driver with a ninth-place result in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Watkins Glen International. AJ Allmendinger won the race after three red flag delays due to on-track incidents.
Kenseth has registered 14 top-10 results this season, and this marked his second top-10 at Watkins Glen in his past three starts.
Camry driver Brian Vickers earned a 10th-place finish in the 90-lap event at the upstate New York road course.
Camry driver Matt Kenseth is currently third in the unofficial NSCS point standings, 70 points behind leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. Camry drivers Clint Bowyer (11th), Kyle Busch (15th), Vickers (18th) and Denny Hamlin (20th) are also in the top-20 in the point standings following Watkins Glen.
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
How was your race?
“Things were fairly calm until we got all of those cautions at the end of the restarts and you just find yourself three-wide a lot on a track that’s made to go single wide. It was an okay finish. I think we ran a little better than that most of the day. Things didn’t pan out quite as we were hoping. We really wanted it to go green to the end there. I think we were in a little better shape on fuel on some of them and maybe could’ve snuck out a top five. But, overall not a terrible day.”
Did you learn anything from running yesterday’s Nationwide race for today’s race?
“I don’t know. There’s a few little things maybe here or there that you pick up. You’re on the same track, the same tire and you only come here once a year so it probably doesn’t hurt, but the cars are just drastically different. The horsepower difference and the downforce difference and all of that stuff is just a lot. So, the cars really drive a lot different and you really have to change your points a lot and your style even somewhat. It is a fair amount different.”
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position: 10th
How was your day?
“It was a really wild day. Billy (Scott, crew chief) and all of these guys did an awesome job. Pit stops were great, calls were good and we had a good car. We know where we got beat and we’ll work on that and we’ll come back. We came in and we pitted there at the end and I think it was the right call. Billy made a good decision with the information that he had and low and behold we had I think 20 laps of caution and red flags. How are you supposed to know that? Should’ve had a top-five and we got a top-10, but that’s okay.”
How difficult is it to have such a long break in the middle of the race?
“It’s tough. You hate to have those breaks, but at the same time it is nice to rest a little bit. It’s hard to get back into the rhythm but just glad everyone is okay. It’s part of racing and it looked like a bad incident but glad to hear everyone is doing okay and it gives the fans a chance to enjoy themselves a little bit longer.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 24th
Why do you think there are such hard hits at Watkins Glen?
“It’s a tough one. This race track is so narrow there’s just no room for error when someone gets out of control or hits a barrier. It’s going to knock you right back into the groove. I was lucky enough to where I was in a different zip code when I hit something hard (at Watkins Glen in 2011). I had a lot of time to think about that one. That was the scariest part for me watching it was that I knew it was coming and just couldn’t do anything about it.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 RK Motors Charlotte Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position: 27th
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 66 Land Castle Title Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position: 30th
ALEX BOWMAN, No. 23 Dustless Blasting Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 36th
Are you okay after that accident?
“Yeah. Just got caught up in the aftermath of that a little bit. I saw some foam flying and I figured it might have been some debris and by the time I checked up all the cars around me checked up we were all sliding around and trying to get stopped and I just hit somebody enough to knock the oil cooler out of it. And, last time I drove it around with the oil cooler knocked out Wayne Auton (NASCAR Nationwide Series director) was pretty mad at me so I tried not to do that again. It’s unfortunate — a lot of good cars got torn up. It’s just a bad spot on the race track. The spotters can’t see it and it’s just real blind. My BK racing guys were working hard. We had Dustless Blasting on the car this week — a new sponsor for us and I hate to see it end that way for them.”
RYAN TRUEX, No. 83 Burger King Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 39th
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 40th
COLE WHITT, No. 26 Bully Hill Vineyards Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 43rd
What happened to your race car?
“I don’t know. We’ll have to I guess look at whatever is left of it. It just seemed like something in the rear brakes faded or just actually just completely lost them going into (turn) one. It seemed like the front was trying to stop but the rear wasn’t at all and the pedal was just going to the floor on brakes. Not a whole lot you can do there. I was trying to get it turned but there was no way I was going to be able to. Sucks for the guys but I know we’ll rebound. We had a good car and I was excited about it. At least the last guy who did that went on to win six championships so maybe we can do that.”
