TOYOTA NASCAR NOTES & QUOTES
Oct. 6 – Oct. 12, 2014
TOYOTA TIDBITS
CAMRY CHASERS CONTEND: All three Toyota Camry drivers are in the top-10 in points and within 20 points of the leader as race two of the ‘Contender’ round of this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) championship playoff rolls into Charlotte — Kyle Busch (second-place, -6 points), Denny Hamlin (fifth, -11) and Matt Kenseth (seventh, -17). After Charlotte, the series will head to the high banks of Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway before another four drivers will be eliminated from moving on to the third round of the championship playoffs.
KNOWN TERRITORY: Race teams will have a home field advantage this weekend with most headquartered — and all Toyota teams based — in the greater Charlotte vicinity. Two Camry drivers have visited victory lane at Charlotte Motor Speedway — David Reutimann earned the first win with a TRD-built motor in 2009 (May) and Clint Bowyer finished first in 2012 (Oct.). Earlier this year, Kenseth (third), Brian Vickers (sixth) and Busch (ninth) earned top-10 finishes at Charlotte. Last October in Charlotte, all three Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) drivers finished together in the top-10 — Kenseth (third), Busch (fifth) and Hamlin (ninth).
KYLE AT CHARLOTTE: Camry driver Busch has 29 career NSCS race wins, but Charlotte is one of only five tracks on the schedule where the 29-year-old racer is still looking for a Cup victory. He has earned nine top-five finishes and 13 top-10 results, along with one pole (May 2008) in 21 career NSCS Charlotte starts. Busch has finished runner-up twice at Charlotte (Oct. 2010 and Oct. 2011) and also owns eight NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) and six NASCAR Camping World Truck Series trophies from the 1.5-mile oval.
TOYOTA’S 10 YEARS IN NASCAR: Toyota is celebrating its 10th anniversary in NASCAR this year. Here is another highlight from Toyota’s first 10 years in the sport. Toyota driver Brian Vickers earns the first top-five finish for the Camry in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition when he crosses the finish line fifth at Charlotte (May 27, 2007).
NOTES, QUOTES & NUMBERS
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS): Kyle Busch is one of two Chase drivers to finish each of the first four playoff races in the top-10 — Chicagoland (seventh), New Hampshire (eighth), Dover (10th) and Kansas (third)… His Kansas result also gives Busch top-five finishes at every track on the current NSCS schedule … JGR will host a FanFest at the team’s race shop in Huntersville, N.C., on Friday, Oct. 11 from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM … Toyota drivers Busch, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Elliott Sadler, Daniel Suarez and Darrell Wallace Jr. are all scheduled to participate in autograph sessions during the JGR event.
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Doublemint Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Do you feel less pressure heading to Charlotte after a solid finish at Kansas?
“I don’t think there’s any less pressure. You can have any issue like these guys all had (at Kansas) any week. That’s what is fickle about this racing business — it’s never guaranteed. You’ve always got to run to the end. Charlotte, I love that place, love going there, having good runs. Hopefully our test that we did a couple weeks ago is good for us, that we’re able to have a fast race car there, as well, and again, just keep knocking away these top-10s, top-5s, and like I say, you go to Talladega and you’ve got to just see where things stack up at the end of the day. We’ll play it out as it goes and see where it stacks.”
Why is Charlotte your favorite race track?
“Charlotte is my favorite race track for a lot of reasons. Just growing up watching races on TV, I loved watching the All-Star Race under the lights and the 600 with all the sparks flying and all the guys going after hard-fought, hard-racing wins. The Nationwide Series has been good to me. The Truck Series has been pretty good to me, too. But a Cup Series win has eluded me there. We’re definitely getting closer than I was back when I first started racing at Charlotte. I think I have something like 12 top-10 finishes in my last 14 races going into this weekend, so I hope my luck is turning around a bit and I can finally get that Sprint Cup win there with our Doublemint Camry.”
What are the challenges of racing at Charlotte?
“I think the biggest challenge about Charlotte is how much the track changes from practice. You practice all during the day and then you go into night racing. You’ve got to know what kind of adjustments to make to your car and how well you can race at night. Typically, you go back to your night notes. For us, we’ve run well there in the past and like going there. It’s a fun place to race and adds to the excitement of spending some time at home.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Do you enjoy racing at Charlotte?
“Charlotte is a great race track and it’s always nice to be racing at our home track since we’re usually able to have family and friends come out this weekend. Looking back on our last few starts here, we had some great finishes at Charlotte recently, so I’m hoping for similar results this weekend as we continue to fight to remain in the Chase. Charlotte is such a sensitive track in regards to how handling can change due to sunlight and temperatures, so it’ll be important for us to stay on top of being able to adapt to those conditions throughout the weekend and Saturday’s race.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How do you feel about the next two Chase races of this round?
“I feel good about where we’re at. There are some guys that are faster than us week in and week out and they had some issues (at Kansas) — we didn’t and kind of capitalized on that and finished well. Proud of the team — Kansas was a good run for us and those are the type of runs that we need to keep moving on. We’ll take sevenths all the way out.”
TOYOTA 2014 NASCAR STATISTICS
Series Races Starts (Drivers) Wins Top-5s Top-10s Poles Times Led Laps Led
NSCS 30 280 (23) 2 31 65 5 122 1,208
NNS 29 279 (42) 8 39 70 9 98 2,143
NCWTS 17 178 (20) 13 51 91 6 113 1,844
TOYOTA DRIVER ROSTER – Charlotte Motor Speedway (NSCS & NNS)
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Camry
Clint Bowyer, No. 15 Camry
Kyle Busch, No. 18 Camry
Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Camry
Alex Bowman, No. 23 Camry
Cole Whitt, No. 26 Camry
Brian Vickers, No. 55 Camry
Brett Moffitt, No. 66 Camry
TBD, No. 83 Camry
NASCAR Nationwide Series
David Starr, No. 10 Camry
Elliott Sadler, No. 11 Camry
Eric McClure, No. 14 Camry
Mike Bliss, No. 19 Camry
Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Camry
John Wes Townley, No. 25 Camry
Milka Duno, No. 29 Camry
Will Kimmel III, No. 44 Camry
Kyle Busch, No. 54 Camry
Johnny Sauter, No. 80 Camry
Jeff Green, No. 91 Camry
James Buescher, No. 99 Camry
SOCIAL MEDIA & WEBSITE
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