Toyota NXS Talladega Post-Race Notes & Quotes

  • Camry driver JJ Yeley (fourth) was the top-finishing Toyota driver in Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) race at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, a race won by Joey Logano.
  • The fourth-place result for Yeley was his first top-five result of the season.
  • In addition to Yeley’s finish, Camry drivers Benny Gordon (13th), David Starr (14th) and Boris Said (16th) also finished in the top-20 overall on the 2.66-mile track.
  • Five Camry drivers are currently in the top-20 in the unofficial NSCS point standings – Daniel Suarez (ninth), David Starr (12th), JJ Yeley (13th), Blake Koch (18th) and Cale Conley (19th).

JJ YELEY, No. 28 Texas 28 Spirits Stage Toyota Camry, JGL Racing
Finishing Position:  4th
What does this finish mean to your team?
“It finished a lot better than what I thought it was going to be. This car got destroyed in Daytona and it was really fast there and somehow I think we missed it because the car just wasn’t very good on the bottom and I had to be on the outside. Got going there at the end and every time I got lucky on the restarts – I would be in the outside lane. I just kept pushing. I was working with Brian Scott – his car was super-fast – and I tried to shove him back out to the front there and come away with a good fourth-place finish. For the way I was feeling about the car halfway through the race, I’ll take a top-five.”

BENNY GORDON, No. 17 VSI Racing/SRWR Toyota Camry
Finishing Position:  13th

DAVID STARR, No. 44 Zachry Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position:  14th

BORIS SAID, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position:  16th
How much fun did you have in today’s race?
“That was a friggin’ blast, man. Oh what a feeling – it’s like Toyota. I feel bad because I made one big mistake about 30 (laps) to go and got pushed out and went to the back and I just couldn’t find the room to get back to the front. This Monster Energy Toyota was so good today and it was a good way to start. It was fun. All the fenders are on it and I had a blast.”

ERIC MCCLURE, No. 24 Hefty Easy Grip Cups Toyota Camry, JBL Racing
Finishing Position:  21st

BLAKE KOCH, No. 8 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position:  23rd

CALE CONLEY, No. 14 IAVA Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position:  24th

ERIK JONES, No. 20 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position:  30th
What happened in the accident that caused the damage to your Camry?
“That was – I don’t know – I guess people not paying attention. We knew everybody was pitting and then everybody slammed on the brakes even when they weren’t coming to pit road. Just an unfortunate deal there and must have knocked a hole in the radiator and all the water ran out of it and ended up losing the motor. Had a decent Sport Clips Camry – just I don’t know if we might have been able to do something there with the 33 (Austin Dillon), but just never could seem to find our way to the front all day. We’ll come back in the July Daytona race and try to do a little better.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 18 ARRIS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position:  31st
What happened in the accident early in the race?

“I’m not sure. I have to see the replay, but it looked like some cars were pitting, some cars were not pitting. We were staying out and I really – some cars in front of us are pitting, so we had to slow down because they are moving to the left. Some of the cars behind me, they didn’t want to slow down and somebody hit me pretty hard from behind and after that it was over because I was all over the place. It was difficult. It was tough because we had a pretty good car. In the beginning, we were in the front and then we decided to go to the back because the car was a little bit loose. I didn’t want to take the chance to wreck that early, so we decided to fix the setup and then go back to the front and see what happens.”

MIKE BLISS, No. 19 Steely Lumber Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position:  34th

KENNY WALLACE, No. 26 JGL Racing Toyota Camry
Finishing Position:  38th

CHARLES LEWANDOSKI, No. 10 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position:  40th

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