TOYOTA NASCAR NOTES & QUOTES
July 20 – 26, 2015
BUSCH BATTLING BACK: Camry driver Kyle Busch recorded his third NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) victory in the last four races with a win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday. After going a lap down early in the event, Busch battled back and led 96 laps (of 301) to take the checkered flag. With his victory, the Toyota driver now sits just 58 points shy of 30th place in the NSCS point standings, where he must reach to compete for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship in seven more races. Busch missed the first 11 events of the NSCS season while recovery from injuries sustained in an accident during a NASCAR XFINTY Series (NXS) race in February and returned to competition in May.
INDY AERO PACKAGE: The NSCS will feature a new aero package when the series returns to Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend. The high-drag package will be used for both Indianapolis and Michigan International Speedway and is expected to reduce speeds, but create more drafting and passing. For these races, the spoiler height will be increased (from six to nine inches), the radiator pan extended (38 to 43 inches) and a one-inch wicker bill will be added.
TOYOTA’S INDIANA TALLIES: Toyota is no stranger to victory lanes in Indiana – with wins in the NXS, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) and in IndyCar competition. Jason Leffler captured the Camry’s first-ever NASCAR win in the NXS at Lucas Oil Raceway Park at Indianapolis in the 2007, while Busch captured Toyota’s first victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the NXS in 2013. In 2003, Gil de Ferran won the 87th running of the Indianapolis 500 to claim Toyota’s first open-wheel victory at the Brickyard. In the NCWTS, Tundra drivers have two victories at the Raceway Park –Johnny Benson (2006) and Timothy Peters (2011).
RETURN TO THE DIRT: Eldora Speedway will host NASCAR’s only national series dirt track race on Wednesday night when the NCWTS visits Ohio for a mid-week event. Former Tundra driver Darrell Wallace Jr. captured Toyota’s first Eldora victory in 2014 in the NCWTS’ second race at the track. Truck Series points leader and Tundra driver Matt Crafton is one of just three drivers to finish in the top-10 in each Eldora NCWTS race.
NOTES, QUOTES & NUMBERS
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS): Camry drivers Matt Kenseth (seventh), Denny Hamlin (11th), Clint Bowyer (16th) and Carl Edwards (17th) currently rank in the top-20 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) point standings … Kenseth has recorded consecutive top-five finishes in the last two NSCS Brickyard races … Kenseth’s seven total top-fives at Indianapolis are tied for the second most in track history … With three wins in the last four NSCS events, Kyle Busch has now won on a short track (New Hampshire), intermediate track (Kentucky) and road course (Sonoma) in 2015 … Busch has gained 115 points on 30th place in the standings since the Michigan race in June … Camry drivers have won races at 22-of-23 tracks on the NSCS schedule, and a win in the Hoosier State would mean a Toyota has won at all active NSCS tracks … Joe Gibbs Racing Camrys finished second (Busch), third (Denny Hamlin) and fourth (Matt Kenseth) in the 2014 race in Indianapolis.
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 STANLEY Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What have the last few weeks been like?
“Joe Gibbs Racing has been on a roll lately – the last couple of weeks have been a lot of fun. Our cars have been fast and hopefully all of the work we’ve done as a group preparing for this rules package pays off. Nobody really knows what to expect from the racing. We get the early practice session, so that will help. I really think nobody will really know how this is going to go until we’re all out there racing, because everyone’s handling and the way everybody’s car works will be dictated, will be based on how they race around a big group of cars with all the air being disturbed with the big aerodynamic devices that are on the car this week.”
JASON RATCLIFF, crew chief, No. 20 Dollar General Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What do you expect to see in Indianapolis?
“I don’t know what to expect. I think Indy is unique by itself – it’s one of those races that everyone looks forward to because of the tradition of the track itself and it’s unique to NASCAR and everybody wants to win the Brickyard – and then you throw in the mix a different aero package on top of it and everyone still has a desire to go down there win it, so I don’t know. I think the cars are going to be closer together with the aero package and I think the drivers are going to be just as ambitious to win the thing, so it could turn into a freak show really quick.”
How do you prepare for a race with rule changes?
“For us, thankfully they have – I’ll call it a virtual wind tunnel – where the computer tells you what these aero changes are going to do and it’s pretty accurate at this day in time. First you plug it in there and it tells you, ‘Okay, these are going to be the aero changes. This is going to be the drag change, the front downforce change, the rear downforce change,” and then you try to simulate what it’s going to do on the race track for lap time, for engine RPM. Then you just put empirical data to it and say, ‘Okay, every time we go to a track and this happens, how do we deal with it?’ And that’s how you approach it.”
NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS): Camry drivers Daniel Suarez (seventh), David Starr (13th) and JJ Yeley (14th) currently rank in the top-15 in the NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) point standings … Denny Hamlin’s victory at New Hampshire last weekend was his eighth NXS win in a Camry … Joe Gibbs Racing Camry drivers Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez will make their Indianapolis Motor Speedway debut this weekend.
ERIK JONES, No. 20 GameStop Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How will it feel to race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time?
“Yeah, I’m excited about Indy. That’s a place that I think every driver wants to go to at some point in their career. It’s pretty cool to be able to go there and get my shot to run there and just see what we can do. I raced quarter midgets in the infield there in Gasoline Alley when I was seven, eight, nine years old. Pretty cool to get an opportunity to go there – I’m not from Indy, but I’m obviously pretty close there in Michigan, so I’ve been there a lot. It’ll just be cool to get the opportunity to go there and just have a shot to run around that place.”
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS): Tundra driver Matt Crafton leads the NCWTS standings by 20 points over second-place Tyler Reddick … Erik Jones (third), Johnny Sauter (fourth), Timothy Peters (sixth), Cameron Hayley (seventh) and Ben Kennedy (10th) also currently rank in the top-10 for Toyota … Crafton currently has an average finish of 4.7 through 10 races … In his back-to-back championship-winning seasons (2013-14), Crafton posted an average finish of 7.9 and 7.0, respectively … Tundra driver Christopher Bell has twice recorded runner up finishes at Eldora Speedway in midget races … In Bell’s first two NCWTS races, he finished fifth (Iowa) and 17th (Kentucky) … Ken Schrader will pilot the No. 52 Tundra at Eldora … Schrader, who competed in his first NASCAR event in 1984, won the pole for the Eldora NCWTS race in 2013 and finished fourth in his Tundra in 2014.
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 54 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Does your previous experience at Eldora give you an advantage?
“I think it definitely gives me an advantage. The track record at Eldora in a sprint car is about 12.7 seconds, so to be running around there in sub 13-second laps and then go there in a truck where the quick time was a 19.9 last year – it’s much slower than the sprint cars ran. I think having run that fast there in a sprint car will definitely translate to running the truck there because it will slow everything down.”
TOYOTA 2015 NASCAR STATISTICS
Series Races Starts (Drivers) Wins Top-5s Top-10s Poles Times Led Laps Led
NSCS 19 165 (16) 6 18 35 4 81 1,024
NXS 17 182 (30) 5 21 33 7 56 1,031
NCWTS 10 88 (15) 5 28 51 4 73 1,170
TOYOTA DRIVER ROSTER – Indianapolis Motor Speedway (NSCS &NXS) & Eldora Speedway (NCWTS)
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Camry
Clint Bowyer, No. 15 Camry
Kyle Busch, No. 18 Camry
Carl Edwards, No. 19 Camry
Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Camry
JJ Yeley, No. 23 Camry
Jeb Burton, No. 26 Camry
David Ragan, No. 55 Camry
Matt DiBenedetto, No. 83 Camry
NASCAR Nationwide Series
Blake Koch, No. 8 Camry
Cale Conley, No. 14 Camry
Daniel Suarez, No. 18 Camry
Jeff Green, No. 19 Camry
Erik Jones, No. 20 Camry
Eric McClure, No. 24 Camry
Timmy Hill, No. 26 Camry
JJ Yeley, No. 28 Camry
David Starr, No. 44 Camry
Kyle Busch, No. 54 Camry
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Erik Jones, No. 4 Tundra
Ben Kennedy, No. 11 Tundra
Cameron Hayley, No. 13 Tundra
Timothy Peters, No. 17 Tundra
Matt Tift, No. 51 Tundra
Ken Schrader, No. 52 Tundra
Christopher Bell, No. 54 Tundra
Matt Crafton, No. 88 Tundra
Johnny Sauter, No. 98 Tundra
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