Custer Finishes 31st at Nashville
Flat Tire Ruins Day for Dixie Vodka Tony’s Tea Ford Driver

Date: June 20, 2021
Event: Inaugural Ally 400 (Round 17 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway (1.333-mile oval)
Format: 300 laps, broken into three stages (90 laps/95 laps/115 laps)
Start/Finish: 7th / 31st (Running, completed 252 of 300 laps)
Point Standing: 27th (259 points, 425 out of first)
Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-90):

● Cole Custer started seventh and finished 18th.
● The No. 41 Dixie Vodka Tony’s Tea Ford quickly moved forward at the start of the race and was running fifth when the caution flag waved on the first lap of the race.
● From the lap-five restart, Custer held steady in fifth until his lap-44, green-flag pit stop for four tires, fuel and a slight adjustment.
● The caution flag flew while the team was on pit road and Custer was set to restart in the top-10. However, the No. 41 was hit with a pit road speeding penalty sending Custer to the tail end of the longest line on the lap-52 restart.
● The No. 41 driver came to pit road under the lap-78 caution while he was running 25th to get four tires, fuel and an adjustment. This put the team in a position to stay out and gain track position when the stage came to an end 12 laps later.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 91-185):

● Custer started 11th and finished 33rd.
● The No. 41 Dixie Vodka Tony’s Tea driver notched a spot in the top-10 on the lap-96 restart and stayed there for the opening part of the stage.
● On lap 117, Custer reported concerns over his brakes after several cars had been involved in incidents on track. The No. 41 Ford Mustang kept growing tighter on the run and fell back to 14th by lap 159.
● The No. 41 Ford Mustang began to slow with a flat right rear tire on lap 172, bringing out the caution flag. Unfortunately, the team was unable to fix the issue on pit road as the brake rotor was damaged. They took the racecar to the garage for repairs on lap 173 and continued to work until the end of the stage.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 186-300):

● The 23-year-old driver started 33rd and finished 31st.
● The Ladera Ranch, California, native brought his Ford Mustang back out on the track on lap 218 to re-enter the race in 33rd, 45 laps down.
● The No. 41 Dixie Vodka Tony’s Tea Ford Mustang came down pit road for an unscheduled pit stop on lap 281 after Custer reported vibrations. He rejoined the field and finished the race in 31st.

Notes:

● Kyle Larson won the inaugural Ally 400 to score his 10th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his fourth of the season and his third straight. His margin over second-place Ross Chastain was 4.335 seconds.
● There were 11 caution periods for a total of 60 laps.
● Twenty of the 39 drivers in the Ally 400 finished on the lead lap.
● Denny Hamlin remains the championship leader after Nashville with a nine-point advantage over second-place Larson.

Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 Dixie Vodka Tony’s Tea Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“Just wasn’t the day we were hoping for at Nashville. Our car was strong and qualified in the top-10, but we had that right-rear flat in the second stage and after going to the garage, we just couldn’t recover. We’ll head to Pocono and try to turn things around.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is a doubleheader June 26-27 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The first race starts at 3 p.m. EDT on Saturday, and the second race begins at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. Both races will be broadcast live on NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Harvick Nabs Fifth at Nashville
Driver of No. 4 Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford Mustang Scores Fifth Top-Five of 2021

Date: June 20, 2021
Event: Inaugural Ally 400 (Round 17 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway (1.333-mile oval)
Format: 300 laps, broken into four stages (90 laps/95 laps/115 laps)
Start/Finish: 12th / 5th (Running, completed 300 of 300 laps)
Point Standing: 8th (516 points, 168 out of first)
Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-90):

● Kevin Harvick started eighth and finished 14th.
● The No. 4 Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford Mustang gained five positions on the opening lap, which ended with the caution flag flying for a single-car incident. Harvick stayed on track and restarted eighth on lap five and maintained his position in the top-10 until pitting from ninth under green on lap 44. He took four tires and adjustments to tighten up the racecar’s loose condition.
● The caution flag flew for a spinning car in turn four during Harvick’s out lap, and he was shown in 17th.
● Less than two laps after the lap-52 restart, Harvick was 20th when the caution flag flew once again for a single-car incident in turn two. He pitted for four tires and chassis adjustments, and restarted 23rd on lap 61.
● Harvick held his relative position and emerged 21st after a two-car incident in turn two brought out the caution flag on lap 78. He said his Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford was tight in the front, but the rear end needed more attention. He pitted for four tires, fuel and chassis adjustments and restarted 17th on lap 85. He picked up three positions in the final five laps of the stage. He stayed on track during the break after saying his racecar took off better for that short run.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 91-185):

● Harvick started ninth and finished 10th, earning one bonus point.
● The No. 4 Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford Mustang picked up a pair of positions in the early laps of the stage and held position in seventh until the caution flag flew on lap 132 for a spinning car in turn two. Harvick said his racecar felt better, just needed “a little bit of grip” in the center of the corner.” He pitted for four tires, fuel and restarted sixth on lap 138.
● Harvick held position over the next 30 laps, saying his racecar would go loose as the run progressed. He cracked the top-five on lap 170 with a pass of Denny Hamlin, just before the caution flag flew on lap 172 for debris. Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and adjustments to tighten up the car’s handling and restarted 11th on lap 180, then picked up one more position over the final five laps of the stage. He stayed on track during the break.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 186-300):

● Harvick started eighth and finished fifth.
● No. 4 Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford Mustang picked up a position in the opening laps of the stage before the caution flag flew on lap 197 for a single-car incident in turn two. Harvick stayed on track after reporting, “That’s the best I’ve been able to let off the brake and let it roll through the corner.” He restarted seventh on lap 202.
● Harvick was running sixth on lap 216 when he reported his racecar struggled to turn down in the center of the corner and was losing the back end. Moments later, the caution flag flew for a spinning car on the frontstretch. Harvick pitted for tires, fuel and chassis adjustments. He restarted third on lap 222.
● Harvick and the car of William Byron made side-by-side contact in turn two during the restart, after which Harvick reported the Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford was “super tight.” He was fourth when the caution flag flew for a single-car incident in turn four. He stayed on track and restarted third on lap 232.
● From that point, the Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford maintained its position in the top-three until eight laps remained while employing fuel-saving mode a majority of the way, and took the checkered flag fifth.

Notes:

● Harvick earned his fifth top-five and 12th top-10 of the season.
● Harvick won two NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Nashville (April 2006 and 2010). In his four Xfinity Series starts at the track he finished in the top-three all but once, and that was a seventh-place drive in April 2001. Harvick also made one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at Nashville in April 2010 and finished second.
● Kyle Larson won the inaugural Ally 400 to score his 10th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his fourth of the season and his third in a row. His margin over second-place Ross Chastain was 4.335 seconds.
● There were 11 caution periods for a total of 60 laps.
● Twenty of the 39 drivers in the Ally 400 finished on the lead lap.
● Denny Hamlin remains the championship leader after Nashville with a nine-point advantage over second-place Larson.

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“Our Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford Mustang was a lot loose at the beginning and really pretty good the second half of the race. We got some damage there when we made a little contact with the 24 (William Byron) and that made it a little bit tighter. I thought we were better than the 24. The 42 (Ross Chastain) had fresh tires, and the 10 (SHR teammate Aric Almirola), I thought we were better than those cars. The 5 (Kyle Larson) was kind of in a league of his own, but once again the guys did a great job and ground away at it and came away with a top-five as we ran out of gas. I think before our damage we probably had the second-best car at the end and got a little bit of damage on the right side. I got a little bit tight and then ran out of gas off of turn four and lost a couple of spots but, all in all, it was a solid day.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is a doubleheader June 26-27 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The first race starts at 3 p.m. EDT on Saturday and the second race begins at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. Both races will be broadcast live on NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Briscoe Finishes 32nd at Nashville
Brake Issue Spoils Top-10 Run for HighPoint.com/Thorlabs Driver
Date: June 20, 2021
Event: Inaugural Ally 400 (Round 17 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway (1.333-mile oval)
Format: 300 laps, broken into three stages (90 laps/95 laps/115 laps)
Start/Finish: 16th / 32nd (Accident, completed 227 of 300 laps)
Point Standing: 26th (284 points, 400 out of first)
Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-90):

● Chase Briscoe started 16th and finished 19th.
● Briscoe entered the top-10 on lap six but slipped back to 12th on lap nine. The HighPoint.com/Thorlabs driver held that position until lap 34 when cars further back in the field began to move forward.
● On lap 39, Briscoe reported he was free on entry to the corner. Crew chief Johnny Klausmeier called him to pit road five laps later for a scheduled green-flag stop. He received four tires, fuel and adjustments and returned to the track in 23rd, one lap down, just as the yellow caution flag was shown for the first time.
● Briscoe waved around and restarted 18th on lap 53. Just three laps later, caution was called again, and Briscoe restarted 16th on lap 62.
● The HighPoint.com/Thorlabs Mustang was running 20th when the field was slowed for an incident in turn two. Briscoe relayed his handling was good but he needed his right-rear tire to have more grip on entry. He pitted under the caution for four tires, fuel and additional adjustments, and restarted 20th on lap 86.
● Briscoe battled for position over the remaining five laps in the stage to finish 19th.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 91-185)

● Briscoe started 15th and finished third, earning eight bonus points.
● The sixth caution of the race was called on lap 133 with Briscoe running 15th. He told the team his rear grip was much better but he still needed help with turn, as the HighPoint.com/Thorlabs Ford was tight center-off. The No. 14 team pitted for tires, fuel and several adjustments to help with front turn.
● Briscoe restarted 12th and worked to find the best line until caution came out on lap 174. Under yellow, he pitted for right-side tires and fuel, and then lined up first for the lap-181 restart.
● The HighPoint.com/Thorlabs driver held off Kyle Larson for a lap and a half before moving back to second. On the final lap of the stage, he battled with the No. 3 car to the finish line and was scored third at the line.

Stage 3 Recap (Laps 186-300)

● Briscoe started 13th and finished 32nd.
● After pitting for four tires, fuel and adjustments to help front turn, Briscoe started the final stage in the 13th position on lap 191.
● He fought his way up to eighth before the yellow flag was shown on lap 197. He radioed to the team that the HighPoint.com/Thorlabs Ford fired off the best it had all day. The team elected to stay on track and restarted seventh on lap 203.
● Briscoe maintained his position inside the top-10 and was running eighth until the next caution on lap 219. He asked the team for just a slight air pressure adjustment to help his front turn but noted the previous adjustments did help his handling. He was seventh off pit road and lined up eighth for the lap-223 restart.
● The HighPoint.com/Thorlabs Ford Mustang was running seventh on lap 228 when Briscoe drifted up the track and made contact with the outside wall in turn four. He reported that he had no brakes. After pitting for the team to assess damage, it was determined the No. 14 could not continue due to a loss of brakes.

Notes:

● Briscoe finished third in Stage 2 to earn eight bonus points.
● Briscoe led once for five laps.
● Kyle Larson won the inaugural Ally 400 to score his 10th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his fourth of the season and his third straight. His margin over second-place Ross Chastain was 4.335 seconds.
● There were 11 caution periods for a total of 60 laps.
● Twenty of the 39 drivers in the Ally 400 finished on the lead lap.
● Denny Hamlin remains the championship leader after Nashville with a nine-point advantage over second-place Larson.

Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com/Thorlabs Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“We just lost the brakes getting into turn three. It’s super unfortunate for our HighPoint.com/Thorlabs team. We had a really, really good car, and I feel like we were going to be right there for a top-five at the end. We just needed a long run, but even on the short run we made our car so much better, so I really hate it, because that was going to be our best run of the year for sure and something like that happens. It’s really wild to see all the brake issues we’ve had today. We were able to do the Goodyear test a few months ago and knew that brakes were going to be way worse than everybody else thought. So we beefed them up and it still wasn’t good enough, so it’s unfortunate. We’ll go on to Pocono and try to have a good run for HighPoint.com at their home track.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is a doubleheader June 26-27 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The first race starts at 3 p.m. EDT on Saturday, and the second race begins at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. Both races will be broadcast live on NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series — Ally 400
Nashville Superspeedway | Sunday, June 20, 2021

Ford Finishing Results:
4th — Aric Almirola
5th — Kevin Harvick
10th — Joey Logano
14th — Ryan Newman
17th — Michael McDowell
18th — Anthony Alfredo
24th — Brad Keselowski
25th — Matt DiBenedetto
27th — Josh Bilicki
29th — B.J. McLeod
31st — Cole Custer
32nd — Chase Briscoe
37th — Chris Buescher
38th — Ryan Blaney

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang — “We had a good car, just, my goodness, we don’t have anything for those Chevrolets right now. They’re making grip and they’re getting up off the corner. It’s so hard to race with them. I can roll the center as good as some of the guys in those cars, if not a little better, and then it’s tough to keep up. But we have made huge strides to close the gap. Our race team is doing a great job scrounging and scrapping to build better race cars and it’s nice to come here and run up front, run in the top five and at least be in the mix, so it feels good. We’ll just keep building on it. The All-Star Race was a good race for us. Today, again, was a good race for us, so we’ll just keep grinding.”

HOW AS TODAY? “Today was a solid day for us, so it was good to bounce back and do it two weeks in a row, considering we had a good race at the All-Star and come here and have another good race. It feels good.”

ALL FOUR SHR CARS WERE IN THE TOP 12 AT ONE POINT. WHAT DOES THAT SAY AS FAR AS PROGRESS? “It means we’re working hard. We’ve had a lot of races where the 4 has been a 10th-place car and the other three of us have run 25th it seems like, so we’ve been working so hard. When you run bad it’s 10 times as much work because you’re going down every single different avenue trying to figure out what’s gonna make speed in the race cars, and when you have fast race cars it’s easy because you just massage on it and polish it and keep going to the racetrack with what you know is fast. We’ve been working so hard. I’m proud of everybody back at the shop and specifically this 10 team. We’ve been off and it’s been nice to get it back and go on here in the right direction after two weeks in a row of running up front.”

WHAT DOES THIS DO FOR YOUR CONFIDENCE? “it just feels good. It’s been such a tough year and it’s easy to get down on yourself and not have a lot of confidence. Confidence is something that comes with results. You can’t fake it, so it’s been nice to have two good weeks now and it certainly makes everybody have a little pep in their step and things are going in the right direction.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL THE RACE WENT TODAY AFTER 10 YEARS? “I don’t know, it was tough. The racetrack was really low on grip. The tires didn’t seem to have a lot of grip and we were just kind of slipping and sliding around. Nobody ever really felt stuck or looked stuck to the racetrack and it was just a challenge, to be honest. But, all in all, it still put on a race. There was a green flag and there was a checkered flag and there was a winner and that’s racing. We show up to all sorts of different racetracks and we do our best to compete and try and outrun each other.”

WAS IT NICE TO HAVE TONY HERE TODAY. DID IT HELP? “Yeah. That wasn’t the magic to make our race cars go fast, but it was certainly nice to have him here. Tony is a great morale booster. He’s our boss and we all look up to him and appreciate when he’s here at the racetrack, so it was certainly nice to have him here and see his smiling face and have him walking around patting everybody on the back. It’s nice.”

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Grave Digger Ford Mustang — “Our Monster Jam Grave Digger Ford Mustang was a lot loose at the beginning and really pretty good the second half of the race. We got some damage there when we made a little contact with the 24 and that made it a little bit tighter. I thought we were better than the 24. The 42 had fresh tires and the 10, I thought we were better than those cars. The 5 was kind of in a league of his own, but once again the guys did a great job and ground away at it and came away with a top five out of gas.”

WHAT STATEMENT DOES THIS MAKE FOR THE 4 TEAM? “I don’t know if we made a statement, but we ran better.”

IS THIS WHAT YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT AS FAR AS A BUILDING BLOCK? “Yeah, I think before our damage we probably had the second-best car at the end and got a little bit of damage on the right side. I got a little bit tight and then ran out of gas off of turn four and last a couple spots, but, all in all, it was a solid day.”

WILL THE CONVERSATION NOW INCLUDE BEING CLOSE TO A WIN? “I don’t know. I don’t think anybody can beat the 5 right now.”

A LOT OF GUYS SAID THE TRACK WASN’T LIKE IT WAS IN PRACTICE. DO YOU AGREE? “Yeah, I think that was to be expected though with whatever they call it, the resin wearing in and out. I think that was to be expected — move around, change, so I don’t think that was a surprise to me.”

A LOT OF TEAMS MISSED IT ON BRAKE PACKAGES. DID YOU HAVE ANY ISSUES? “No, we didn’t have any issues.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang — “We just weren’t very good. We just kept grinding and grinding to get every spot we could and did what we could to try and get the best finish. Tenth was the best we were gonna do. That’s about where we ran all day anyway after the first few laps. Once we lost our track position that’s where we were.”

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 HighPoint.com/Thorlabs Ford Mustang — “We just lost the brakes getting into turn three. It’s super unfortunate. We had a really really good car. I feel like we were gonna be right there for a top five. We just needed a long run. Even on the short run we made our car so much better, so I really hate it because that was gonna be our best run of the year for sure and something like that happens. It’s really wild with all the brake issues we’ve had today. We were able to do the Goodyear test and knew that brakes were gonna be way worse than everybody else thought. We beefed them up and it still wasn’t good enough, so it’s unfortunate. We’ll go on to Pocono.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford Mustang — “It was not a very good start to our day and not a good end, either. We had an issue before the race and had to come and fix it. Then we had some brake trouble and we came in and pulled tape, and then on the restart I’m not sure if I broke a rotor — I think that’s what happened because something exploded into one and then no brakes and took a pretty big lick. It’s a shame. Just not a very good day for us and hate that it ended early. I hate it for Menards and everybody in our group and Ford, but we’ll come back strong at Pocono next week.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang — “My feeling are hurt right now more than anything. The FIfth Third Bank Mustang was pretty good. We were wrapping the bottom and able to do so pretty well. We were just getting going there, but right before I left pit road it looks like probably a piece of debris from the 77 cut our tire down on the way into the corner. It’s definitely unfortunate. It’s one of those luck things. It’s not like we did something wrong to cause our own DNF. That’s a bummer. I’m proud of these guys. This was a good weekend. We were strong. We had a good qualifying and practice was good. The race was gonna be a really good one as well, so that one is gonna hurt as we look at the next handful of races heading to the playoffs as well, so we’ll go out there and go win a race.”

BELL LEADS TOYOTA AT NASHVILLE
Christopher Bell scores a top-10 finish in NASCAR’s return to Nashville.

NASHVILLE (June 20, 2021) – Christopher Bell (ninth) scored a top-10 finish to lead Toyota in the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday evening.

Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Nashville Superspeedway
Race 17 of 36 – 300 laps, 399 miles

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Kyle Larson*
2nd, Ross Chastain*
3rd, William Bryon*
4th, Aric Almirola*
5th, Kevin Harvick*
9th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
11th, KYLE BUSCH
21st, BUBBA WALLACE
22nd, DENNY HAMLIN
23rd, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
34th, CHAD FINCHUM
35th, DAVID STARR
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DEWALT Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th

Bounced-back from a mid-race penalty and scored a top-10 finish. How was your run?

“I feel like we were probably a back half of the top 10 car, so we finished where we should have. It was a lot of work though. I hope to make it a little bit easier in our DEWALT Camry next time.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 38 million cars and trucks in North America, where we have 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama (10 in the U.S.), and directly employ more than 47,000 people (over 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold 2.8 million cars and trucks (2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2018.

Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit ToyotaNewsroom.com

NCS Post-Qualifying Report – Nashville Superspeedway
Busch follows his Xfinity Series win with a front row starting spot in today’s Cup race

NASHVILLE (June 20, 2021) – Kyle Busch led the Toyota’s in qualifying on Sunday morning for the Ally 400 securing the second position to start on the front row when the field takes the green on Sunday afternoon from Nashville Superspeedway.

Toyota Racing Post-Qualifying Report
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Nashville Superspeedway – June 20, 2021

TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, Aric Almirola*
2nd, KYLE BUSCH
3rd, Joey Logano*
4th, William Byron*
5th, Kyle Larson*
13th, DENNY HAMLIN
21st, BUBBA WALLACE
25th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
33rd, CHAD FINCHUM
35th, MARTIN TRUEX JR
38th, DAVID STARR
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Pedigree Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 2nd

Front row starting position. Knowing what you learned yesterday, how good was this run?
“I mean, it was better than expected. I didn’t expect to qualify that well, so that’s certainly a positive. Being able to get some speed in our Pedigree Camry, so it’s nice to have an upfront spot like that. Oh, so close to getting the pole. We don’t get the chance to qualifying much anymore, and when you get that close it’s like, damn, you have a goose egg in that column, because we are not good with the metric system. Overall, just hopefully today is a good day. We struggled yesterday, so I wasn’t so sure what we would have in store for us today, but it felt okay right there. I have no idea what that means for a race car. We completely wholesaled everything and changed it last night, so we will see what we have later today.”

BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
Starting Position: 21st

How was your qualifying lap?

“We just didn’t really know what to expect as far as grip. We weren’t the best of cars yesterday. I feel like we’ve been struggling as an organization, Toyota’s have kind of struggled, especially with the front ends of our racecars. It was good to get practice to see that though; it’s not like we are firing off blind. We threw a lot at it, and just didn’t get enough heat in the front tires for turn one. I relayed that message to the last three Toyota guys. It was okay. I feel like we made improvements overnight, which is good. We need a little bit more, but we will go have some fun and settle in and see what we can do here in Nashville. It’s a fun track.”

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DEWALT Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Starting Position: 25th

Have you seen improvement since the tire test?

“No, definitely not. I think all of us at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) expected to be better, a little more competitive. It will be interesting to see what adjustments the teams made overnight. We had a lot to gain over yesterday’s practice session, so it will be cool to see who’s on it and who isn’t.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 38 million cars and trucks in North America, where we have 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama (10 in the U.S.), and directly employ more than 47,000 people (over 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold 2.8 million cars and trucks (2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2018.

Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit ToyotaNewsroom.com