TOYOTA NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS)
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Dover International Speedway – May 31, 2014
· Kyle Busch captured the checkered flag in Saturday’s 200 lap NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Dover International Speedway.
· Busch led the field for a race-high 124 laps en route to his third NNS win of the season. Earlier this year, he finished first in NNS races at Bristol and Phoenix.
· Camry drivers have now registered 93 NNS wins since the beginning of the 2007 season.
· Busch became the first driver to win both the NNS and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) races in the same weekend at Dover after his victory in Friday’s NCWTS race and today’s NNS win.
· In Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race, Busch will attempt to complete the weekend sweep. Busch is the only driver to sweep three NASCAR national series races in a weekend (Bristol, August 2010) at the same track.
· Camry drivers Matt Kenseth (fourth) and Elliott Sadler (ninth) also registered top-10 finishes at Dover.
KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How good was your race car midway through today’s race?
“Pretty good when we got it tightened up enough. There towards the end it got really loose again. The last 30 or 40 laps I was just holding on trying to hold those guys at bay. Man, lapped traffic was kind of tough — just the way they’d loosen your car up when you got to them. But, this Monster Energy Camry was pretty awesome. I didn’t think it was, but it was. I just never got the feel I was looking for through practice and I was a little frustrated with that and a little frustrated in qualifying and just not having the speed I hoped to have, but it was good on the long runs so I can’t say enough about JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) engines, Toyota, Nationwide Insurance and of course the fans. Appreciate them and everybody and all of my fans and all of the other fans too.”
How do you like your chances of sweeping the weekend with a win in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race?
“It’d be nice. I think our chances are pretty good. We start upfront, which is great here always and if we can stay up there most of the day and fine tune on her and tweak on her a little bit we can probably be right back here with the Peanut Butter M&M’s Camry.”
How were you able to pull away from Trevor Bayne as he closed in at the end of the race?
“Just, I think when I started seeing cars in front of me I started getting loose and so his car was probably a little bit tighter than mine. He (Trevor Bayne) hung on a little bit longer and was able to get back to me, but then once we started racing through too much lapped traffic I started to kind of inch away and that’s probably the point where he started getting loose and he just couldn’t hold on. Man, I was fighting it the last 30 laps — just really loose. This Monster Energy Camry here today, when they got it tightened up it felt good for me and I was able to move around the race track which is always fun here. You can go bottom, you can go top and try to find your way through lapped traffic and what not. I can’t say enough about Adam Stevens (crew chief) and these guys. They worked really, really hard for me to give me a good piece and tried to get it to where we wanted in practice but certainly it was a lot better here during the race.”
Why was your team forced to tweak on your car so much throughout the race?
“I think it was just by the track changing. We changed it a little bit there on the last pit stop but not near enough. I think we should’ve done more than what we did, but it worked out for us. We were out front when it mattered and we just had to pick our way through lapped traffic and try to get here to victory lane. So, real proud of the effort by all of these guys and can’t say enough about Monster Energy, Toyota, JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) engines, Nationwide Insurance, the fans — appreciate their support as well being here in Dover.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Resers Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Did you fight a tight race car in today’s race?
“Yeah. Our Resers Camry was okay right in the middle of a run but we’d start to run a little bit too tight and we just fought loose in the corner really since the first lap on the track yesterday. Really could never fix that. We’d be loose into the corner and then tight the rest of the corner. It just wasn’t a good combination at Dover.”
What was your conversation with Joey Logano about after the race?
“I was just talking with Joey (Logano) about how hard it was to pass. Really, he was frustrated because he couldn’t catch me — I don’t know. So, we were just talking about how tough it was to pass. Wherever you put a car in front of the other one that was about where you were going to run. Yeah, we were just too tight in the short run. We were pretty good on the short run before that, but got too loose on the long run so they tried to tighten it up and it hurt it too much at the beginning of the run and once you lose that track position you just can’t pass the guys back.”
ELLIOTT SADLER, No. 11 OneMain Financial Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
JAMES BUESCHER, No. 99 Rheem Toyota Camry, RAB Racing
Finishing Position: 15th
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 Herbal Mist Tea’s Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports
Finishing Position: 17th
JEFF GREEN, No. 14 Hefty Ultimate/Reynolds Wrap Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 18th
PAULIE HARRAKA, No. 44 Buckle Up Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 19th
MIKE BLISS, No. 19 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 22nd
CARL LONG, No. 13 Headrush Toyota Camry
Finishing Position: 34th
BLAKE KOCH, No. 10 Supportmilitary.com Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 40th
