Toyota Post-Race Recap
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Bristol Motor Speedway
Race 24 of 36 – 266.5 miles, 500 laps
August 19, 2017
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, KYLE BUSCH
2nd, ERIK JONES
3rd, DENNY HAMLIN
4th, MATT KENSETH
5th, Kurt Busch*
15th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
21st, MARTIN TRUEX JR
28th, COREY LAJOIE
34th, JOEY GASE
38th, REED SORENSON
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 951 points
2nd, KYLE BUSCH 850 points
3rd, Kyle Larson* 845 points
4th, Kevin Harvick* 824 points
5th, DENNY HAMLIN 753 points
8th, MATT KENSETH 703 points
16th, ERIK JONES 574 points
17th, DANIEL SUÁREZ 537 points
34th, COREY LaJOIE 162 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
· Camry driver Kyle Busch completed his second-career Bristol sweep, winning all three NASCAR national series races at the 0.533-mile track following a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory on Saturday night.
· Toyota swept the top-four finishing positions as Erik Jones (second), Denny Hamlin (third) and Matt Kenseth (fourth) followed behind Busch.
· It was the second time this season that Toyota drivers finished in the top four positions (Watkins Glen).
· Busch led 156 (of 500) laps, capturing a Stage 1 win while fellow Camry driver Jones led a race-high 260 laps and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kenseth captured the Stage 2 win.
· Jones had a breakout weekend, winning his first Cup Series pole on Friday before finishing a career-best second-place finish.
TOYOTA QUOTES
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Caramel Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How much does this win mean to you as you sweep Bristol for a second time in your career?
“That one was a lot harder. Man, Erik Jones put up a whale of a fight. That all I had. I was running with my tongue hanging. My arms were jello and my throat hurts, but man that’s awesome. Can’t say enough about everybody on my Joe Gibbs Racing team. Adam Stevens (crew chief) and the guys are phenomenal. Car might not have been perfect, but I’m never perfect. I never feel like we’re perfect, but this Caramel Camry was fast. So proud of these guys, so proud of my team, so proud of Joe Gibbs Racing. So proud of Rowdy Nation, this one’s for you.”
How much fun was that racing Erik Jones at the end and getting the broom again?
“Is this the XFINITY Series or the Cup Series? I mean Erik Jones put up a whale of a fight. I mean I just can’t say enough about that young man. He’s a great kid. I have a lot of fun with him. I have a lot of respect for him. He raced me awesome out there like a great teammate and gave me the room when necessary and raced me hard when necessary. Man, it’s just great to have a guy like that. This M&M’s Caramel Camry was awesome tonight. Adam Stevens and these guys they never quit working on it. Every single pit stop we kept working on it, kept adjusting on it, so I can’t say enough about his Toyota Camry, everybody at TRD – want to thank Interstate Batteries, NOS Energy Drink, Cessna, DVX Sunglasses and of course the fans. This is for Rowdy Nation. Rowdy Nation’s really what fuels us to get ‘em out, to get around and get along and all the noise is good noise, that’s how I feel about it. These M&M’s Caramels are going to be celebrating tonight.”
How have you seen Rowdy Nation get behind you and have your back?
“I can’t fight as much as I want to fight on social. There’s a lot of trolls out there, so my guys do it for me, so I appreciate them and being able to do that. It’s awesome to have a legion of fans no matter if they’re the biggest ones or the 50 percent ones or whatever. It’s just a matter of being able to win people’s hearts whether it’s be outracing, outdriving, outperforming people on the race track or sometimes they’re antic. Some people like it, some people don’t. A lot of people like a lot of other drivers that were popular and some didn’t either, so I don’t care. I am who I am.”
ERIK JONES, No. 77 5-Hour Energy Extra Strength Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
How tough is this runner up finish?
“It’s a bummer, I mean you can’t lie. I thought we had a really good day and we fought hard all day. We had our ups and downs and led a lot of laps and didn’t have quite enough at the end. Kyle (Busch) is really good here. But we had a good 5-Hour Energy Camry. Just needed a little more at the end. It’s just unfortunate we didn’t have it. I did what I could, but it just wasn’t quite enough.”
Everyone was telling you how proud they were of you, did that take the sting away at all?
“It is what it is. We raced hard all night. We led a lot of laps. We did almost everything we needed to do. We qualified on the pole and ran second, so I wish we would’ve had a little bit more. It’s a bummer. It’s a great weekend for us. You can’t take that away. The 5-Hour Energy Camry was fantastic, but you still wish you could’ve had that little bit more to grab the win. That one would’ve meant a lot to us, but we’ll just have to keep after it. That’s two good weeks for us and we’re going to keep fighting and keep going after these wins.”
Two good tracks coming up, can you repeat the feat and get a win?
“Well I hope so. Bristol was – I felt like was one of our best shots to win. It showed I felt like. We led a ton of laps just didn’t have quite enough when it matter. I wished we would’ve freed it up a little more. We got up on the top there and it really seemed like whoever was out front was going to win, so just didn’t have quite enough.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
A satisfying third place or disappointing?
“Half and half. Definitely with the track position, we definitely could have held those guys off. We caught them a little bit in that last run, but I restarted on the bottom so many times that it’s one of those weekends where I would love that cone rule where you can pick what lane you want to go in on restarts. I’d be willing to start 12th on the outside versus third on the inside. It’s just I got killed on restarts all day, but we did a really good job of bouncing back and good finish.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 DEWALT / Flexvolt Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
“Unfortunately we just it just got bigger. We had the opportunity to get there. We had good restarts. We were really really good early in the race, ten lap runs and Jason (Ratcliff) made good adjustments and got it where we were good on a 50-lap run. After that we were just junk. It just wouldn’t turn off the corner and I was just a dead dog. Trying to pace it early that run and with only one set of tires left we had to stay out. It was just too long a run for the way our car was set up. We were really good on restarts, really good short runs, long runs just couldn’t get it done.”
