Saturday
Toyota NNS Teams Post-Heluva Good! 200 Race Recaps
Press Release
• Kyle Busch led a race-high 108 laps, but finished 17th after a right-front tire went down with two laps remaining.
• Toyota drivers Brian Vickers (fourth), Scott Speed (seventh) and Jason Leffler (eighth) also posted top-10 finishes.
• Camry drivers led 195 of 200 laps in the 200-mile race.
• Camry drivers Michael McDowell (11th), Michael Annett (19th), Kevin Conway (24th), Scott Lagasse, Jr., (27th) and Marc Davis (34th) were also in the field.
• Busch maintains the unofficial NNS points lead by 43 points over second-place, Carl Edwards, and Leffler currently ranks third.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 GameStop Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
Did you have a chance to win before what happened at the end of the race with Kyle Busch?
“I had a great car for sure. The GameStop Toyota was good and we led a lot of laps. I felt like I had a really good shot of winning this thing. At the end I just screwed up. That’s pretty much what happened. I got behind Kyle (Busch) on the restart and I finally had a good restart. He’s been kicking my butt every restart — kicking my butt through the first corner. I was trying to stay right up on him. I wasn’t going to make the move right then into that corner. I figured he would just blow my doors in so I was going to stay with him through the first corner and try to make a move after that. I got right up on his bumper and he went into one and let up earlier than I thought he was going to and I hit him in the back and that was pretty much what happened. It’s completely my fault. I was just surprised. There was no room for error where I positioned my car right behind him. As soon as he checked up a little bit and I was expecting him to drive in there harder that’s when I got in the back of him.”
Do you think Kyle Busch had a tire going down or missed a shift on that restart?
“I don’t know. I tried to come over his radio when the race was over, but I don’t think I had the right channel to talk to him on my radio there. He actually spun his tires on the restart and that’s why he didn’t have a good start and allowed me to get up on him. As far as the right-front (tire) down, I don’t know. I thought by the time that I got off of him we were going forward enough that he should’ve been able to make the turn, but I’m not in his race car and I don’t know exactly what happened.”
Did you feel you had a shot at winning at the end?
“Oh yeah. Really, I thought my car was better on the short run. I’d take off pretty good and then I’d get really loose and that’s when I lost it to a few cars and my car would start sliding back up and I’d start reeling cars back in. If it was a real long run I thought I’d have something. A 15- or 20-lap run I didn’t have nothing for. The short run going into the last start, yeah, I really thought I had something for him. I thought we might’ve had something for him before that restart there right before we had the caution, I thought I had something for him, too. I got my fenders knocked in. Kyle (Busch) got his fenders knocked in. You’re not passing them, you’re dodging them. That’s just what it comes down too. I don’t know what happened to Kyle’s car there at the end of the race, but I know he had a fender knocked in and I don’t know if that was enough to cut his tire down and if it did or not.”
Were you in any danger of losing one of your tires during the race?
“Yeah, I had a left-front fender knocked in on my left-front tire. I didn’t even know it really. I know I knocked it in a little bit, but I didn’t think I hit it hard enough to knock it into the tire. Yeah, it just rubbed enough on the side wall probably.”
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 32 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Braun Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Are you happy with your top-five finish today?
“It was a good run. I’m really proud of the guys with this Dollar General Toyota. We didn’t have quite as good of a race, but we had a good and consistent day. Nothing went wrong and we stayed out of trouble. We had great stops all day.”
Why did you signal to Carl Edwards at the end of the race, did something happen?
“No, nothing happened. We just had a heck of a race. I really had to earn that one. Carl did a great job really putting the pressure on there in the last 23 laps, especially right there at the end when we were running side-by-side for the finish. We raced him hard and clean and had a lot of fun.”
SCOTT SPEED, No. 99 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
Are you happy with your finish after starting from the rear of the field?
“It was a good race for us obviously coming from the back and to have a top-10. I thought we had a great car. We got a little bit unlucky. We got up into the wall and at the end of one of the stints we had a tire going down in the rear and that led us to make kind of — we thought the car was one way when really it was not. When we had the chance to fix it in the pit stop we just basically went down the wrong path a little bit. In the next green-flag lap we just ran and weren’t very good at all. We just basically maintained ninth or 10th and stopped going forward. Then after that there was so many quick runs, we weren’t able to get anyone back. We were much better toward the end of a run than we were at the beginning. It was a good race for us. To have a top-10 coming from last, I’ll take it.”
JASON LEFFLER, No. 38 Great Clips Toyota Camry, Braun Racing
Finishing Position: 8th
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 47 Constructionjobs.com Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing
Finishing Position: 11th
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Food Lion-Feeding America Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 17th
JASON RATCLIFF, crew chief, No. 18 Food Lion-Feeding America Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What happened at the end of the race?
“He (Kyle Busch) said he could feel the right front go down right as he was coming to the green. He wasn’t sure if it was down, or not and then right as he drove off the wall he could feel it and it was too late by that time. If he had known it earlier we could have stopped and put right sides on. But, it was at the point of no return where you’re driving off into the corner and you say ‘Okay, I don’t have a right front tire here.’ So, he did a great job just to bring it back from that. We had a good car. Everybody did a nice job. It’s another one of those deals at the end of the race. They either need to shorten these things up a little bit or make them longer. We’ll keep our chin up. We have a good race team and good race cars and a great race car driver.”
“If Kyle (Busch) maybe could have caught it earlier, maybe he could have moved up and gave him (Joey Logano) a lane. I think he was already too committed to the line he had and when the right front is flat it just doesn’t turn. So, he was trying to back his corner up to keep from knocking the wall down and when he did the 20 (Joey Logano) got into him. It wasn’t Joey’s (Logano) fault, it was just one of those things where everything lined up and turned into a bad deal all in a split second. If we would have known it under caution we could have stopped, but he (Kyle Busch) didn’t know it until it was too late. It’s one of them deals. Joey (Logano) did a fine job.”
MICHAEL ANNETT, No. 15 Germain Racing Toyota Camry, Germain Racing
Finishing Position: 19th
KEVIN CONWAY, No. 87 Extenze Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports
Finishing Position: 24th
SCOTT LAGASSE JR., No. 11 America’s Incredible Pizza Company Toyota Camry, CJM Racing
Finishing Position: 27th
What happened to take you out of the race?
“It definitely wasn’t a good day for us. We started off a little bit rough. Paul (Wolfe, crew chief) and the guys did a good job on pit road keeping us out there so we could work on it. We were going to make a decent day out of it. I don’t know — just got hit in the right-rear.”
MARC DAVIS, No. 10 The Word Network & WHUR Radio Toyota Camry, Braun Racing
Finishing Position: 34th
- Toyota Motorsports, Press Release
Article Tags: Dover International Speedway, Heluva Good! 200, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, The Monster Mile, Toyota Motorsports
