Catchfence

TOYOTA NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS)

Post-Race Notes & Quotes

Darlington Raceway – May 7, 2010

- Denny Hamlin won Friday night’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Darlington Raceway.

- Hamlin started from the pole and led four times for 111 (of 147) laps at the 1.366-mile track.

- Kyle Busch finished second and led once for 17 laps.

- It marks the ninth time since 2008 (80 races) that Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have swept first and second place finishes.
Kasey Kahne (fourth), Jason Leffler (fifth) and Brian Vickers (ninth) also recorded top-10 finishes for Toyota.

- Camry drivers Michael Annett (11th), Steve Wallace (12th), Trevor Bayne (16th), Brian Scott (25th) and Brendan
Gaughan (33rd) were also in the field.

- Busch climbed to second in the unofficial NNS point standings — 55 points behind leader Brad Keselowski. Joey Logano
(seventh), Leffler (ninth), Bayne (11th), Scott (12th), Gaughan (13th), Wallace (14th) and Annett (15th) are also in the
top-15 after 10 of 35 races.

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 20 Z-Line Designs/Operation Helmet Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 1st

How good was your car tonight?

“This was a great race car. Congratulations to Kevin Kidd (crew chief), this is his first win at Joe Gibbs Racing, taking over for Dave Rogers. Me and Dave (Rogers) did, I think, a pretty good job building this program over the last three to four years and a lot of credit goes to Dave. He’s moved on and had some success but now it’s time for Kevin (Kidd) to show what he’s got. He gave me a great race car. It was that easy. When you have a car that drives as good as it did today, it makes your job a whole lot easier. I gotta thank Monica Sexton (Z-Line Designs), we won the competition with Kyle (Busch). Everyone at Z-Line Designs, Toyota, FedEx, WileyX, Gillette, everyone from Nationwide Insurance for helping put this on.”

What is the Z-Line Designs ‘Operation Helmet?’

“We’re giving away after-market padding for the helmets — the stock stuff is pretty hard and pretty tough on the guys out there. We wanted to make their jobs easy as possible. We’re donating all that stuff for free. I gotta thank Joe Gibbs oils as well. They help us with a lot of stuff in a lot of races.”

What does it mean to win on Mother’s Day Weekend?

“It’s special, that’s for sure. I don’t consider myself a very good Nationwide driver, and to get a win like this on Mother’s Day. She’s my number one fan. She’s always at every single souvenir hauler. She’s a big Twitter fanatic, like I am. Everyone can keep up through with what I’m doing through her or myself. She’s just having so much fun. My parents sacrificed a lot when I was growing up. They didn’t get to take vacations or buy any nice cars because they were busy building me good race cars.

Now they get to live the life that they should.”

How tough was it to battle Kyle Busch on the late-race restarts?

“Kyle (Busch) is so good on restarts, it’s hard to hold him off. I knew that if I could just hold him off for one lap, we could clear him. He gave us a run for our money. It’s so hard on this race track to run two-wide, especially that first corner, but me and him made it work. I talked to him over the radio. I said, ‘Is this the new Kyle, or the old Kyle?’ It depends on which one is gonna race me. Kevin Kidd’s (crew chief) first win with this race team, and everyone from Z-Line Designs.”

How does it feel to run for a team so competitive in the Nationwide Series?

“Up until I’d say probably three years ago when Joe Gibbs Racing Nationwide Series their teams really hit their stride, we also went 10 years with no wins. We watched RCR do this same thing for five or six years. This was the work of myself and Dave (Rogers) and a lot of guys with that Nationwide program. The way we’re running now has to do with the work we’ve done three or four years ago and helped build this program into what it is. And now it’s up to Kevin (Kidd, 20 crew chief) and Jason (Ratcliff, 18 crew chief) to keep that going. And that’s the hardest part. Once you get onto just trying to stay onto. They’ve got the task of doing that and this year obviously they’ve shown that they can step up to the plate. As myself and Joey (Logano) and Kyle (Busch) expect to get in the best race cars once we get in them and that’s what makes it a lot of fun to get into the Nationwide Series cars. When we step in this 18 or 20 car we know we’ve got the best stuff.”

KEVIN KIDD, crew chief, No. 20 Z-Line Designs / Operation Helmet Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

How good does it feel to get your first Nationwide Series win?

“It’s just an overwhelming feeling right now to be able to go to victory lane and particularly to do it at a place like this. It has as much history in it with great crew chiefs and great drivers who have been to victory lane here. I’m just proud to be a part of that now.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Z-Line Designs / Racing for Kids Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 2nd

How was your run tonight?

“It was alright. We had really, really fast race car. Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and the guys did a great job. I think we were a little bit better than what the 20 (Denny Hamlin) was but it just shows how pivotal clean air is. He was out-front all night. He even took two tires there on that caution when we took four and we got behind on track position a little bit. We passed our way up through there and thought we were going to run them down and just kept getting tight behind lap cars and then started just maintaining pace with Denny but was never able to gain anymore on him. That last restart there through one and two we had a good restart actually. Him (Denny Hamlin) being on the outside and for as close as you race around each other around this place you can get sucked around so easily. I knew better of it than to wreck both of our cars to just roll out a little bit out of turn two and fend for myself down the backstretch with the 88 (Jamie McMurray). Fortunately I was able to keep second. It just feels really, really bad that you can’t pass here.”

How frustrating was this race?

“That’s what this place is. It can really, really frustrate you very fast because you’re racing your guts out and sometimes can’t pass people. It’s tough on drivers. It’s tough on equipment, especially. I’m just proud of the fact that we came out of here without a mark on the car tonight so that was good. I think we were going to take this one to Charlotte so that will be good for us and unfortunately we had a rough day on the Cup side, but whatever polesitter.”

Were you confident in your decision not to pit on that second to last caution?

“If you don’t get out-front after the last pit stop you’re stuck. That’s it. You’re stuck and you couldn’t pass. Denny (Hamlin) was good, don’t get me wrong. He had a very fast race car as well as we did. You just can’t pass at this race track. It’s so aero sensitive. You get stuck behind people. We saw it last year with Mark Martin. He came with the lead off pit road on the last pit stop in the Cup race, led the last 40 or 45 laps or whatever it was — tomorrow night is going to be fun.”

Did you have doubts about that call to stay out after you did it?

“I had doubts about it. Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and I were talking back and forth. Jason wanted to pit. He said, ‘Let’s
come.’ And he didn’t say if the 20 (Denny Hamlin) stays out or if he comes. He didn’t say regardless the point. So we kind of had a little miscommunication there. When I saw the 20 stay out I thought, ‘I’m going to stay out.’ Then when I saw as many guys come behind us I was like, ‘Oh, that was the wrong call. We’re going to get run over here. These guys are going to come and get us.’ But our cars were really fast tonight, but on the other part they were really fast on restarts. The tires kind of came back pretty quick and you could get back going pretty well. It’s hard to race that fast around this race track that close together and not wreck, but I guess I thought better or wrecking and finishing second tonight.”

KASEY KAHNE, No. 38 Great Clips Toyota Camry, Braun Racing

Finishing Position: 4th

Are you happy with your finish tonight?

“It was a good night. I stayed off the wall during the race. (Jason) Leffler ran great. He ran out of gas to crank it left. I had to avoid him and (Jamie) McMurray made out there pretty good. It was still a good night for our Great Clips Toyota team did a good job. We just needed a little more to run with those two guys out-front.”

Did it get crazy out there at times tonight?

“Yeah, we were three-wide a few times and it was pretty crazy. There’s barely enough room for two, let alone three. It was pretty cool. We were able to keep it off the wall tonight so it was good.”

JASON LEFFLER, No. 10 ABF Freight Toyota Camry, Braun Racing

Finishing Position: 5th

Are you happy with your top-five finish tonight?

“Yeah, it was an awesome night. I’ve got to thank all of my guys. I’ve got to thank Trip Bruce (crew chief) and everybody on my team and everybody at Braun Racing — all of the other crew chiefs and teams were all really one big family so everybody pulled together and helped us out this week. The ABF Camry was really good. It’s the most competitive we’ve been all year. It adds up that we have Trip Bruce here and we ran really well. I look forward to going to Dover and Charlotte and we can build on this. It’s not too late in the season to still have a good season.”

Was this finish what you needed to give your team some momentum?

“It’s perfect. We needed to finish some races for driver points and some owner’s points. Kasey (Kahne) did a good job with the 38. It was fun racing him and Brian (Vickers) ran really well. It was fun. Darlington is always fun.”

Did you have a problem with your transmission at the end of the race?

“No, we were out of fuel. We cut it that close on fuel and it just burped that time. There was really no problem with the
transmission other than the boot was holding it up from second to third and I kept missing. I think that caused the vibration.

I’m sure I broke a valve screen or something. All in all it was a great run for us. We needed this. It was our first really
competitive run of the year. I’ve got to thank ABF for coming onboard and Toyota for all of their support.”

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 32 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Braun Racing

Finishing Position: 9th

MICHAEL ANNETT, No. 15 Germain.com / Pilot Travel Centers Toyota Camry, Germain Racing

Finishing Position: 11th

STEVE WALLACE, No. 66 5-hour Energy Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing

Finishing Position: 12th

TREVOR BAYNE, No. 99 Diamond-Waltrip Toyota Camry, Diamond-Waltrip Racing

Finishing Position: 16th

How was your race today?

“The Diamond-Waltrip Toyota was really good all day. I just got into Matt (Kenseth) there so we had to come down pit road and took tires and lost track position. We didn’t get the finish we deserved today but it’s definitely a step in the right direction for our team. The car was awesome today.”

BRIAN SCOTT, No. 11 AccuDoc Solutions Toyota Camry, Braun Racing

Finishing Position: 25th

BRENDAN GAUGHAN, No. 62 South Point Casino & Hotel Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing

Finishing Position: 33rd

- Toyota Motorsports Press Release