Catchfence

Toyota Motorsports

Daytona International Speedway – July 2, 2010

- Joey Logano (second) was the highest finishing Toyota driver in Friday night’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race
at Daytona International Speedway — the debut of the new Nationwide Series car.

- Camry driver Kyle Busch also earned a top-10 finish with a seventh-place result at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

- Michael Annett (12th), Jason Leffler (14th), Steve Wallace (15th), Tayler Malsam (18th), Reed Sorenson (22nd), Trevor
Bayne (27th), Brendan Gaughan (29th), Brian Scott (30th) and Kevin Lepage (39th) were also in the field for Toyota.

- Camry drivers Busch (fourth), Logano (seventh), Wallace (eighth), Gaughan (ninth), Leffler (10th), Bayne (11th), Annett
(12th) and Scott (14th) are in the top-15 in the unofficial NNS point standings after 17 of 35 races.

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 SportClips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 2nd

What happened on the final restart?

“I just wanted to win real bad. It seems like every time I come to restrictor-plate race tracks like this I push someone to a win. I just can’t get anyone to push me yet. I’m sure the fans are pretty pumped up about getting (Dale Earnhardt) Jr. back up in victory lane like that. Man, I wanted to be in victory lane. It was a good run, but it’s not a win.”

How was your race?

“We had a good car. I knew it was going to be a good car before the race started. I just wanted to win. I felt like me and Kyle (Busch) were able to work good together and I feel like maybe if a few of us pushed to the lead maybe I would’ve been able to do something to beat him. Kyle (Busch) and I kind of had a good plan going and then the caution came out. He pitted and kind of left me out there alone. So I restarted third and I was able to push the 3 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) ahead quite a bit on the restart.

I go, ‘This is going to be good and when the 6 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) comes to me I’m going to maybe be able to make a run on the 3 and pass him.’ I did exactly that. The 6 got to me and I said, ‘Alright, here we go.’ He got right on me and I started looking high just so he knew I was going to go out there and he started peaking back to the bottom and I thought he was going to fill the hole on me so I went back to the bottom and settled for second. I’m sure I gained a lot of fans by pushing the 3 to victory lane so I’ve got that part going for me, but I’d much rather be in victory lane.”

Did you second guess yourself when you thought about pulling out to pass Dale Earnhardt Jr.?

“I want to win races. I’ll do whatever it takes to win a race. I was going to race him clean, I was going to do whatever it took. I guess I would’ve bummed out some (Dale) Earnhardt fans if I beat him, but I guess I gained a lot by doing what I did. I wanted to win — that was option number one for me.”

Did it ever cross your mind how unpopular a victory it might have been if you beat the 3 car?

“Yeah, but it’s Daytona and there’s nothing cooler than winning at this race track. It never crossed my mind that no one would like me because I won the race. I was all about winning it. I was going to do whatever I had to do to win a race. I wasn’t going to wreck him by no means, but I would’ve done whatever I can do to cleanly win the race and I didn’t make it.”

What are you impressions of the new car on the race track?

“I didn’t think they were that bad at all. I thought they were pretty good. When we came here for the test a few months ago everyone was pretty sideways and we were all chasing the car a lot, and I think all of these teams did a good job going back cutting up what they need to — new front ends or whatever they did to really make these things work better. When we unloaded here on Wednesday I said, ‘Man, it’s not too bad.

A little adjustment here or a little thing there and I feel like my car is one of the best ones out here.’ They definitely driver more like the Cup car which is good for me and I think is good for guys like Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.) that are trying to get there someday. I think that’s a cool part. Definitely the horsepower is still down so that makes you feel like they drive a lot better than the Cup car. But, I’m definitely able to transfer things from what I learned tonight into tomorrow which is cool. I haven’t been able to do that in a long time with Nationwide and Cup. I think that’s fun.”

Did you notice anything with the patch on turn 2?

“I didn’t notice anything. To be honest with you, I didn’t even know something was wrong last night when they fixed the patch out there. I didn’t see anything wrong with anything out there. It’s typical bumpy sliding around, hard to get your car to handle, but that’s Daytona and that’s really fun. I’m going to have my hands full tomorrow. I’m sure I’m going to get out of that race and thank God I’m still alive, I hope.

It’s crazy out there with the Sprint Cup cars. Everyone is definitely hanging on. You even saw today in the Nationwide race, and you’ve got to remember — I think they’re two seconds slower or something like that and you saw how much the field was breaking apart. Tomorrow, you’re going to see that plus some tomorrow trying to find clean air. The leaders had good enough cars that they were able to stay behind each other, but that was only four cars that were good enough to do that and the rest of them had to find clean air or do something like break apart.

I can’t tell you how many times I broke away from a pack racing with a car and then once it finally single-filed out me by myself with clean air I was able to run down the next pack in front of me — just because I had clean air — and that’s how big it is here. That’s going to be that times 10 tomorrow.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 NOS Loaded Cherry Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 7th

What are your impressions of the new Nationwide Series car?

“It was alright. It was a fine race. It was fun. They’re a bit of a handful. We learned a lot about it anyway right now.”

Did you notice any problem in turn two where they patched the track?

“No. We’re still dragging through there which is going to tear it up again anyway.”

Did you have to stop at the end of the race for tires?

“We didn’t have to — we just did because we thought the best way to beat the 3 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.). But, if I would have restarted behind him I probably could have had him. We thought tires were going to work, but everybody that’s back there in the back of the pack like that are in way.”

JASON RATCLIFF, crew chief, No. 18 NOS Loaded Cherry Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

What are your impressions of the new Nationwide Series car and why did you stop for tires late in the race?

“I felt like we learned a lot. I’m really proud of the guys back at the shop. They did a great job building these race cars and all the work that our engineers and road guys — they put a lot of effort into this thing at the test and I felt like we came back really strong. We had cars that ran up front all night. There at the end — it was just everybody was just lined up. You couldn’t get any track position and there wasn’t enough cars to bunch up and start passing again. We felt like we needed to come down and get tires and give it a shot. A lot of cars came with us. We needed more cars to come with us. It got all bunched up there at the end.

It was just a road block and we couldn’t get back to the front. All in all, I was really happy with our performance. Really
excited the way the car performed and nothing crazy happened. We’re looking forward to going to Michigan with it.”

MICHAEL ANNETT, No. 15 Germain.com Toyota Camry, Germain Racing

Finishing Position: 12th

JASON LEFFLER, No. 38 Great Clips Toyota Camry, Braun Racing

Finishing Position: 14th

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

Finishing Position: 15th

TAYLER MALSAM, No. 10 Iron Horse Jeans Toyota Camry, Braun Racing

Finishing Position: 18th

REED SORENSON, No. 32 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Braun Racing

Finishing Position: 22nd

How was your race tonight?

“Well, we definitely had our share of bad luck this weekend at Daytona. Having to go to a back-up Dollar General Toyota cost us a lot of practice time yesterday. Fortunately, Nationwide qualifying didn’t rain out and we were able to run two laps today. We were bottoming out really bad, so bad that we made repairs to the car and started from the back of the field.

Trent (Owens, crew chief) and the guys did a great job adjusting on the car and with our pit stops. We were really good in the final runs. We were running 13th when the right front tire just exploded. We almost had a good finish despite everything, but the tire pretty much ended that. Still, we learned a lot here this week and will be a lot further along when we race these new cars at Michigan.”

TREVOR BAYNE, No. 99 OUT! Pet Care Toyota Camry, Diamond-Waltrip Racing

Finishing Position: 27th

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

Finishing Position: 29th

BRIAN SCOTT, No. 11 Great Clips Toyota Camry, Braun Racing

Finishing Position: 30th

KEVIN LEPAGE, No. 56 Race Day Sponsor Toyota Camry, Mac Hill Motorsports

Finishing Position: 39th

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