TODD BODINE, No. 30 Germain.com Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
Was your final pit stop the key to your third-place finish? “That’s one thing, all the Germain guys are strong in the pits. Every week they beat guys out and that’s what keeps us up front. We were free all day and right there at the end we got a little tight off. I couldn’t quite run with Ron (Hornaday Jr.) and Johnny (Sauter), they were a little fast with a little too much horsepower, but this Toyota was awesome. To overcome what we did today with getting a speeding penalty and then a flat tire under green putting us a lap down and to come back and finish third, that’s what this team is all about. We just never give up.”
Did you think you had a shot at the win when Ron Hornaday Jr. and Johnny Sauter made contact in the closing laps? “I actually couldn’t see it. (Mike Hillman) Junior told me that them clowns were up there racing each other hard so keep digging. That’s what we do. Unfortunately for us they straightened it out and kept going.”
BRIAN ICKLER, No. 18 Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 4th
Was your truck being loose the key to your finish today at Kansas? “We were a little free. I’m real proud of the guys. They did a great job all day on pit road. I had a good run today for KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) and hopefully we can keep — just happy we can keep the 18 up there in points.”
JOHNNY BENSON, No. 15 Red Top Collector Car Auction Toyota Tundra, Billy Ballew Motorsports Finishing Position: 5th
How was your race? “We kind of stayed off pit road with old tires thinking that we’d get a caution at the end and have tires on everybody, but it went green so I really have to thank Cowboy (Kevin Starland, crew chief) and everybody at Billy Ballew Motorsports. It was a great car and have to thank Red Top Auto Auctions and their May 22 and 23 big auction there in Georgia.”
Are you happy with your finish? “Yeah, for what we had and from where we started off. We seemed to struggle. For some reason our Tundra wasn’t drafting as good as it needed to be. I was stalling out, I’m not sure why that was doing that. That made it tough, but those guys made a great call staying out on tires. That wasn’t our plan, but after I saw no one else was coming, we decided to finish it off. I was starting to get slow there at the end but I’m sure that everyone else was, too.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 51 Graceway Pharmaceuticals/AKAwareness.com Toyota Tundra, Billy Ballew Motorsports Finishing
Position: 7th
What was your truck like after the rain delay? “I guess it would have kept raining now. We thought we were going to make some adjustments there on that pit stop and help us and we didn’t help us at all. It really hurt our truck. I don’t know, we made the wrong adjustment.”
MIKE SKINNER, No. 5 International Trucks/Monaco RV Toyota Tundra, Randy Moss Motorsports Finishing Position: 8th
How was your truck after the rain delay? “We really struggled all day. Our truck was just horribly loose and bouncing all over the place. We really struggled and when it rained, Gene (Nead, crew chief) and the guys, they got their heads together. According to him, he didn’t do that much but all of a sudden they fixed our truck and I think it was more with air pressure than anything else. Then the truck was too tight, which was okay, I could have raced like that. If we could have started the day like that, and been tunable, we could have definitely been a threat for the top-three.”
DAVID STARR, No. 81 PC Miler Navigator Toyota Tundra, Randy Moss Motorsports
Finishing Position: 10th
How was your race? “It wasn’t bad. Our PC Miler Navigator Zachry Toyota Tundra was okay. At times we were better. We struggled pretty much all day long. We were decent at times and struggled other times, all in all it was just an okay race. To come back and finish in the top-10 with how practice was, I’d say it was almost like a win for us because we were pretty bad in practice. It’s frustrating for me and (Doug) Wilcott (crew chief) and all the guys on the team trying to get this thing handled a little bit better. To come back from as bad as we were, not a bad finish — we messed up right there at the end. Once the track got back on the race track they had pit road back open and all my guys went down there ready for a pit stop and we went from eighth to 16th, I think that hurt us a lot. All in all, everybody did a good job and when you start complaining about top-10s, that’s sad so I’m not going to complain. It’s just not what we were looking for, we were looking for a lot better. Not bad, good day for everybody.”
JUSTIN LOFTON, No. 7 VisitPit.com Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 13th
How was your race? “Our race was good. At first we were hoping for day light or sunlight and then we got the sun to come out and now we were kind of wishing it hadn’t rained. When the sun came out, we made a couple of adjustments to try to get some speed out of the truck, which we’ve been looking for all weekend and then we went backwards. We made it looser — it just went backwards. It is what it is — worse racing term there is. I’m proud of the guys on the No. 7 Toyota Tundra, they did a great job all weekend. We had three solid stops, we have a truck that’s in one piece. We might have finished one lap down, but the leader was right in front of me. It’s a big improvement for us in our season, getting some momentum going. We’ll go on to Dover and we’ll let ‘er rip.”
TAYLER MALSAM, No. 56 One Eighty Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 22nd
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Strutmasters.com Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 23rd
JESSE SMITH, No. 90 Great Wolfe Lodge/Great Clips Toyota Tundra, Stringer Motorsports
Finishing Position: 29th
- Toyota Motorsports, Press Release
