Toyota MENCS Martinsville Post-Race Recap 4.2.17
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Ryan Newman*
2nd, KYLE BUSCH
3rd, Chase Elliott*
4th, Joey Logano
5th, Austin Dillon*
9th, MATT KENSETH
12th, ERIK JONES
16th, MARTIN TRUEX JR
28th, COREY LAJOIE
29th, GRAY GAULDING
30th, DENNY HAMLIN
32nd, DANIEL SUÁREZ
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, Kyle Larson 268 points*
3rd, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 236 points
6th, KYLE BUSCH 188 points
13th, ERIK JONES 144 points
16th, DENNY HAMLIN 139 points
21st, DANIEL SUÁREZ 107 points
22nd, MATT KENSETH 105 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
- Toyota driver Kyle Busch (second) was the highest-finishing Camry driver in Sunday afternoon’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Martinsville Speedway.
- Busch led seven times for a race-high 274 laps (of 500) on the 0.52-mile track. Martin Truex Jr. (42 laps) and Denny Hamlin (24) also led during Sunday’s event.
- Camry driver Matt Kenseth (ninth) also scored a top-10 finish.
TOYOTA QUOTES
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
What more did you need when battling with Brad Keselowski at the end of the race?
“Just needed a normal set of tires. We put on a set of tires there at the end that weren’t the same as the ones that we took off and it just slowed the car down a minimum three tenths that whole entire last run. We just had no speed in the center of the corner and couldn’t maintain the drive off that we needed to on the long runs either We just were hurting it really really bad there. The M&M’s guys did a great job. (Crew chief) Adam (Stevens) and everybody on this team did a great job giving me a car capable of winning. It’s just frustrating when you come down pit road and you don’t make any changes and you bolt a set of tires on it and it goes to junk. I hate that that happened. We still haven’t finished where we should have this year. We haven’t gotten any finishes that are indicative of where this team’s been running or where we’re capable of running or finishing and that’s just frustrating, so we’ll continue on.”
What happened at the end of the race?
“All we did was put four tires on it and it went to junk. I hate it for our guys. They’ve deserved all year much better finishes than what we’ve been able to produce and here’s another one today. Just a frustrating season so far but we give it everything we got. We do all we can with what we’re given at the particular time and try to execute and do a good job. My pit crew did great today. (Crew chief) Adam (Stevens) and the guys did an awesome job on this car this weekend to get it to where it was. We were lights out faster than those guys after 20, 20 laps or so you know. There that run it was at minimum at least three tenths slower the entire time and that’s why Brad (Keselowski) just was able to drive away there at the end. We were really really really struggling. I’m surprised I held off the 24 (Chase Elliott), but you know overall just not quite getting the finishes we need with our M&M’s Camry. Can’t say enough about M&M’s and Snickers and Skittles, Pedigree, American Heritage, everybody on this Toyota Camry. We just need to figure out how to finish better than what we are, or where we are running and so far we’ve just been finishing worse.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Tide Pods Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
Walk us through your race at Martinsville.
“I mean the finish was okay for how bad we were all weekend. We just were really slow all weekend. We just fought the car being really tight. We made a little progress in the middle of the race and then we just got way off the end of the race again and just couldn’t go anywhere.”
ERIK JONES, No. 77 5-hour ENERGY Extra Strength Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
Finishing Position: 12th
How did your first Cup start at Martinsville carry out?
“It was a lot of ups and downs. I thought at one point we had a pretty good car. We were running up in the top five and as the day went on we kind of lost the handle on it, got tight in the center and just never could really get it back. Right up there at the end we went two laps down. We had to pit under green. We had a tire rub and after that the 5-hour Energy Camry got caught up in an accident, but honestly that was the best we were was after that. Not exactly sure where we came home, but that’s a good recovery for us. So (12th) isn’t the day we wanted, but definitely we’ll take it for the first time here at Martinsville.”
How aggressive was the racing at the end of the stages today?
“Pretty aggressive. There were times there were a lot of guys gunning for position. I was trying to do my best to hang in there. We didn’t quite have the car to do it for most of the day, but we made it better all day and at the end I thought we were close to a top 10 car by the end of the race.”
Ron Fleshman
RIS NASCAR Editor. Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.