Toyota MENCS Texas Post-Qualifying Quotes - 4.7.17

 

Toyota Racing Post-Qualifying Quotes

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)

Texas Motor Speedway

500 miles, 334 laps

April 7, 2017

TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS

1st, Kevin Harvick*

7th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.

8th, MATT KENSETH

17th, DENNY HAMLIN

20th, DANIEL SUÁREZ

23rd, COREY LaJOIE

29th, GRAY GAULDING

34th, KYLE BUSCH

36th, ERIK JONES

40th, DERRICK COPE

*non-Toyota driver

 

TOYOTA QUOTES

MARTIN TRUEX, JR, No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing

Starting Position: 7th

How was qualifying on the new surface?

“It’s tricky. It was good. You know, I couldn’t get (Turns) 1 and 2 right the whole dang time, so it probably should have been better than seventh. I think the car was better than the driver today, so we’ll work hard on it tomorrow and go get them on Sunday.”

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Let’s Go Places Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Starting Position:  8th

How was your qualifying effort?

“I mean, we always want to do better than eighth, but, yeah, it was a good effort for us We weren’t really good at mock running with that crash in practice and all the traffic on the track, so overall it was okay. We always want to be better than that, but it was okay.”

Is qualifying tricky with the new surface?

“Yeah, everything is tricky with a new surface, you know what I mean? It’s not just qualifying – obviously, practice has been tricky and the race in traffic is going to be extremely tricky.”

 

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Starting Position: 34th

ADAM STEVENS, crew chief, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

What caused your delays in tech?

“Well, we were just behind the eight ball having to fix that car, so obviously we got in line really late and in our haste, we didn’t get out tech blocks set correctly, so we passed templates, passed the grid, passed undercar, passed everything except when we got to the scales, which is the very last thing and the wedge has to be within a certain number and we were below that number. That’s just for tech – it’s not for on the race track – so the car was all set to go and we didn’t get a chance to set our tech blocks because we were in such a hurry, so just an error on our part.”

 

How does this change your race?

“Well, every car can’t start at the back, so I don’t know where we fall. I don’t know how many cars missed, so just have to wait and see. I don’t know.”

ERIK JONES, No. 77 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing

Starting Position: 36th

Did going to a backup car lead to your tech delays today?

“Well, we just had some issues getting through. It’s kind of on me that we had to go to a backup car and obviously the first time through tech you’re going to have some issues and there’s a backup anyways today, so it just didn’t work out for us, but the guys did a good job doing all they could to get the car ready. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get the 5-hou ENERGY Camry out there in time, so got a long ways to go on Sunday. We’ll be starting pretty far back, but we’ve got 500 miles to do it and I think we’ll see us up front there towards the end of the race.”

How long does the wait feel watching tech in a day like today?

“Pretty long, you know? I was looking forward to kind of getting back out there and giving it another shot, you know? I think we would have had a really good car. We showed it in practice we had really good speed before the wreck and unfortunately we just didn’t get a chance to go out there and try it again, so we’ll go out after tomorrow and work on race trim a couple practices and try to get the best we can for 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.

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Volume 2017, Issue 4, Posted 9:15 PM, 04.08.2017