Fwd: Toyota MENCS Talladega Post-Race Quotes - 5.7.17

TOYOTA QUOTES

 

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Skittles Red White & Blue Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 3rd

What happened on the final restart?

“When they have too big of a run and you can’t do anything about it. (Ricky) Stenhouse got a really good run and a good push and got by us there and then it was just about retaliation to get back on him and I just never had enough help from behind and just never got together. I just can’t say enough about this Skittles American Mix Camry – it was really fast. The guys at Joe Gibbs Racing did a great job and TRD with everyone on this motor, it was awesome. We did all we could here today and it’s all circumstantial on how you win these things. Unfortunately our circumstances didn’t quite go our way, but we go to a real race track next week and we’ll try to win there.”

How thankful were you not to be involved in the big accident?

“Certainly are, we were leading at that time and the wreck came from second so it was pretty much everybody was going to be in it and hope everyone was okay in it.”

How much were you impacted with no Toyota teammates with you at the end of the race?

“Everybody was all kind of mixed up – there was a Ford, there was a Chevy – so it was just all over the place Certainly myself and the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) and the 11 (Denny Hamlin), we all worked really well together today and it was fun to have comradery today with teammates, but they weren’t there for us at the end.”

 

ERIK JONES, No. 77 ToyotaCare Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing

Finishing Position: 33rd

You were limping coming out of the care center, are you okay and what happened in the accident?

“I’m fine, my heel is just a little bit hot from the race and hard to step on them when they’re cooking. I’m fine. It’s just unfortunate, I thought we had a good run going today and I thought we had a car that was definitely capable of running in the top-10. I was up on the high side and saw the 24 (Chase Elliott) get loose and just can’t really do much and there’s really nowhere to go. I wasn’t able to avoid it and got caught up in it. I think the car probably could have gone back out, but we ended up busting a radiator in the whole mess. Kind of ended our day, but the ToyotaCare Camry was good, just wish we could have got the result and got up there and ran for the win.”

 

What happened to take you out of the race?

“Well I just saw the 24 (Chase Elliott) get loose. I haven’t seen the replay. I’m sure somebody got into the back of him. But you know when you’re kind of up in the top, in the middle like that and you see somebody wrecking and coming back up the track, there’s only so much you can do and avoiding it is not usually one of those things. Unfortunately, our day’s over. It’s kind of a bummer. I thought we had a pretty good car. We ran up towards top 10 most of the day. Got up in the top five a few times and really think we would’ve had a shot to go up there and run well at the end, so I was kind of still hanging out. I was waiting for about 10 to go. They were starting to race pretty hard and unfortunately we got caught up in the wreck.”

 

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

Finishing Position:  35th

Was the damage terminal to your car following the accident?

“I guess it ended up just having too big of an oil leak or something like that. They looked at it for a while and thought it was just a line or something they could repair, but as they started looking at it closer they found it was detrimental. Our Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Toyota was just unbelievable today, it was so fast and felt like we were in pretty good position most of the day. We got shuffled to the outside one time there and got in a bad spot and then they started wrecking. It’s a shame, it’s the way it goes here. Unfortunately for us, it’s been a tough one to finish, but we did get stage points today so that’s a bonus and at least it’s better than running all day and crashing out and not getting anything. All in all, it’s one of those deals and it’s Talladega. Looking forward to Kansas next week for sure.”

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 5, Posted 12:08 AM, 05.08.2017