Toyota NXS California Post-Race Recap - 3.17.18

RYAN PREECE, No. 18 Rheem Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 9th

How would you evaluate your first NXS start this season?

“We were really good on restarts and thought we were going to be really good on the long run, but we struggled there and for a place like this, it’s going to bite you. Overall, we got ninth so a top-10 and we’ll build on this for Texas.”

 

How will this race help you prepare for Texas in a couple weeks?

“Seat time is everything so the more and more we’ve got going – we made the car better, we just couldn’t complete the corners. If you break a car down into five points, the fourth and fifth points – to make the straightaway as long as possible, we just struggled. Overall, I’m happy we didn’t wreck. Solid day I guess, but we need to build on it to keep climbing that ladder a little bit.”

 

BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Menards Jeld-Wen Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 13th

How was the race car today?

“We weren’t really where we wanted to be at the end of the day there. Our goal was to get at least another top-10 out of it and try to keep that rolling there. All in all, not a terrible weekend. We qualified really, really good compared to where I thought we were going to start anyway. We just weren’t great in traffic, I would get too far back and kind of get ourselves in a bind there with the aero and everything. I think we have a little bit of work to do

there as far as long run speed, but all in all really a great day – great day for Menards and so proud to be a part of Toyota and glad to be able to use their equipment

to get better at tracks like this.”

oyota Post-Race Recap

NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS)

Auto Club Speedway

Race 5 of 33 – 300 miles, 150 laps

March 17, 2018

 

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS

 

1st, Joey Logano*

2nd, Justin Allgaier*

3rd, Elliott Sadler*

4th, Austin Dillon*

5th, Daniel Hemric*

9th, RYAN PREECE

13th, BRANDON JONES

21st, CHRISTOPHER BELL

31st, STEPHEN LEICHT

32nd, JOSH BILICKI

36th, CHAD FINCHUM

*non-Toyota driver 

 

 

TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**

 

1st, Elliott Sadler*                                        199 points

2nd, Tyler Reddick*                                     195 points

3rd, Justin Allgaier*                                     194 points

4th, CHRISTOPHER BELL                             172 points

5th, Daniel Hemric*                                     169 points

9th, BRANDON JONES                                139 points

23rd, STEPHEN LEICHT                                46 points

*non-Toyota driver

**unofficial point standings

 

 

• In his first race of the 2018 season with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS), Ryan Preece wheeled his No. 18 Camry to a ninth-place finish at Auto Club Speedway.
• Brandon Jones finished 13th in his fifth NXS race with JGR and has finished inside the top-20 in each contest this season.
• After capturing his third NXS pole of the season in five races so far, Camry driver Christopher Bell was involved in an incident on Lap 106 that resulted in a 21st-place finish Saturday.