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Toyota: NNS Homestead Notes & Quotes

Brian Carroccio

  • Matt Kenseth got past Kyle Larson on a late-race restart to score his first NASCAR victory of 2014

    Matt Kenseth captured the checkered flag in Saturday evening's NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

  • It was Kenseth's first NNS win of the season, and his 15th top-10 finish in 2014.
  • Kenseth led the field three times for a total of 52 laps (of 206).
  • Kyle Busch finished as the race runner-up and recorded his 25th top-10 finish of the year.
  • Busch was at the front of the field twice for a total of five laps.
  • In 33 NNS races this season, Camry drivers registered 10 wins.
  • In addition to Kenseth's Miami win, Busch had seven first-place finishes during the year (Phoenix, Bristol, Dover-2, Richmond, Kansas and Texas
  • Elliot Sadler won at Talladega, while Sam Hornish, Jr. picked up a win at Iowa

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 GameStop/Rock Candy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st

How does it feel to return to victory lane?

"It's been a long time since I won a race in anything — so just happy for Kevin (Kidd, crew chief). He's been trying to get a win over here for a long time and he's going onto something different next year. Happy to send him off with a win here — that was pretty cool. Kyle (Larson) got around me on that second-to-last restart, but when he chose the bottom there and I had Kyle (Busch) behind me, I knew that we had a shot. I just had to do a better job than I did the time before — so luckily we got that one last chance to redeem ourselves. I just want to thank GameStop, Rock Candy, Reser's and Toyota — also Nationwide Insurance. They have been a great series sponsor — hate to see them go, but looking forward to next year."

How important is this win?

"It's always important to win — it's not like I tried harder today than I did the last 35 weeks. It's been a good year and been pretty solid. We've just had a lot of circumstances toward the end of the race where we haven't won. I thought we were going to have that again this week when I messed up and let Kyle (Larson) get by me, but thankful we had a chance to redeem ourselves and got rolling pretty good on that last one."

Is it special to win the final race of the season?

"It's cool to be here. Really happy for Kevin (Kidd, crew chief) and this whole group behind me. They've worked really hard on this thing the last few years and haven't gotten as many wins as we'd like to have. I was glad to send them off on a winning note here. Got great partners here and great race cars. Kyle (Busch) usually hogs all the wins so I was happy that we could get one tonight for GameStop and Toyota. Fun race and really fun race track. Glad to be here in victory lane."

How tense were the final restarts?

"Every time we got away — the second-to-last kind of longer run I was getting away from the 54 (Kyle Busch) and there were just enough laps left where I thought he was probably going to beat me. Then we got another caution and got out front and thought everything was looking good and then we kept getting short cautions. We have a great race team and we had great pit stops today. Really happy for Kevin (Kidd, crew chief) — he's been wanting this win for awhile just like us all. It was nice to get a win in the last Nationwide Insurance race of the year. Happy to be down here. I thought we were going to lose it there on that last restart, but thankfully we had one more chance and able to get it at the end."

Kyle Busch came home 2nd make it a Camry 1-2

KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd

How was the race tonight?

"It was a good night for our Monster Energy Camry. We come to these things to try to win. We didn't have a winning car tonight, but second is pretty good. All things considered it was a great year. Can't say enough about my team — Adam Stevens (crew chief) and all my guys. They do a great job and they fight hard. They deserve to win a championship this year. I hate it we come up short again this year — two years in a row. I can't thank Monster enough, JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and JGR Engines and all the guys back at the shop. Everyone does a great job. Hard fought effort and glad to see (Matt) Kenseth win and bring JGR a final win this year."

How tense were the final restarts?

"The last few restarts definitely got exciting. I can't thank my team enough and can't say enough about JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and Monster Energy, Adam Stevens (crew chief) and all the guys that do a great job on this car. The guys gave me great pieces all year long and we ran well, finished well. I think our worst finish besides the speedway race was fourth. Just a valiant effort this season and I can't say enough about them. It's a shame we could only come home second tonight, but it's cool to see a JGR car win and go off into the off-season with a win. Come up short on the owner's championship and it's just a hard fought year. We had too many bad runs that knocked us out. All in all, we gave it everything we had tonight and just wish we had more."

Toyota Racing