Hot News NASCAR Cup Series NASCAR Nationwide Series

Toyota NASCAR Texas Notes and Quotes

Brian Carroccio

Matt Kenseth sits a mere five points out of the championship lead.

CAMRY CHASERS: Two Camry drivers are competing in the ‘Eliminator’ round of this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) championship playoff. Matt Kenseth (-5 points) and Denny Hamlin (-7 points) are fourth and fifth, respectively, in the title hunt after both earned top-10 finishes at Martinsville Speedway. Two races remain in this penultimate round with events at the 1.5-mile oval of Texas Motor Speedway and the one-mile flat track of Phoenix International Raceway — before four drivers will continue on to compete for this year’s crown at the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS: Toyota drivers have visited victory lane at Texas more than any other track on the NASCAR circuit — 21 total Toyota Texas wins. Camry drivers have three NSCS victories, six NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) triumphs and 12 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) trophies. Kyle Busch has the most Texas Toyota victories (nine) with one NSCS win (April 2013), six NNS victories (including five straight from April 2008 through April 2010) and two NCWTS first-place finishes (Nov. 2009 and 2010).

2014 is Toyota's tenth year in NASCAR.

TOYOTA’S 10 YEARS IN NASCAR: Toyota is celebrating its 10th anniversary in NASCAR this year. Here is another highlight from Toyota’s first 10 years in the sport. Toyota driver Denny Hamlin wins the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Virginia’s Martinsville Speedway, making Hamlin the 23rd driver in NASCAR history to win races in all three NASCAR national touring series (Oct. 29, 2011).

NOTES, QUOTES & NUMBERS

Denny Hamlin swept the Texas races in 2010.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS): Denny Hamlin swept the Texas NSCS races in 2010 … Kenseth leads NSCS drivers at Texas with the most top-five finishes (13) and top-10 results (17) at Texas … In 24 Texas races, Kenseth has an average finishing position of 8.2 and also has two Texas triumphs — April 2002 and April 2011.

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

How do you approach the next two races before the cutoff for the championship?

“I think we approach it and keep doing what we’re doing, but try to do it better because we’ve been doing our best every week trying to win races. Obviously the results that we’ve had, especially the last two out of three weeks — those aren’t going to be good enough to get in the last four. We keep doing what we know how to do and keep trying to make our cars better and try to race as hard as we can and be as smart as we can — we need to do all those things, but hope for better results."

Is it an advantage or disadvantage to have a teammate in contention for the championship alongside you?

“Neither one as far as where you are in points. I always feel like the better your teammates run, of course you want to beat them, but the better they run and all that, the more it helps you. I think all three of us want to help each other and I think the better we all run, the better it is for the whole organization. We have more data to look through, we have more information to talk about, more things to ask about and work together and all that. Certainly when all three of the cars run good, I think that’s good for all of us."

Does Texas Motor Speedway create good late race battles for the win?

“I think every circumstance is different. Every race plays out a little bit different. Two years ago, the race lent itself to an exciting battle for the win, because you have the fastest car behind the car who is backing up a little bit. I think any race track, any race — that’s how you create exciting finishes and exciting racing is by separating the field a little bit. The faster car catching the slower car is going to create passing and an exciting race. Just those circumstances had that where we were fading a little bit and he was fading at the end."

Denny Hamlin

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Do you have the speed to win at Texas?

“At these race tracks speed isn’t as big of an issue — even though Texas is a fast race track, it has enough tire fall off that a good handling car makes up for it. I feel like we were at our worst to the competition earlier this season and we led laps at Texas. I believe that we have all the tools necessary. We’ve got a pit crew that’s very, very fast — even though we had a setback there with losing our jack man (Nate Boling). There’s no reason why we can’t be as competitive as any one of these seven guys we’re racing against these next races."

Clint Bowyer

CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing

How do you approach the closing races of this season?

“For us it’s more of an organization deal, not just a team thing. We’ve got to figure out how to collectively get better with both cars. We’ve got a lot of areas that we can improve on. It’s easy to point fingers on a lot of big areas that you think, but in all honesty in this sport and in this garage it’s the little things that make up the difference. There’s clearly a lot of things we have to get better at."

NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS): Camry drivers Elliott Sadler (fourth) and James Buescher (10th) are currently in the top-10 in the NNS point standings following 30 of 33 races this season … The next NNS win by Joe Gibbs Racing will be the organization’s 100th … Of the first 99 victories by JGR drivers, 90 have been in a Camry since 2008 … Kyle Busch holds the NNS all-time record for most laps led (14,441) and has paced Texas NNS races for 1,381 total laps in 17 events … James Buescher, driver of the No. 99 RAB Racing Camry, is a native of Plano … David Starr, who lives in nearby Flower Mound, Texas, will drive a TriStar Motorsports Camry at Texas on Saturday.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS): Tundra drivers Matt Crafton (first), Darrell Wallace Jr. (third), Johnny Sauter (fourth), Timothy Peters (fifth), German Quiroga (sixth) and Jeb Burton (ninth) rank in the top-10 of the NCWTS point standings after 19 of 22 races this season … Tundra drivers have registered 15 victories this year, tying the most for Toyota in a single-season which also occurred in 2010 … Toyota can clinch the NCWTS manufacturer’s championship at Texas with a seventh-place finish … Tundra drivers have the most victories (12) at two tracks on the schedule — Martinsville Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway … Tundra driver Darrell Wallace Jr. visited Plano on Monday for a Toyota-hosted ‘Hello Texas’ event … Earlier this year, Toyota announced the relocation of its North American headquarters to Plano, Texas … The Tundra production truck is built in San Antonio and more than one million Tundras have been built in Texas.

Darrell Wallace Jr.

DARRELL WALLACE JR., No. 54 Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports

How much momentum do you have for Texas with three top-10 finishes in three starts?

“A lot of that is the confidence in our mile-and-a-half stuff is higher than it was going into the spring race this year. By the end of that race, I found out we were a lot better than where we’ve been. The last mile-and-a-halves that we’ve had since Texas we’ve been fast and leading laps and running up front. We finished second at Vegas so I’m excited to get back to Texas. Three top-10s and looking to make it a top-five — I think we’re just shy of that. Excited and pumped up for Texas."

Toyota Racing