Toyota NASCAR Las Vegas Summary

March 8, 2015

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (March 8, 2015) – Camry driver Denny Hamlin tallied a pair of top-five finishes in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway over the weekend as Toyota drivers combined for four top-10 results.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Hamlin recorded a fifth-place result in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to notch his second top-five finish in the season’s first-three NSCS events.

The native of Virginia worked his way to the front of the field after starting 19th and finished fifth after suffering minor damage in an incident involving Toyota driver Carl Edwards, who finished 42nd, and Kasey Kahne.

The result was the second top-five of the year for Hamlin, who was also contending for a top-five result last week at Atlanta Motor Speedway before being involved in an on-track incident. With his second top-five, Hamlin jumped to eighth in the series point standings.

Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth led one lap in the event before finishing ninth. Edwards led two circuits before his accident with Kahne.

The NSCS returns to action next weekend at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday, March 15.

Select Toyota NSCS Driver Quotes:

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
Does your Camry look like it raced in the Short Track Showdown?
“Well, we’re not at South Boston (Speedway) yet. We’ll be there in a few months for the Short Track Showdown, but this FedEx Office team did a great job. They did a great job with the overnight adjustments. We got better. Daytona we ran fourth, Atlanta we probably should have ran fourth if I didn’t wreck and here we were fourth to fifth, so I think we know where our program is at right now. We’ve just got to get a little bit more speed and we’ll be able to race these guys, but right now we just need to optimize our weekends, finish where we’re supposed to and execute.”

How close were you to Kevin Harvick?
“I kept him (Kevin Harvick) in sight all day, but that was about it. I just could see him. Besides that, those guys are on another level as far as speed is concerned, so we’re just trying to plug away and do all the right things. I made a big mistake last week wrecking and kind of put ourselves behind the eight ball, but we’re steadily getting back in the groove. We’re just trying to gain some momentum and I think next week will be a big tell for our race team. Even though we finished fifth at Phoenix in the Chase race last year, we got lapped twice under green and were able to battle back and I think that is a track we really need to perform well at if we’re going to be a part of this Chase and part of the championship picture.”

Did you see what happened between Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne?
“I saw those two (Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne) get together and then they were side-by-side down the straightaway and I went three wide at the bottom. I didn’t want to catch the 19 (Edwards) off guard, but I didn’t know what happened that caused him to get in my right rear, but those two both had damage. It actually probably made my car a little bit better with the damage. It could have a millimeter worse and it would have been catastrophic for our car. It’s obviously been a lot of fun these last few weeks racing with Carl and he’s obviously – even though the finish didn’t show it – he’s showing a lot of speed.”

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 55 Aaron’s 60th Anniversary Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position: 15th
How was your race today? “It was good. A top-15 considering where we were at three months ago – I’ll take it. Real proud of the guys. They made the car better all day. The stops were great. You always want to do better. You always want to win, but I think for us this was a victory in a lot of ways and I’m just really proud of everyone on this Aaron’s Dream Machine crew. The Camry was great at times and we always need a little more to be a winning car, but we were a top-seven car at times and kind of finished there in the top-15. We took two (tires) at the end and it made us really tight and we kind of lost a little bit there. Like I said, thankful to be here.”

How did it feel to run your first race since surgery?
“It’s incredible. It feels so good to be back in a race car – so happy, so thankful and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be here again.”

DAVID RAGAN, No. 18 M&M’s Crispy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 22nd
How was your race?
“It was certainly unfortunate to just get behind from the get go and our M&M’s Crispy team made some really good adjustments early on and we helped the Camry a tremendous amount. But when you’re that far behind the eight ball to start, it’s tough to beat everyone. Proud of the adjustments and proud of the effort everybody put in. We’ve still got to put a whole weekend together. We’ve got good speed, a good team and a good crew and it’s just some of the small things that we’ve got to get behind us. Certainly a mistake on my part Saturday evening – it cost us a little bit, but we learned a few things and can’t wait to talk and learn about Phoenix and get ready for Phoenix.”

CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Comcast Business Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 42nd
What happened in the accident with Kasey Kahne?
“I was being too aggressive on that restart. Kasey (Kahne) got on the outside of me and he got just the right position. I started to slide up and I should have backed out of it way earlier. That’s completely my fault and that’s what ruined our day. It’s tough. I feel really bad for Comcast Business and everyone. I feel bad for Kasey Kahne’s team. That’s not something I normally do, so I have to make it up to everybody next week at Phoenix.”

Is it frustrating to wreck when you have a fast Camry?
“It’s not just frustrating – it’s pretty stupid. I just should have been a little calmer, but it’s kind of fun racing up front like that and it got me going and I just got a little over-aggressive. That’s the way it goes sometimes in racing.”

Toyota NSCS Driver Finishing Positions -- at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
1st, Kevin Harvick
5th, DENNY HAMLIN
9th, MATT KENSETH
15th, BRIAN VICKERS
21st, CLINT BOWYER
22nd, DAVID RAGAN
36th, JJ YELEY
40th, JEB BURTON
42nd, CARL EDWARDS

Toyota Drivers in NSCS Point Standings -- following Las Vegas Motor Speedway*
8th, DENNY HAMLIN 87 points (47 points behind leader Kevin Harvick)
10th, MATT KENSETH 85 points
14th, CLINT BOWYER 81 points
19th, DAVID RAGAN 75 points
23rd, CARL EDWARDS 57 points
33rd, BRIAN VICKERS 29 points
*unofficial point standings

2015 Toyota NSCS WINS: 0

Overall Toyota NSCS WINS (since 2007): 65

NASCAR XFINITY Series

Denny Hamlin (fourth) was the highest-finishing Camry in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Virginia native started 11th and led one lap (of 200) on the way to recording the top-Toyota finish in the event.

Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) teammate, Erik Jones, was competing for the victory on the 1.5-mile track and led seven laps before a late-race accident relegated the young driver to a 29th-place finish.

Daniel Suarez, another JGR Camry driver, led the field for one lap en route to his best-career result in the NXS, a 10th-place finish.

The NXS returns to action next weekend at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday, March 14.

Select Toyota NXS Driver Quotes:

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
How would you describe your day?
“Mediocre at best. Proud of this whole Monster Energy team, but that’s about what we had for a car. Just we didn’t have any short run speed and that kills you on these restarts. We had a big hole in the nose that in hindsight we probably should have fixed, but other than that it was kind of a status quo day. It’s kind of what we had. Didn’t tear anything up and we’ll build on it and try to run better next time.”

Was your car handling well at the end of the race?
“It just got tight at the end of the day, but still proud of this Monster Energy team. Just didn’t have the car or the speed to run with the 33 (Austin Dillon). We were quite a bit off on speed all day on the short run and it showed up there on those restarts.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 18 ARRIS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 10th
How was your race?
“It was good. Overall, a difficult weekend. I was very sick yesterday, but to be honest everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, ARRIS, Telcel, Toyota – they did an amazing job working hard even when I wasn’t 100 percent yesterday in practice. In the race, the balance of the ARRIS Camry was pretty good. We made some mistakes – rookie mistakes like sliding once on pit road, with speeding once on pit road – rookie mistakes, but we never gave up. We were working hard and it resulted in a good top-10 for us.”

Do you feel like you’re improving?
“Definitely we’re improving. We are learning about everything. We are getting more confident each race and that’s good. I really think that we are going to be even stronger next week in Phoenix.”

ERIK JONES, No. 20 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 29th
Were you unable to avoid the contact with Ryan Blaney?
“Yeah, unfortunately. The 22 (Ryan Blaney) just lost it and we were there to catch him and save his day, but it doesn’t take away from how great our day was – awesome Interstate Batteries Camry and one that I thought had a shot to win the race. It’s really a shame we couldn’t be racing for it, but awesome job by everybody from the pit box to the pit crew. Just one of those days where it seemed like everything was clicking right, but just wasn’t meant to be. It’s a shame that it had to end like that, but we’ll move on to the next one. We go back to Phoenix next week. That’s another track that’s one of my favorites, so hopefully we’ll be able to go and grab a win there.”

Toyota NXS Driver Finishing Positions -- at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
1st, Austin Dillon
4th, DENNY HAMLIN
10th, DANIEL SUAREZ
16th, JJ YELEY
17th, DAVID STARR
23rd, ERIC MCCLURE
25th, CALE CONLEY
28th, DEREK WHITE
29th, ERIK JONES
35th, BLAKE KOCH
39th, MIKE BLISS
40th, JEFF GREEN

Toyota Drivers in NXS Point Standings -- following Las Vegas Motor Speedway*
8th, DAVID STARR 83 points (36 points behind leader Ty Dillon)
13th, DANIEL SUAREZ 70 points
14th, JJ YELEY 70 points
16th, ERIC MCCLURE 64 points
18th, BLAKE KOCH 55 points
*unofficial point standings

2015 Toyota NXS WINS: 0

Overall Toyota NXS WINS (since 2007): 98