TOYOTA NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS)
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Charlotte Motor Speedway – May 24, 2014
· Kyle Busch (third) was the first Toyota driver to the finish line in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
· Busch crossed the finish line behind race-winner Kyle Larson and runner-up Brad Keselowski.
· Busch, who started from the pole, led a total of 27 laps (of 200). His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth led 67 laps and finished sixth.
· James Buescher (11th) and Elliott Sadler (12th) also registered top-15 finishes in the 300-mile race.
· Sadler is currently second in the unofficial NNS point standings and sits five points behind leader Regan Smith. Camry driver James Buescher (eighth) is also in the top-10 in the point standings.
· The next race on the Nationwide Series schedule is at Dover International Speedway, May 31.
KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
How was your race this afternoon?
“You just can’t pass — you can’t go anywhere. The race today was just all around the bottom. There’s no speed anywhere else — you couldn’t get anything going on. A little disappointed. Thought we were better than that, but apparently we’re not. We need practice. Just wrecking loose all day out on the race track — no grip. We struggled real bad and come home with a third. All things considered, we should be happy, but we’re only here for wins — nothing else matters.”
How strong was the car after the team took it back to the shop for repairs following Thursday’s practice accident?
“They work hard — they always do — they never give up. Having the opportunity to go back to the shop and spending all day yesterday — an off day that they were probably going to prepare another car to go test with next week — I had to take up that time. So I hate it for all them. I wasn’t able to reward them. We win and we lose as a team. We wreck and we win as a team too.”
How did the car handle during the race in ‘dirty’ air?
“Just been wrecking loose the whole race — just lucky to finish I guess. The Monster Energy Camry was okay — fell back to sixth or seventh at one point, but was able to rally back.”
Why did you come to pit road twice on one of the caution periods?
“We were already loose even just taking tires so we decided to come down and try to tighten it up some more and maybe get some adjustments put in it and top it off with fuel to see if we couldn’t go further than the rest of the guys.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 GameStop/Mario Kart Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
Why did the handling of the car change during the race?
“I honestly have no idea. We were leading pretty comfortably and just got a little off. Then we just got real loose and not sure what happened or what we adjusted after that, but it seemed like we probably under-adjusted and the track got away from us. Then we just took a big stab at it and got on the other side of it. It was so tight that you couldn’t even run the corner. We had it pretty close and just got way off and couldn’t figure out how to get it back.”
JAMES BUESCHER, No. 99 Rheem Toyota Camry, RAB Racing
Finishing Position: 11th
ELLIOTT SADLER, No. 11 OneMain Financial Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 12th
JOHNNY SAUTER, No. 80 Toyota Camry
Finishing Position: 16th
MIKE BLISS, No. 19 SupportMilitary.org Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 20th
JOHN WES TOWNLEY, No. 25 Zaxby’s Toyota Camry, Athenian Motorsports
Finishing Position: 20th
DAVID STARR, No. 44 Central Texas Lath & Plaster/Chasco Contractors Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 24th
ERIC MCCLURE, No. 14 Hefty Ultimate/Reynolds Wrap Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 29th
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