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TOYOTA NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) - Post-Race Notes & Quotes - O’Reilly Raceway ParkKYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Fleet Locate Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
What did you think of tonight’s race?
“It was a good, clean hard-fought battle. When you treat people with respect, that’s what you get -- you get respect back. Carl (Edwards) was awesome tonight. I can’t thank the rest of these competitors. I had a tough battle there at the beginning with Trevor Bayne. I had to do what I had to do to get by him sometimes. I can’t thank FleetLocate.com enough along with these guys at Joe Gibbs Racing. Of course I have to thank the fans. It’s fun to come out here and put on a great show like this and hopefully they enjoy it.”
How did you dominate the race like this and not practice the car at all?
“These guys, they build such great race cars from the shop. It’s all back on them. They did a great job for me. We’ve seen Carl Edwards do it before that way, I’m glad I was able to do it.”
How were you able to hold on for the win with the green-white-checkered finish?
“I just knew that I had to get going and I had to get a good launch. You know me, if you want to call Ron Hornaday the restart king, I smoked him tonight. Better re-label that one.”
How hot was it in your car tonight?
“It was hot. We have air conditioning units and stuff and back blowers and everything, but when it’s so hot and muggy like this they don’t have a chance to cool any of the outside air at all so you don’t get that much cool air. It was a warm night – that’s for sure. I’m just glad that we were able to have a good solid run for Fleet Locate and those guys.”
What was it like getting through traffic tonight?
“Traffic was a little bit tough because anytime you got to traffic the cars got aero-tight so you kept having to battle for a lane. You could either try to go high which made your car a little bit tighter or you could try to go low which you were still tight, but you were still able to get enough air on the nose to get under them. It was tough. You had to pick your way through and sometimes you had to root them out of the way just enough to get by.”
How were your restarts tonight?
“They were really good, the race car was good too. I can’t thank Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and Brad (Coleman, practice driver) enough and the rest of the guys that worked so hard today in the heat and sweated their butts off. It was a fun night. I knew we had a really good car. I thought it was going to unfortunate when Carl (Edwards) took tires there and beat us. Man, we made it work and we ended up coming out on top tonight. I can’t thank FleetLocate.com and the guys at Joe Gibbs Racing and of course Z-Line Designs, NOS Energy Drink and Toyota. That thing was fast and it felt like 2008 all over again. We almost led all the laps. It was cool to see Toyotas up front with myself and Trevor Bayne. Real proud of the effort tonight by the guys and I’m glad we were able to win another one.”
Did you think Carl Edwards would have moved you out of the way to take the win?
“It’s always there, especially at a short track like here at ORP. You’re so vulnerable running around the top side like you do here that people can dive-bomb you on the bottom and slide up into you. I knew it was there, but if I could keep enough momentum rolling, just keep my car rolling then I felt like any time (Carl Edwards) would lay a bumper to me, he’d get sideways too. I felt like it was all about trying to keep the momentum rolling, keep the car stuck as best I could and get it to turn. That was the pivotal thing to do and try to get the good bite up off the corner so you could get a good launch down the straightaways. Carl (Edwards) was right there. He could have used me up more than he did, but it could have cost us both time instead of just him being able to get by. You have to have a really methodical way about doing it here. There just wasn’t enough time for him to do it in two laps. We had a fast enough race car tonight where we were good enough to hold our position there and Carl raced me, he bumped me a couple times but it was good. It wasn’t clean because it wasn’t anything -- it was good, hard clean racing and that’s what happens when you race guys together cleanly over time and race each other with respect, you get respect back.”
JASON RATCLIFF, crew chief, No. 18 Fleet Locate Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How were you able to prepare a winning race car for tonight’s race?
“With Brad Coleman, he did a great job today. We just worked on our car. We had a game plan going in and he stuck to it and gave us what we needed to put a good car together, then Kyle (Busch) came in and put a good qualifying lap down. He qualified fifth and then from there it just worked out. I don’t think the car was where Kyle wanted it to be at the start. We made a couple of adjustments on pit stops to make it better. Once we got out front, we were just a little bit better than everybody there. Like Kyle said, at the end it’s one of those deals where I thought I was fixing to be a bad crew chief. It’s one of those deals where you can pit or you can stay out and work either way, but Carl (Edwards) ran out of tires just as he got to us and it worked out.”
TREVOR BAYNE, No. 99 Out! Pet Care Toyota Camry, Diamond-Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
How was your race tonight?
“Man, I love this short track race. I wish we could do it every weekend. That’s what I’ve grown up doing, it’s what I still love to do. It’s just beating and banging, but when you get together you can still gather it up because you’re not going too fast. We had a couple close calls, but we fought back to another top-five. I was just talking to Jerry (Baxter, crew chief), we’re starting to get greedy. We get a top-five and now we want to win this thing. Tonight, I know how Kyle Busch and Joey Logano feel when they come in and are complaining about finishing second. That’s a great run all day for the Out! Pet Care Toyota. Everybody here, they work so hard. The pit stops were pretty good and we unloaded fast, stayed fast all day. Two top-fives in a row – we’ll take it.”
REED SORENSON, No. 32 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Braun Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
TRENT OWENS, crew chief, No. 32 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Braun Racing
How were you able to regain track position and finish fifth?
“Our night was up and down a little bit. We struggled in the middle of the race. We kind of got behind on our adjustments with our track position. There at the end, we found some stuff and it worked and he was able to pass a lot of cars. I really credit Reed (Sorenson) with the fifth-place finish tonight. We had some things happen on the pit stops that it seems like we lost four or five spots there at the end and he was able to gain those back very quickly. I’d say our fifth-place finish tonight would really be on Reed’s shoulders. But we did get the car good at the end of the race. I think we could have ran an honest second or third had this race went to lap 250 or something. It was a good night for us.”
What is it like going between the two race tracks this weekend to crew chief both the NNS and NSCS races?
“My Nationwide crew, the guys that work under me, they’ve been with me for three-and-a-half years. I haven’t lost one guy. I had full confidence that they could come and do the practices on their own, get the car ready and they did a phenomenal job getting the car ready. My hats off to them. It came out just like I thought it would. I was able to stay over at the big track (Indianapolis Motor Speedway), work on our Cup car and try to build that program. It’s kind of fun to come over for the race, just call the race and come out with a good finish on top of that. Everything is working, we’ll go over to the big track tomorrow and just do the best we can.”
BRENDAN GAUGHAN, No. 62 South Point Casino & Hotel Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
STEVE WALLACE, No. 66 5-hour Energy Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing
Finishing Position: 10th
BRIAN SCOTT, No. 11 AccuDoc Solutions Toyota Camry, Braun Racing
Finishing Position: 17th
MICHAEL ANNETT, No. 15 Pilot Travel Centers Toyota Camry, Germain Racing
Finishing Position: 19th
JASON LEFFLER, No. 38 Great Clips Toyota Camry, Braun Racing
Finishing Position: 30th
MATT DIBENEDETTO, No. 20 Game Plan for Life/IamSecond.com Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 31st
DERRICK GRIFFIN, No. 10 Toyota Camry, Braun Racing
Finishing Position: 36th
What happened to take you out of the race?
“I just hit some bumps coming off the corner and the car just got out from under me. That was it. It’s unfortunate because it was a lot of fun. I picked it up after about 30 laps so I thought that was pretty good. The car was really loose on exit and I got loose and lost it.”
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