Toyota NASCAR Notes & Quotes I - Watkins Glen, Nashville August 2010
Here Are the Headlines:
- Cup Camrys Past Pocono for The Glen
- Busch Best at Iowa
- Tundras Head to Music City
POCONO IN PAST: Denny Hamlin (fifth) was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Pocono Raceway. The Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) driver, who has four career wins at the track, led once for 19 (of 200) laps in the 500-mile race. Camry drivers Martin Truex Jr. (ninth) and David Reutimann (17th) also finished among the top-20 at the 2.5-mile Pennsylvania triangle.
PLAYOFF PUSH: Following Pocono, two Toyota drivers -- Hamlin (third) and Kyle Busch (sixth) -- are currently in the top-12 in the NSCS point standings. Only five races remain before the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff begins, and three other Camry drivers in the top-20 in points are looking to break into the 12-spot playoff field -- Reutimann (18th, 183 points from 12th), Joey Logano (19th, 235 points from 12th) and Truex (20th, 281 points from 12th).
BUSCH IS BEST: Busch won his ninth NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race of the season Saturday at Iowa Speedway. The 25-year-old Las Vegas native led four times for 209 (of 250) laps en route to victory lane. Busch is one win shy of tying the single-season NNS victory mark, which he reached in 2008 and shares with Sam Ard (1983). Jason Leffler (third), Trevor Bayne (fifth), Steve Wallace (sixth), Michael Annett (seventh) and Matt DiBenedetto (ninth) also finished in the top-10 at Iowa. It marked the best finishes of the season for Leffler, Annett and DiBenedetto. Bayne captured his third-straight NNS pole and led 21 laps, and joins team owner Michael Waltrip, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Ard as the only drivers to have recorded three-straight NNS poles.
RACE RECAP: Six Toyota Tundra drivers recorded top-10 finishes in Saturday’s inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) event at Pocono -- Kasey Kahne (second), Aric Almirola (fourth), Justin Lofton (fifth), Mike Skinner (sixth), Timothy Peters (eighth) and Hamlin (ninth). It was Kahne’s first-ever NCWTS start in a Tundra, and he led twice for 17 (of 55) laps.
ROAD RACING: The NSCS and NNS head to Watkins Glen International (WGI) this weekend for a pair of events on the 2.45-mile, 11-turn upstate New York road course. Busch won the NSCS race at WGI in a Toyota in 2008, leading 52 (of 90) laps in the victory. Busch swept both road course races in the NSCS that season -- also winning at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. -- and with a NNS win at Mexico City earlier that year, became the first driver to win three road course races across all three national NASCAR series in the same season. Marcos Ambrose is the two-time defending NNS race winner at The Glen, winning for Toyota in 2009, and goes for three-straight Saturday in the JTG-Daugherty No. 47 Camry.
JACQUES IS BACK: Jacques Villeneuve will drive Braun Racing’s No. 32 Dollar General Camry in Saturday’s NNS event at Watkins Glen. The 1997 Formula 1 world champion started second and led three laps at Wisconsin’s Road America in June, and will be making his second series start of the season this weekend. Jacques’ father, Gilles, won the Watkins Glen Formula 1 race in 1979.
TUNDRAS IN TUNE TOWN: Tundra drivers return to Nashville Superspeedway for this weekend’s NCWTS event. Toyota has four victories at the 1.333-mile track, including earlier this season when Busch led 131 (of 150) laps en route to the checkered flag. David Reutimann (2005) and Johnny Benson (2006 and 2008) also have NCWTS wins at the ‘Music City’ track for Toyota. Through 13 races in 2010, five Tundra drivers are among the top-10 in NCWTS point standings. Current points leader Todd Bodine is 149 points ahead of second place Almirola, with Peters (fourth), Skinner (eighth) and David Starr (ninth) in the top-10.
WEEKEND RACE SCHEDULE:
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series @ Watkins Glen International, Sunday, August 8 @ 1:00 PM (ET), ESPN -- Race 22 of 36
NASCAR Nationwide Series @ Watkins Glen International, Saturday, August 7 @ 2:00 PM (ET), ESPN -- Race 22 of 35
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series @ Nashville Superspeedway, Saturday, August 7 @ 9:00 PM (ET), SPEED -- Race 14 of 25
| TOYOTA 2010 NASCAR STATISTICS |
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| SERIES | RACES | STARTS (DRIVERS) | WINS | TOP-5s | TOP-10s | POLES | TIMES LED | LAPS LED |
| NSCS | 21 | 272 (24) | 8 | 21 | 45 | 4 | 130 | 1,473 |
| NNS | 21 | 220 (26) | 11 | 46 | 90 | 10 | 116 | 2,278 |
| NCWTS | 13 | 125 (20) | 6 | 30 | 66 | 4 | 62 | 870 |
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