Daytona 500 Toyota teams race quotes, notes
Quote selected text Published February 18th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Nine Toyota Camrys started today’s Daytona 500 — the most Camrys to ever start a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race. Prior to today, the most Camrys to start a NSCS race was six, which took place six times (Sonoma, Watkins Glen, Pocono-2, California-2, Texas-2 and Talladega-2) in 2007.
Two Toyota Camry drivers — Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch — finished in the top-five for the first time in a NSCS race at Daytona International Speedway. Brian Vickers 12th-place finish marks the first Red Bull Racing Team finish at Daytona International Speedway. Toyota Camrys led the most laps in the 50th running of the Daytona 500 with 138 of the 200 lap race. Kyle Busch led the most laps with 86 followed by Denny Hamlin (32 laps), Tony Stewart (16 laps), Michael Waltrip (three laps) and Dave Blaney (one lap).
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KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&Ms Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finished: 4th
After leading the most laps, can you talk about your feelings at the finish? “It was a good day. We had the dominant car all day long. I could hold it wide open every single lap of the race. It’s frustrating to come home fourth, but that’s a part of the Daytona 500 when you run as good as we had all day long. Those guys couldn’t keep up with us, but there were all of those cautions at the end that propelled them forward enough in order to get them ahead. The guys at the engine shop gave us some great horsepower. We’ll take it on and go to California and have a good one there.”
Was there anything you could have done to hold off the Penske cars on the last lap? “You couldn’t really. Those guys had such a head of steam. They got ahead of me on that restart. They lagged back and then got a big push. In the NASCAR rulebook that’s not right, but they let it go.”
Are you disappointed with how the race ended for you? “I’ve had plenty of disappointments here over the years, and this is no different. We just had the dominant car and could hold the car wide-open every lap. This car was strong. The JGR guys built an awesome car. It was fun, but just frustrating that guys lag back on the restart when you’re not supposed to and then get a run and blow by you. I know I’m supposed to probably get busted for passing below the (yellow) line, but I was forced down. Luckily, I got away with that.”
Did it seem like you had no friends in the draft, despite having the best car? “Kasey (Kahne) stuck with me at the end. He’s the one that got me a fourth-place finish. (Tony) Stewart could’ve went up and blocked the momentum of the 12 (Ryan Newman) and the 2 (Kurt Busch), but he decided to stick down low and stay with me to see what we could come up with. I wasn’t getting a big enough push from behind to get up to his back bumper. Once I did get to the back bumper, I just held the gas down. I didn’t care how hard I hit him — it was coming to the checkered flag.”
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BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Finished: 12th
Can you talk about overcoming the blown tire to finish in the top-12? “We were one blown tire away from having a shot at this win. I know that 100 percent — that we could run with the leaders and we could race with them and pass them. Unfortunately, the tire blew too late and by the time we got our lap back, we raced as hard as we could to get to the front as fast as we could. These cars aren’t very good three-wide and without running three-wide it’s hard to make much ground up.”
How important is this good finish for the team heading to California? “This is very important. It gives us great momentum. I’m really proud of everyone at Red Bull and Toyota. Toyota came down here with a great package and Red Bull built a good car to go around it.”
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DALE JARRETT, No. 44 UPS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finished: 16th
Has it sunk in that this is your last Daytona 500? “Probably not. That will happen later on as soon as I get home and think about. By that time, it will be time to go to California. It is never ending, but this has been a good place for me. We stayed out of trouble and had a car good enough to make some passes at times and had some fun and that is all you can ask for.”
Did you think about it on the final lap at all, that this is your last lap in the Daytona 500? “Yeah. After I got past the start-finish line under the white flag and nobody wrecked, I thought about that. I was thinking that that was my last time I would make a lap here. I had time to cool down there and think about it. This has been a very special place for me.”
Can you talk about David Reutimann, who will replace you in the No. 44 Camry? “David Reutimann is a good race car driver and his team will continue just to get better. Time is the only thing that we are lacking right now. We put forth great effort and we have a lot of good people and continue to get that. We will continue to get better with every race.”
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DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finished: 17th
What happened that put you back in the field? “It wasn’t the way we wanted this night or this race to end for the FedEx team. We were really good from the start but after that contact with the No. 43 (Bobby Labonte) on pit road we were just never the same. These cars (COT) are so aero-sensitive. The damage took a toll on our handling and we just couldn’t get it back. Then late in the race we caught some really bad breaks and suffered even more damage. I guess to get out of here with a 17th-place finish and to lead a bunch of laps says a lot about our team and this new engine package. I am really happy with the Toyota engine and I hope this is just the start of a really good season for this team and for the whole Joe Gibbs Racing organization.”
Can you talk about the contact with the other car on pit road? “I was coming off pit road and it was a case where he pulled out and cut it a little close. He caught our left rear and did just enough damage to really affect the handling when we the race went green. We lost side force and with the ways these cars drive it was hard to keep from wrecking”
What are your thoughts on the JGR teams performance tonight? “I think we would be happier if one of the teams was in Victory Lane right now but we can feel pretty good about this race for our team. All three of us led laps and proved we were really strong. I think we have a good season ahead of us.”
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DAVE BLANEY, No. 22 Caterpillar Toyota Camry, Bill avis Racing Finished: D38th
Do you know what happened that took you out of the race? “We had a fast enough car to run right at the front, we just got in a big pile. I’m not sure which car took me out. I still think the No. 42 (Montoya) just slammed me side-to-side and flattened my right front. I’m not sure why. You see a lot of cars spit out of the draft right there, and unfortunately, we were one of them.”
Does your team have confidence heading to California despite the finish? “We do have more confidence this season as a team, but we still finished in the 30s here and put ourselves in a hole again. That’s disappointing when you had a car that could run up front all week.”
[Toyota Motorsports]
Bookmark to:
- Earnhardt, Jr ends the drought, wins in dramatic style at Michigan
- Kahne continues resurgence with a win at Pocono
- Clint Bowyer wins at Richmond, but that’s hardly the story
- Kyle Busch wins 4th Cup race of season at Dover
- Busch outlasts Darlington and claims victory
Toyota’s have NO business being in THE all American sport!!!
Its like pink slipping a company’s employees and sending all the work oversees for cheaper labor. Just another excuse to sell out. Sad.
It’s not all American, they drive Toyotas in the truck series. The Nationwide series drives in both Mexico and Canada. It’s not ALL American and I could care less what they drive.
Ignorance runs rampant in this world.
Ummm… the Camry is more American than the Canadian built Charger, the Canadian built Impala, and the Mexican Ford Fusion. Two of the above are built using mechanicals from foreign makes, whether the old Mercedes E-Class platform for the Charger or the Mazda 6 platform for the Fusion… one’s a Japanese Ford and the other is a German Dodge. We can get into parts sourcing but even there, Toyota does a considerable amount of domesticated parts sourcing just as the U.S. sources parts from overseas. There’s Chinese engines in the Equinox/Torrent and Buick LaCrosse, the previous Saturn Vue’s best engine was a Honda sourced part, and many of GM’s transmissions are now coming from Aisin/Warner. GM also owns a major stake in Daewoo which builds the Aveo along with various Chevrolet models sold worldwide. In fact, the next round of GM Buick’s are going to rely on GM’s Shanghai design studio due to Buick’s huuuuuuuuge sales in China (they’re the #1 selling car over there, and many of their popular cars are built from kits shipped and assembled in China or built on GM’s foreign platforms and sold there… i.e. one of the more popular Buick’s is a large RWD sedan built on the Holden Commodore/Caprice platform).
We can start talking about domestic content but the Japanese and Germans and Koreans are expanding their manufacturing into the U.S., they’re sourcing more domestic parts, building more plants to build parts for the U.S. market and abroad, and even are domestically engineering product specifically for our market (i.e. the Tundra and Sequoia). In the meantime, the Big Three are continuing to outsource U.S. labor to try to undercut their substantial losses due to corporate mismanagement and squandering the enormous lead they had in the 1970’s.
There is NO ONE to blame for the Big Three’s losses and the foreign makers gains other than the Big Three excecutives themselves who have bean-counted, decontented, and raped/pillaged the company from a standing of leadership and quality to an also-ran status. By the time GM, Ford, and Chrysler have or will get competent leadership to turn the tide, it might well be too late. GM is on the right track with cars like the Chevy Malibu, Saturn Aura, the European-built Saturn Astra, and the entire Lambda platform CUV’s but they just announced absolutely colossal losses for ‘07. True, that’s without the Malibu and Astra and their hybrid-capable trucks/SUV’s on showroom floors but even there, I doubt it’ll be enough. Cars like the forthcoming Volt and the entire E-Flex architecture will do well to help make GM competitive in areas that they’ve been ignorant to for years. Even in that area though, public perception after years of inferior and buggy vehicles is hard to turn around over night regardless of what steps GM takes. It might take years to overcome.
Ford… what can you say? There’s few cars they’ve built in the last 10 years that people actually want. Their entire business model has almost hinged on the success of the Ford F-150. The Fusion has been a runaway success, the Focus has been a series of major missteps by Ford when they’ve had better designed product in the offering in Europe on newer platforms, and even the Fusion vs. Mondeo is a big argument. Outside of the F-150 and Fusion, the Edge has been a recent bright point but after how long it’s taken them to get there… they’re in serious woes and likely are in worse shape than GM even.
Chrysler… what is there to be said? They’re now a Canadian company having been taken over by a venture capital firm out of Canada that’s looking to try to prop them up and get them back to solvent so they can turn around and sell them. Odds are, when sold… they will continue to not be American owned. My wager is it’ll be a Chinese or Indian company that purchases them to get a huge head of steam into the very large U.S. market. In that vain, Toyota and Honda are actually apt to be more American than Chrysler.
Moral of the story… I’m happy for Toyota’s entry and hope they do well. Toyota’s increase in U.S. manufacturing is putting more American’s to work. Regardless of where the parent company revenues go, it’s all a bunch of executives. Yet in the end, what’s more important is that the American workforce has a place to work. In a global economy, it truly matters very little where the corporate headquarters are and matters significantly more who is doing more for the people worldwide. I think it’s safe to say that GM, Ford, and Chrysler are doing a great deal for the people of Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, and China… but it’s the Japanese, Korean, and Germans that are doing what they can for the American people by increasing jobs.
Any other rationale for hating on foreign automakers is pure and utter bigotry and zealotry by the uneducated and ignorant. Do some research and you’ll learn quite a bit.
I agree with the last post the camry is built in georgetown kentucky,id say that makes it more american than the rest.