Denny Hamlin (second) and Tyler Reddick (fourth) earned top-five finishes to lead Toyota in the NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Sunday evening.
Hamlin earned his fifth straight top-five finish and retained the points lead, while Reddick scored his sixth top-five finish of the season.
For the second straight race, Christopher Bell led the most laps and was battling for the win late before encountering mechanical issues. He was able to take a conservative approach to the final few laps to salvage a top-10 finish.
With Hamlin’s runner-up finish, Toyota has taken over the lead in the manufacturer’s championship for the first time this season.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway
Race 15 of 36 – 300 miles, 240 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Austin Cindric*
2nd, DENNY HAMLIN
3rd, Brad Keselowski*
4th, TYLER REDDICK
5th, Joey Logano*
7th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
11th, TY GIBBS
21st, BUBBA WALLACE
26th, ERIK JONES
27th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
34th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Yahoo Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
Seemed like a decent day for you Denny. Did you just not have the raw speed to compete for the lead?
“No, definitely not. We had a top-five car – we didn’t have the best today, but the Yahoo Camry was in the mix, and was able to capitalize on some others misfortune there. We were going to have a top-five day regardless, but proud of the team. They did a great job on pit road – Chris (Gabehart, crew chief) and the team brought a great car, just wasn’t quite enough.”
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 SiriusXM Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Can you talk about your finish?
“Yeah, we a rough first stop there. I slid a little long, and just slowed everyone down on the 45 pit crew. We came in eighth and came out in 28th. It took the entire race to claw back from that – just a great effort by the guys. I feel like we were right there with the 2 (Austin Cindric) to start the race, so obviously, it is a little bit of a bummer that we had that issue, but that is kind of the name of the game when you come to World Wide Technology Raceway – you have to have a clean race, and unfortunately, we didn’t. I’m really glad we were able to get a fourth place finish out of our SiriusXM Camry.”
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DEWALT Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
What exactly happened and what did you feel?
“I have no idea what happened with our DEWALT Camry – some sort of motor issue, and I’m surprised that it made it to the end. Glad we were able to salvage something out of it – but you don’t get race cars like that very often – whenever you do, you need to take advantage of them, so that is disappointing.”
Can you talk about Martin Truex Jr. pushing you trying to help you finish this race?
“Yeah, that was awesome. He probably saved us a top-10 today – Martin (Truex) is a stand-up guy.”
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