Johnny Sauter (second), Kyle Busch (third), John Hunter Nemechek (fourth) and Ben Rhodes (fifth) led Toyota with top-five finishes in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway on Thursday night.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Martinsville Speedway
Race 5 of 23 – 200 Laps, 105 Miles
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, William Byron*
2nd, JOHNNY SAUTER
3rd, KYLE BUSCH
4th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
5th, BEN RHODES
6th, CHANDLER SMITH
7th, MATT CRAFTON
10th, TYLER ANKRUM
11th, TY MAJESKI
12th, CHRISTIAN ECKES
13th, STEWART FRIESEN
22nd, TATE FOGLEMAN
23rd, TIMMY HILL
28th, BLAKE LOTHIAN
29th, CHASE PURDY
34th, KADEN HONEYCUTT
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
JOHNNY SAUTER, No. 13 Protect The Harvest Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
What did you need in the closing laps to catch William Byron?
“The two-thirds part of the corner, I just couldn’t quite cut the corner like I needed to and actually asked (Carl) Joiner (crew chief) to tighten it up there on the first run and I wish I wouldn’t have done that because generally if you fire off a little bit free here as the night goes on and get better. Just so proud everybody at ThorSport on this Protect the Harvest Toyota Tundra. That’s the first in-house chassis and in-house body for ThorSport. So to come here and run second, it’s not exactly what we’re looking for, but just need a little bit more turn, but all in all solid night.”
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 4 Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 4th
How was your race tonight and how was the race track surface?
“The track didn’t take any rubber tonight. Just was super slick. We missed the balance a little bit. But my guys worked hard. We made adjustments on it throughout the race. Didn’t know exactly which side we’re going to be — being way different than our teammates come in here. So it’s something new to try and keep moving forward. So it’s another solid finish for us way better than finished in 24th or 25th. Good points day. We did what we needed to do other than win the race. So solid day for the Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro and we’ll go to Bristol next week. I feel like we’re starting to build some momentum between the Truck series and the Xfinity series and having some good runs and good finishes so just have to keep it up.”
BEN RHODES, No. 99 Tenda Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
What was the biggest challenge for you and the race team tonight?
“Big picture racing and I mean we went for both stages to get the stage points for our season. That’s tough to do at a short track like Martinsville. You need a lot of patience and you put yourself in a bad position for the end of the race. You know, you’re faster than the guys in front of you, but you’re burning your stuff up whether it’s not getting air to the brakes or you’re not running the line you want to and you’re running your tires up. So I hate that we had to race for stages, but at the same time really happy to know that I think we closed the gap up in the points lead. It’d be really nice to have it right now. But that’s just part of what makes the Truck Series so unique is we have a short races and different strategies and we had such a bad fast Tendra Toyota Tundra today, I just would have loved to have the win, but there’s more races this season and we’re going to keep running it smart and trying to race everybody as good as we can. I know I got into my teammate Matt Crafton so I feel really bad about that. I got going really good on the restart, And I meant to pull out and then was like, ‘What do I do with this run?’ I look out to the left side and I wasn’t past the line yet and that would be a penalty so I tried to get on the brakes and then I just ran right into the back of him. I look like, well I don’t know what I look like, but it didn’t look good.”
TRD PR
