Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS)
Kentucky Speedway
Race 17 of 33 – 300 miles, 200 laps
July 12, 2019
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Cole Custer*
2nd, CHRISTOPHER BELL
3rd, Tyler Reddick*
4th, Michael Annett*
5th, Chase Briscoe*
11th, RILEY HERBST
16th, SHANE LEE
22nd, JOEY GASE
28th, CHAD FINCHUM
30th, BRANDON JONES
31st, JOE JACKSON
37th, TIMMY HILL
*non-Toyota driver
- Christopher Bell scored a runner-up finish and was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Kentucky Speedway.
Bell led 72 laps (of 200) and won both stages of the Friday night race to post his 11th top-10 finish in 17
- starts this season.
- Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Riley Herbst (11th) also finished in the top 15.
TOYOTA QUOTES
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Ruud Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
Did the sun going down affect the car?
“It seemed to. We were really good early and my car felt really good late, we just got beat. Probably just got a little bit too comfortable there, a little bit too tight. We just have to work on a couple things and we’ll come back and get this Ruud Supra in victory lane.”
What happened after that final pit stop?
“I don’t know. We just kind of got worse there. I’m not going to say we got worse. My car was driving really good. Probably just got a little too comfortable and needed to free it up a little bit. Bummer night, but our Ruud Supra was really fast. We were able to win the two stages, so we got a couple more Playoff points. Just got to work on a couple more things and we’ll be good.”
BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Menards/Swiffer Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 30th
How much do you know about what happened with the car to take you out of tonight’s race?
“A lot of smoke in the cab. I couldn’t really get the motor over 7,000 RPMs, so kind of a telltale sign for me that the motor was letting go there at the end. That’s twice this weekend that we’ve been leading the race and something has taken us out – whether it’s been mechanical or an incident on the race track. What are you going to do? We’ve been running first both races this week and that’s what we’ve got to do, at least on my behalf. I hate it. We had Menards and we had Swiffer on the car this weekend. It was going great for us. I think we had the car to win the race tonight, but all in all, these guys worked really hard and I think they’re all behind me and we’re going to get this thing figured out.”
How do you stay positive knowing that you did have such a fast race car?
“We talked about it earlier, it’s all about realizing where you’re running when this stuff is happening. We continue to run top five. We continue to lead laps. This pit crew I had tonight was awesome. They were really getting me up front there. You put all that together and we’re going to keep going. These guys got a lot of momentum built up behind them so I think next week will be good.”
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