Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS)
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Race 21 of 33 – 169.35 miles, 75 laps
August 10, 2019
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Austin Cindric*
2nd, CHRISTOPHER BELL
3rd, AJ Allmendinger*
4th, Tyler Reddick*
5th, Noah Gragson*
10th, BRANDON JONES
15th, JACK HAWKSWORTH
18th, TOMMY JOE MARTINS
27th, TIMMY HILL
29th, SCOTT HECKERT
35th, CHAD FINCHUM
36th, JOEY GASE
*non-Toyota driver
- Christopher Bell was the highest-finishing Supra driver with a second-place result in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday.
- Bell started from the third position and led five laps of the 75-lap event.
- Jack Hawksworth (15th) started from the second position, won the event’s second stage and led five laps (of 75) in his first career NASCAR start.
- Fellow Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brandon Jones (10th) earned his 10th top 10 result of the season.
TOYOTA QUOTES
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
Do you feel like you’re becoming a better road course racer after two straight runner-up results?
“I don’t know about that. I do know we’re going to Bristol next week and I can’t wait. Just really thankful to be able to drive for this Rheem group. They bring really, really fast Supras to the race track every single time. They make me look good, that’s for sure.”
What was the on-track contact like during the race?
“I guess it’s just normal – normal road course racing with stock cars. Especially here at Mid-Ohio. Whenever they drop the green flag, it’s a full contact sport.”
Do you find any relief knowing you maintain your playoff points position?
“Absolutely, the last two weeks have been really great for us point-wise. Road course racing is obviously not my strong suit. To get out of there and maintain points is good for us.”
BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Menards Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 10th
How was your race?
“It was really good for these guys. They worked really hard to get us back in the top 10. They got us some stage points the first stage. Lots of carnage out there. I’m surprised we didn’t get as much damage with that one big one. Came through decent and I kept fighting continuously all day. We kept getting faster and faster and made some really good changes to the car there at the end. Wish we had some more laps, I think I was catching the next group. Fun day. Wish we could have been a little bit better, top 10 is where we needed to be at.”
JACK HAWKSWORTH, No. 18 iK9 Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 15th
Did you have fun in your first-ever stock car race?
“I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. First off, thank you to Joe Gibbs Racing for having me, Toyota for putting it together and of course my team AVS (AIM VASSER SULLIVAN) in IMSA and Lexus for allowing me to come and do this and experience it. We had a lot of fun out there. Some good battles at the beginning. The first stint, kind of struggled with the rear tires a little bit and second stint we made it a little bit better and was able to come through on those restarts and get it to the lead. Felt pretty good about it and then I think we had a little issue on one of the pit stops and kind of put us back there. Then we got grass in the grill on one of the restarts and kind of lost the brakes and that was a little ‘all she wrote.’ I had a great time. The iK9 Supra was great and I just want to thank everyone for having me here. We’ll have to come back at some point and give it another try.”
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