Supra driver Timmy Hill drove to a hard-fought seventh-place finish in a race of attrition for the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday night.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Bristol Motor Speedway
Race 22 of 33 – 159.9 miles / 300 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Tyler Reddick*
2nd, Chase Briscoe*
3th, John Hunter Nemecheck*
4th, Jeremy Clements*
5th, Austin Cindric*
7th, TIMMY HILL
11th, BRANDON JONES
13th, SHANE LEE
14th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
20th, JOEY GASE
23rd, CJ MCLAUGHLIN
29th, KYLE BUSCH
31st, TOMMY JOE MARTINS
37th, ERIK JONES
*non-Toyota driver
#Toyota Playoff driver
- Timmy Hill drove his No. 61 Supra to a seventh-place finish, tying a career-best result
- Supra drivers collected both stage wins with Brandon Jones winning Stage 1 and Kyle Busch taking Stage 2.
- Busch led a race-high 137 laps (of 300) before retiring from the race at the conclusion of Stage 2.
TOYOTA QUOTES
TIMMY HILL, No. 61 Toyota Tsusho Toyota Supra, Motorsports Business Management
Finishing Position: 7th
Talk about getting your best career-finish on a non-superspeedway track?
“Like you said this is my best finish other than a superspeedway. Seventh matches my best. Bristol has always been a great track for me and I’m glad we could put on a great finish here. MBM (Motorsports) and HRE (Hattori Racing Enterprises) came in collaboration for this race. I’m glad to have Toyota Tsusho on board with us. They gave me a great Supra. One that I could have a lot of fun with. Bristol is one of those tracks where you just have to keep your fenders clean, which we were able to do all night. I didn’t make any mistakes. I’m happy for these guys because they gave me a fun car to drive and we came home with a great finish.”
BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Menards/SoleusAir Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 11th
How did your race go?
“It was excellent, really. I felt like that was our race to win. I don’t know if we cut a tire or it sounds like the sidewall itself separated, so it might just be a tire failure there. I know the 7 (Justin Allgaier) had the same issue pretty close to the same time we did. I hate it for the guys, but that was a really fast Supra that we had this weekend. Soleus was on the hood this weekend with us, that was a new sponsor coming on for us, so it’s cool to see that change on the hood. We have another road course, so I’m looking forward to going there.”
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem-HtPG Refrigeration Products Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 14th
Three laps down, but a 15th-place finish.
“Tonight was obviously disappointing getting caught up in that early crash. We learned that we had a really, really fast race car. Would’ve had a shot at it if we didn’t wreck.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Juniper Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 29th
Did you have any warning of what was going to happen?
“No, it just all of a sudden started about five, six laps before the stage ended. Coming off the corner I got back into the gas and it broke and just tried to limp it home and that was all she had. Tough day for our Juniper Supra. It was really, really fast. It was really, really good. We’re always good here, so it’s nice to have a solid run, but man, these guys have had a bad month and I was hoping to get them a win to get them back in the owner’s deal, but just not meant to be. We’ll try again tomorrow.”
ERIK JONES, No. iK9 Stars and Stripes Toyota Supra, XCI Racing
Finishing Position: 37th
What was your view of what happened?
“It looked like the 00 (Cole Custer) got squeezed in the wall and kind of started a chain reaction. It’s unfortunate it’s that early in the race to be pressing. It’s a tough situation. I wasn’t really making any bold moves and there was some bold moves being made up ahead. It kind of is what it is. We had a good car. The iK9 Supra was probably going to be in contention tonight. I would have loved to be on up there and race with Kyle (Busch). I think we probably could have put a good show on. It’s unfortunate. We took out some good cars and we’re not going to have a chance to do that.
What happened to take you out of the race?
“I haven’t really seen. I guess it sounds like the 00 (Cole Custer) got in the wall and into the 20 (Christopher Bell). It’s really unfortunate. The iK9 Supra was good. I know we were making our way up to where we belonged. Unfortunately, the product of kind of starting farther back. We got squeezed up in the wall. Racing deal. I hate it happened so early. They scattered on the track and I didn’t really have anywhere to go. It’s unfortunate. Like I said, we had a fast car and really nowhere to go when you get in that situation. Wish we could’ve ran all night, but it is what it is.”
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